Easter and My Birthday
Wow. A lot of things have happened in the last 2 weeks or so. Easter break started on March 19 after classes, an event about which everyone was *very* happy. The triduum here was absolutely lovely. The choir sang for Holy Thursday Mass, Good Friday Service, and the Easter Vigil, and we did some gorgeous music. Durufle's Ubi Caritas, Allegri's Miserere Mei, and a *ton* of Palestrina and Victoria were some of the things we sang. I was practically in heaven. On Wednesday night I went to something called Tenebrae, and it was really cool. Basically, we sang psalm chants back and forth while all the candles were gradually extinguished, and then when it was completely dark, we started banging the pews really loudly, until suddenly they relit just one candle, and then all the noise stopped. Apparently the thing ended just like that, because that was when people started gradually drifting out. I'm not sure what the symbolism of everything was...but it was definitely really neat.
So the Easter Vigil was really nice, what with all seven readings and the psalms in between. Most of the psalms were done in Gregorian chant by the guys, but we also did a threesome of Palestrina motets in between the last three readings. We didn't have any baptisms or confirmations this year, so we just blessed the baptismal font. Father Paul gave the homily, and it was a really good one, all about how even if there are other bad things that we are suffering right now, nothing should make us forget about the joy of Easter, because that is more important than anything else. So the Mass didn't get over until around 1:30 in the morning, after which we had the traditional and insanely joyful Easter "brunch," in which large amounts of very good food were consumed by all present. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and cream, pancakes, fruit salad, home-made truffles and other candies, and I could go on, but you get the idea. So everyone ate and ate and ate, and at one point they put on the Hallelujiah chorus really loud over the sound system, and everyone stood up and sang along. Ahhhhh....it was wonderful. And then at around 3:00 a.m. they started the dancing! I danced till about 5, when I finally went to bed in order to get a little bit of sleep because a friend and I were leaving that morning to go to another friend's house for Easter dinner.
The Easter dinner was wonderful, with basically a lot of the same food we had eaten at breakfast that morning. We also made Ukrainian Easter eggs, which are marvellously intricate, and just hung out with their family and had a great time till about midnight, when they finally took us back to the college. *sigh* It was pretty darn awesome.
The rest of break went alright, but the day that we went back to classes (March 27) was my 20th birthday! My grandma had already sent me a new dress for a present, which I really adore, and my parents sent me an iPod nano, which is *really* cool. I also got presents from other friends, and to top off the day a couple of my guy friends planned a surprise party for me down at our swimming ponds. They ordered a whole ton of pizza and had cake and candy. It was a blast. :) So I would definitely say that I had a good day.
Well, dinner time draws near, so I will sign off for now. Hope you all had a good Easter, and will have a blessed rest of the Easter season!
So the Easter Vigil was really nice, what with all seven readings and the psalms in between. Most of the psalms were done in Gregorian chant by the guys, but we also did a threesome of Palestrina motets in between the last three readings. We didn't have any baptisms or confirmations this year, so we just blessed the baptismal font. Father Paul gave the homily, and it was a really good one, all about how even if there are other bad things that we are suffering right now, nothing should make us forget about the joy of Easter, because that is more important than anything else. So the Mass didn't get over until around 1:30 in the morning, after which we had the traditional and insanely joyful Easter "brunch," in which large amounts of very good food were consumed by all present. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and cream, pancakes, fruit salad, home-made truffles and other candies, and I could go on, but you get the idea. So everyone ate and ate and ate, and at one point they put on the Hallelujiah chorus really loud over the sound system, and everyone stood up and sang along. Ahhhhh....it was wonderful. And then at around 3:00 a.m. they started the dancing! I danced till about 5, when I finally went to bed in order to get a little bit of sleep because a friend and I were leaving that morning to go to another friend's house for Easter dinner.
The Easter dinner was wonderful, with basically a lot of the same food we had eaten at breakfast that morning. We also made Ukrainian Easter eggs, which are marvellously intricate, and just hung out with their family and had a great time till about midnight, when they finally took us back to the college. *sigh* It was pretty darn awesome.
The rest of break went alright, but the day that we went back to classes (March 27) was my 20th birthday! My grandma had already sent me a new dress for a present, which I really adore, and my parents sent me an iPod nano, which is *really* cool. I also got presents from other friends, and to top off the day a couple of my guy friends planned a surprise party for me down at our swimming ponds. They ordered a whole ton of pizza and had cake and candy. It was a blast. :) So I would definitely say that I had a good day.
Well, dinner time draws near, so I will sign off for now. Hope you all had a good Easter, and will have a blessed rest of the Easter season!
posted by Frenchy at
4:57 PM
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