Easter

4-20-14

Easter is the most sacred day in Christendom.  The passion of Holy Week and the suffering of Good Friday are its prelude. Yet here in my area of Liberia, the passion is in the partying until 3:30 am and the suffering is from the terrible beating my religious neighbor gave her daughter. Easter morning is another wash day as children are not in school on Sunday. If there is an Easter Bunny, he is going to be served over rice for my noon meal. There is no candy, no special clothes. Cuttington University, sponsored by the Episcopal Church, suspends classes and closes the dorms and cafeteria from Thursday to Sunday in observance, but not much else is different.

All this is in such a contrast to my own experiences. In Samoa the whole country comes to a halt, dresses in its finery, and eats special foods. Even in commercial United States, you know it is Easter. My recollections of a Russian Orthodox Easter, Lutheran youth, and being part of an Orthodox Easter service in Minneapolis remind me of the importance of pomp and circumstance to mark what is special in life.  

It is hard not be critical and judgmental. I am not surprised by today, but it is disappointing, even as an agnostic,  to find another instance of the country’s disjointedness.