Geraldine McCloatAs many people know, the Irish are a very religious faith based type of people… and over the years that has changed a bit, but there is still something about Easter in Ireland and the observance of it.
When we were younger we never visited Ireland during the Easter holidays, it was always during the summer or for Christmas.
Growing up in America there was one very important thing that I always remembered around Lent and that was “NO MEAT on Friday” – we didn’t’ really give anything up, but we never ate meat on Fridays… I was very surprised that when I moved here it wasn’t’ that big of a thing. It seems it was an Irish tradition that our ancestors took to America, but clearly they took it ALL with them, ‘cause those left behind let that go with the immigrants!
But when my Grandma Nina (who immigrated to the US) was asked about people not eating meat during Lent, she replied,
“It’s not what goes in your mouth that matters, it’s what comes out of it”.
I think those are some pretty good words to live by.
However, there are 2 days that you don’t eat meat in Ireland during Lent, and that is Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
I remember the first Good Friday that I spent in Ireland, my parents and brother were coming to visit me that Easter and they landed in Ireland on Good Friday….
Easter weekend is a loooongggg weekend as they say – we were off on Good Friday, and the Monday was a bank holiday.
For those of you that don’t know, EVERYTHING used to close on Good Friday, offices, banks, stores, THE PUB!!!!
You can imagine the shock of my family when they were told there were no shops open that day and the bank was closed for 4 days. My dad of course only came with dollars – this was before ATM cards were readily accessible everywhere…. 4 days with no bank for Bureau de Change! He clearly remembered not to eat meat on a Friday when he left Ireland but forgot that everything shut down!
On Good Friday, there was Stations of the Cross in the morning, then there was the veneration of the cross, and everyone went to that at 3pm on Good Friday (the time when they say Jesus died on the cross)… I think everyone went to mass because there was NOTHING ELSE OPEN!
We also received crosses at the Good Friday mass made out of palm – real palms (maybe this was only done in my church) but they blessed Evergreen tree branches as “palms” as part of the Palm Sunday mass, and in America you would get long flat palms, so I thought they must not have palm trees here in Ireland. But now they are giving me a cross made out of palm 5 days later! What was going on?
The Easter Saturday Vigil was the biggest mass. When I say big, I mean long! Depending on the priest you could be looking at around 7 readings. The only Easter Saturday mass that I thought was crazier, was the one I attended in the States about 15 years later where they actually baptised a grown man in the middle of the holy water fountain, and I mean he was BAPTISED!! The fire alarm then went off cause the frankincense they were burning was too overpowering and we had to sit and wait until the Fire Brigade came – that was an experience… but nothing compared to the first Easter Saturday Vigil.
Over the last number of years, the Easter Saturday mass has become my second favourite mass in Templeboy – first being our Christmas eve mass. I would bring my Granny, and we would sit in the darkness in the church as the Easter fire was lit outside. There was something about the quiet and solitude of being there that just feels so peaceful. We would wait for mass to start, when the flame was brought in from the fire outside to light our candles and illuminate the church. The Easter Holy Water would be blessed from the candle, and it was always very important for my Granny that we got a bottle of the Easter Holy Water. I never asked why it was so important, but I just accepted it as this was the freshly blessed Holy Water, from this important mass that was the symbol of resurrection, new life and a renewal of our faith. So I would fill up her bottle for her and take some for myself.
I wasn’t too pushed for Easter Sunday morning after that, I would go, but I always felt the important things happened the night before
I find it hard to recall these memories as we didn’t celebrate mass in our church last Easter due to the pandemic – it was funny cause it didn’t even really feel like Easter without there being mass. I watched mass on the tele on RTE, it wasn’t even from Ireland – it was from Denmark and it had to be translated! A year on, and it still doesn’t feel like Easter without the practice of going to mass. That is 2 years now, since we have celebrated Easter in Ireland, and I hope Easter 2022 will be back to normal, and that we will not have lost the traditions that we have.
Easter is a nice time to visit Ireland. There is something about the Easter Weekend that brings a sense of life to Ireland. Everyone has a pep in their step. I think its a mixture of the brighter evenings, the long weekend, the yellow daffodils and the baby lambs you see in the fields; a bit like the Easter Saturday vigil a sign of new life and bright days ahead. And when the people in Ireland are happy, it makes for the most enjoyable time. The weather is hit or miss, sure the weather in Ireland is always hit or miss. But April usually is mild enough weather, a little bit chilly but usually dry and you never know you could get a little heat wave! The Easter season is also the start of when most seasonal attractions start to open up, and you can get in before the tourism season really starts to kick off.
