TRADITION!

As I have mentioned before, I do love the movie Fiddler on the Roof. There is a song called “Tradition” in which the importance of not changing traditions is celebrated, all the while the whole theme of the movie is about how things are changing. Oh the irony of it all.

While I like to tout that I am not a creature of tradition, open to change and not just a product of my culture, it just isn’t (at least entirely) so. Yesterday, as we celebrated Easter, I missed some of my childhood traditions. Happily that didn’t include stuff like Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies.

I remembered and missed the anticipation of SPRING – the warmer weather and the flowers and GREEN I always associated with Easter. I can remember freezing to death in my frilly little dress on a chilly, even snowy Easter, but no way I wasn’t wearing my pretty little dress, with patent leather shoes and my cute little hat (and even white gloves although they don’t appear to be in use in this photo). I missed wearing a totally new outfit that no one had ever seen before, as an expression of change/newness (and hopefully not just to show off my new clothes).

I missed the church being packed out and everyone joyful to be there, even “long-lost” families and members. I missed the anticipation of a special cantata or drama as a way of celebrating the joy of the event. I even missed the mournful singing of “Lo in the Grave he Lay”, bursting into the joyful refrain of “Up from the grave he arose!” I missed lots of Easter lillies and special flowers decorating the church, filling my eyes with their beauty to remind me of the beauty of the day.

I confess I even missed a big ham dinner marking the fact that we no longer live under the pact of the Old Testament laws, but are free, really free.

I know all the reasons that Easter is not much celebrated in the evangelical churches of Brazil, but even after all these years I miss the traditions. Tradition! Tradition, tradition.