{"id":3651,"date":"2013-03-31T18:38:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T22:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2013-03-31T18:51:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T22:51:50","slug":"happy-eggnbunny-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=3651","title":{"rendered":"Happy Egg\u2019n\u2019Bunny Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April of 1965, I was in the village of Naoussa on the Island of Paros for Holy Week.\u00a0 We went there because a Greek friend (who spoke good English) would be visiting her brother, who was the doctor in the village.\u00a0 Naoussa was so small that if you heard an internal combustion engine you knew it was either the taxi or the truck.\u00a0 Soula and Andreas introduced us to Frankie, who was the rich man of the village.\u00a0 He had spent most of his life running a gas station in Chicago, and was now retired on $25 a month Social Security.<\/p>\n

Friday night we were at Frankie\u2019s house, having had supper we were playing a game of cards, when we heard what sounded like wailing coming from the street.\u00a0 We went out to see.\u00a0 Down the street came 2 priests in their vestments, carrying crosses.\u00a0 After them came a small group of men carrying a flower-covered coffin, and behind them all the villagers, dressed in black, carrying candles, and wailing.\u00a0 It was the coffin of Jesus Christ, but I understood immediately that it was also a chance to mourn for all the dear ones who had died that year and in years past too, a communal time of mourning for lost ones, lifted up into a larger loss.<\/p>\n

Saturday night at midnight, our friends took us to the church, gave us red eggs and candles, and disappeared into the crowd.\u00a0 Bettie and I noticed some odd looks directed our way, and realized that we were on the men\u2019s side of the church so we quickly relocated to the women\u2019s side.\u00a0 The priests were up in front, behind a screen, we could hear them muttering.\u00a0 Suddenly they emerged, carrying lit candles, and shouting what sounded like \u201cChristas anastas!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cChrist is risen!\u201d\u00a0 They lit the candles of the people in the first pew who turned and lit the candles behind them, also shouting \u201cChristas anastas!\u201d\u00a0 The light flooded through the church, the people poured out the doors, shouting and singing.\u00a0 There was a bonfire just outside where we were told they were burning the body of Judas.\u00a0 We were quickly educated in the use of the red eggs (which were, by the way, a lovely soft brownish red).\u00a0 You banged them on your neighbor\u2019s egg, and the one that broke lost.\u00a0 You could still use the other end, but eventually most eggs were losers and a few were winners. \u00a0We never found out any more about what it meant. The people poured down the street to the taverna, where they ate and drank and sang and danced.<\/p>\n

It was clear that the celebration had its roots in something far older than Christianity.\u00a0 I enjoyed the wildness, the drama, and the obvious fact that the emotions of mourning losses and celebrating resurrection were very real among the people.<\/p>\n

\"Ostara_by_Johannes_Gehrts\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just to make things clear about the older festival: our word \u201cEaster\u201d comes from \u201cEostre\u201d the name of a Teutonic Goddess of Fertility.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the word “estrogen” comes from, as well as all the eggs and bunnies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April of 1965, I was in the village of Naoussa on the Island of Paros for Holy Week.\u00a0 We went there because a Greek friend (who spoke good English) would be visiting her brother, who was the doctor in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healing","category-spirit","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}