Happy Easter

Let me start by saying, “Happy Easter.”

For a non-Christian today is just a day to search for eggs and eat too many slices of ham. For those who believe, it’s the day that validates everything in our faith. Christmas is nice with the birth of a savior, but Easter is the Super Bowl of faith.

I’d like to start this week’s column with a little Easter Sunday humor.

It seems, at St. Mary’s church, the old Irish priest, Father Donnelly, decided to drop into the school’s religion class on Easter morning. Mrs. Francis was about to teach the children about Good Friday and what came next, when the priest said, “Before you start, I’d like to hear from the children and see what they already know.”

The priest stood before the class and said, “Can anyone tell me the true meaning of Easter?”

One little five-year-old named Sally shot her hand in the air and said, “Me, me, pick me.” When the priest asked the child to proceed, the little girl said, “Easter is about chocolate. You get big chocolate bunnies in a basket and get to eat candy all day long.”

The priest, a bit upset, decided to move on and call on a little boy named Simon. He explained to the good priest, “That Easter is really about coloring eggs. You color them and then hide them around the house. And sometimes you hide plastic ones, and they are filled with money.”

Father Donnelly, becoming furious turned to Mrs. Francis and said, “What are you teaching these kids. Wrong, wrong, wrong!”

Just when he was about to give up, a little girl named Grace raised her hand and said, “Father Donnelly, I know the true meaning about Easter and it has nothing to do with chocolate or eggs, it’s about Jesus.”

The priest’s eyes lit up, finally a child who knows what she was talking about. Old Donnelly leaned back on the desk and said, “Go on my child, tell us about Jesus and Easter.”

Grace explained, “On Good Friday Jesus died for our sins on the cross and they placed him in the tomb. On Sunday morning, they found the stone was rolled away and Jesus had risen.”

Father Donnelly began applauding, “Well done, well done my little one. I’m so proud of you.”

Only Grace wasn’t happy with the interruption, answering, “Excuse me father but I wasn’t finished.”

The priest told her to proceed, and Grace finished her thought, saying loud and proud, “So, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus was risen. Then he walked out of the tomb, saw his shadow and we had six more weeks of winter.”

I hope you enjoyed my little Easter humor. I heard that joke once from a priest at St. Joseph’s church in South Troy many moons ago and it’s just as funny today.

Easter for me has changed as I’ve gotten older. When I was a kid, I was an altar boy and lector at church, so the holy season was the busy season with lots of religious services. Now, I try to find my way to church to pay my respects to God and resist the endless bowls of candy you find wherever you stop for Easter dinner.

As a little boy, my mom was sure to get all of us children an Easter basket filled with candy. There was nothing more disappointing than biting into the ear of a chocolate bunny, only to learn he’s hollow. At our house growing up, my mom would hide the baskets, but soon enough we figured out the few places she had to tuck them away. The dryer was always a prime location for a hidden basket.

Coloring eggs with the PAAS kit was also part of our annual tradition. I hated the smell of vinegar, so you would have seen me making exaggerated faces back in the 1960’s as I dipped my egg into the mixture and changed or added colors. My eggs always came out the same; boring. My sister’s on the other hand, brilliant. Being a secret artist, she could create designs in her eggs so fancy; you’d think to sell them at the mall.

I had a friend who worked at a pharmacy and he’d tell me how the same people would come into the store every year, the day after Easter, to buy up all the chocolate at 75% off. I can’t begrudge them; I just don’t know how good Cadbury eggs taste in August.

All of that said, today is indeed Easter Sunday. I wish I could go back to just one of those Easter dinners from my youth and sit with my parents and grandparents one last time. You never realize how wonderful those simple moments are until they are a distant memory.

Happy Easter to all of you.