Musing about Easter.
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I watched the sunrise through the bathroom window as I was brushing my teeth this morning. Easter Sunrise. I thought of Alex getting up and going to church. He doesn't drive a car, so Alex has to go to church when he can bum a ride. He used to walk to the Polish Church over the hill, but now it's closed. So he must find a ride downtown.
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I asked Alex about Easter Sundays. He said they aren't as big a deal at the big church. Men don't wear suits anymore. The ladies don't wear hats. Most people go to church on Saturday night...and then out to dinner. It's easier for them, he said. They don't have to get dressed up twice. Sunday's pews aren't filled with people like they used to be.
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I can remember toward the end of my church-going days, I felt like they needed to give everyone a punch card. Catholics were big on attendance. It was some kind of sin if you missed church, and unless you confessed it or something, you faced consequences. As I remember it, I was scared to miss church, for fear with that sin piled up on top of my other sins, (lying, talking back to my parents, etc) that somehow, if I got hit by a bus and died I'd go to Hell.
There is a rumor spreading that the Catholics are "doing away with" the old ethnic churches. Actually I know a few people who chose to join a Polish National Catholic Church rather than go to the big church downtown. And they are happy. They like the old Polish songs.
When I was a kid on Easter I had to dress up in a Polish costume and participate in a big procession around the church. We had weeks of preparation, learning Polish songs, and practicing the procession so that we knew where to sit. The hardest part actually was not the procession itself but sitting for almost two hours up front in church, where you had to behave. And you breathed in most of the incense, so you had to struggle to keep from coughing while you sang.
I still know a lot of those songs.
Happy Easter.
-
I asked Alex about Easter Sundays. He said they aren't as big a deal at the big church. Men don't wear suits anymore. The ladies don't wear hats. Most people go to church on Saturday night...and then out to dinner. It's easier for them, he said. They don't have to get dressed up twice. Sunday's pews aren't filled with people like they used to be.
-
I can remember toward the end of my church-going days, I felt like they needed to give everyone a punch card. Catholics were big on attendance. It was some kind of sin if you missed church, and unless you confessed it or something, you faced consequences. As I remember it, I was scared to miss church, for fear with that sin piled up on top of my other sins, (lying, talking back to my parents, etc) that somehow, if I got hit by a bus and died I'd go to Hell.
There is a rumor spreading that the Catholics are "doing away with" the old ethnic churches. Actually I know a few people who chose to join a Polish National Catholic Church rather than go to the big church downtown. And they are happy. They like the old Polish songs.
When I was a kid on Easter I had to dress up in a Polish costume and participate in a big procession around the church. We had weeks of preparation, learning Polish songs, and practicing the procession so that we knew where to sit. The hardest part actually was not the procession itself but sitting for almost two hours up front in church, where you had to behave. And you breathed in most of the incense, so you had to struggle to keep from coughing while you sang.
I still know a lot of those songs.
Happy Easter.
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