By Julie Fay
Contributing Writer
3/20/08
Sunday, March 23, is the holiest time of the year for many Christians: Maundy (or Holy) Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. Clergy and laypeople from four faith communities in town talk about how they celebrate these holy days commemorating the final hours, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
“Easter is a reminder that God, and God’s love, through the resurrection and new life of Jesus Christ, has the final word over evil, death and destruction,” says the Rev. Jeffrey Johnson, pastor of First Congregational Church. He adds that the best way to understand the importance of Easter is to attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.
The Rev. Parisa Parsa, of First Parish, agrees. “You can’t really embrace Easter if you haven’t embraced the shadows of human existence that led to Good Friday,” she says.
Both First Parish and First Congregational commemorate Maundy Thursday with Tenebrae (shadows) services. The service at First Congregational includes seven readings that tell the story of Jesus’ betrayal and delivery into the hands of the Roman authorities. As each reading is completed, a candle is extinguished. The service concludes in darkness and silence, a solemn observance of the dark final hours of Jesus’ life.
At First Parish, the Tenebrae service contains seven contemporary readings. Past sources have included excerpts from memoirs and the New York Times Magazine. The service concludes with the account of the crucifixion from the gospel of Mark and the extinguishing of candles as well.
The Rev. Parsa says the modern readings emphasize that “the circumstances that led to the crucifixion still exist in our world.”
While Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday, this year the day has special significance for members of the Earth Centered Spirituality Group (ECSG) at First Parish. ECSG will celebrate Ostara, a Celtic word from which the modern Easter derives.
“It’s a celebration of the spring equinox,” says Pam Dorsey, leader of ECSG and a member of First Parish.
ECSG members mark the return of spring with readings, chants and a ritual rune planting. Runes, an ancient symbolic writing system, stand for ideas rather than sounds (unlike the letters of our modern alphabet). ECSG members plant seeds in the shape of the rune that represent what it is they wish to grow in their own lives, such as enlightenment, patience, renewal, protection or joy.
On Saturday evening, St. Mary of the Hills Catholic church begins its Easter Vigil mass in total darkness. Outside the church, Rev. Arthur F. Wright, the pastor, will light the immense Easter candle from the Easter fire, kindled to symbolize the light of everlasting life bestowed on believers through the resurrection of Jesus.
The Rev. Wright enters the church with the Easter candle, which illuminates the entire church as the flame is passed from believer to believer, shining from their individual, smaller candles.
According to the Rev. Wright, the service of light reminds Catholics of the faith first bestowed upon them at an early age. “It goes back to [our] baptism,” he says. During the baptismal ceremony, a child’s godparents receive a lighted candle. “That candle represents our faith in Jesus,” he says, and the godparents are charged to keep that faith alive throughout the child’s life.
The Easter Vigil is also the time when new adult Catholics are baptized and welcomed into the church. Baptism by water signifies a sharing in Jesus’ death and resurrection. “Baptism means plunging or immersion,” says the Rev. Wright, “and we are immersed into the life of Jesus Christ and his paschal (Easter) mystery of dying and rising again.”
While Catholics and Protestants are celebrating Easter, Orthodox Christians have just begun the penitential season of Lent. Orthodox Easter falls on April 27 this year, more than a month after “Western” Easter celebrated by Catholics and Protestants. Milton resident Cindy Kavaltzis says that Easter—or “Greekster,” as her children’s non-Greek friends call it—is the biggest holiday of the year.
After attending the Resurrection service held at midnight on Easter Sunday, Cindy and her family will break their Lenten fast with mayeritsa, a traditional soup. “You’re supposed to have been fasting for 40 days, with no olive oil, no wine, no meat, milk or eggs,” she says. “The mayeritsa is an egg-lemon broth, with sweetbreads and a lot of vegetables. It’s really good.”
And the celebration continues on Easter Sunday afternoon. “We roast a lamb outside on a spit,” says Cindy. “There’s a lot of food, a lot of people, a lot of music. It’s a big barbecue.”
It’s a Greek custom to break dishes at joyful celebrations, but fortunately for the Kavaltzis’ china closet, it doesn’t happen too often at their Easter feasts.
“That was just the one year they broke the dishes,” laughs Cindy.