Feline Musings

I was supposed to attend training on April 10, 2009. I withdrew my nomination, as I realized that Good Friday was on the given date, and I was entitled to apply for a leave in the optional holiday category. I wanted to keep my options open to take an off, in case the work load was manageable. I casually mentioned to some one that I will not be able to attend the training since it is scheduled on “Good Friday.”

“Can it get funnier than this? He responded. “If there is a training on Monday, you will say it’s a “Good Monday” and I am in no mood to spoil the day by participating in a training session!”
“No, no! Good Friday is a festival of Christians and it’s followed by Easter Sunday that is on April 12, 2009.” I replied.

While I am not a typically religious person, I was flabbergasted by the apparent lack of awareness about Good Friday and Easter. All of us learn about the festivals in India, during our early schooling. Christians have only two festivals in a year – Christmas and Easter – which is not a long list to remember. For that matter, how many people actually know that prior to Good Friday, Christians keep a fast of forty days, similar to the Ramzan of Muslims. This period of fasting and repentance is called Lent and always begins on a Wednesday, known as Ash Wednesday. The Sunday prior to Easter Sunday is known as Palm Sunday and is a commemoration of Christ’s last procession into Jerusalem before he was tried and crucified by the Romans.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. Many people may be aware of “Mardi Gras” or “Fat Tuesday” – it is a celebration, sometimes called “Carnival,” practiced around the world, on the Tuesday prior to Ash Wednesday. It was designed as a way to “get it all out” before the sacrifices of Lent began. New Orleans is the focal point of Mardi Gras celebrations in the U.S.

Lent is actually a forty-six day period of prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial. It is a season of grief and fasting, which is punctuated by breaks in the fast on Sundays, and necessarily ends with a great celebration of Easter. The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the wilderness, where he endured temptation by Satan.

Good Friday is the day of Christ’s crucifixion, and is observed as a day of mourning. The obvious question is that if it is a day of mourning, why it is called “Good?” In archaic English, “Good” is a synonym of “Holy” and hence the nomenclature. It also symbolizes the fact that Christ was crucified for our sins, and the humiliation, pain, and death are His sacrifice on our behalf. As a sacrifice for humanity and the cleansing of the sins of man, this day of mourning holds tidings of redemption.

Interestingly, the Easter day is determined by the Moon Calendar and it falls on a different date, each year, but always on a Sunday. The Roman Catholic Church used a complex formula to calculate the “moveable feast” of Easter and this formula is called Computus. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year, following the cycle of the Moon. Easter is the day of resurrection of Christ from the dead, after his crucifixion and entombment on Good Friday, and his ascension into Heaven. It’s a day of joy and feasting and a spring festival filled with the promise of life and redemption, tulips, lilies and Easter bunnies and eggs.

The Easter eggs and bunnies come from age old traditions. The goddess of springtime and offspring, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. In fact, the use of term Easter comes from this pagan festival which was celebrated around the same time as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. Christian missionaries slowly spread their message amongst the pagans and encouraged them to celebrate this festival with a more religious and spiritual fervor, and in a Christain manner, as Easter.

The Easter egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

More information on the traditions and stories surrounding Easter abound on the internet. I have put together the basics that I learnt as a member of a Protestant Christian family and as a Sunday school-goer. I may have not have been penitent or fasted during Lent, and I may not take an off on Friday to go to Church, but in my own way I have tried to create awareness of a tradition and about a community about which little is known.

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