I hope that everyone has a great Good Friday/ Easter Weekend or Pass Over as appropriate (and If I missed another Religious date, Please add it!
Usually, this would be a big family and church weekend. These days we are supposed to stay home and stay isolated.
How are you going to spend this weekend?
What will you NOT do that you would otherwise?
Will you be able to have the usual feast (or at least the feast foods) this weekend?
In my community, the news has announced that all city parks will be closed for the weekend. Access to the waterfront is especially off limits (blockaded) Usually this weekend would have turned one park in particular into a huge campground. Families have been doing this for generations, but this year it is closed to ensure that social distancing is followed.
So Happy Easter, and Good Friday and let me ask, 'how is this day different from any other' and say Happy Passover!
My family did a zoom passover, which was nice, but not the same. The brisket was good. We are dong a second zoom one with friends tomorrow and I'll make matzo ball soup.
The church I was raised in is doing Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services via their online TV setup, and will re-broadcast last year's Easter service (with full choir) on Sunday. It's been good to re-connect with them lately.
I'll probably do Easter vigil by playing a Night Song (chanted) service and reading the Quem Quaeritis trope at midnight.
I sometimes get invited to a Passover service with one of my students' families, but obviously not this year.
Tomorrow I'll teach six of the eight kids straight through in the afternoon, because one family with three students forgot to tell me they were having a Zoomed first Sedar with friends at 4 today...so we had to move their lessons...!
M.
No Easter Sunday Mass and dinner out afterwards. :(
In DC, farmers markets aren't essential by order of Mayor Bowser:
https://wtop.com/dc/2020/04/farmers-markets-no-longer-essential-in-dc-food-stores-must-post-signs-telling-customers-to-wear-masks/ (https://wtop.com/dc/2020/04/farmers-markets-no-longer-essential-in-dc-food-stores-must-post-signs-telling-customers-to-wear-masks/)
Quote from: hmaria1609 on April 08, 2020, 07:13:39 PM
No Easter Sunday Mass and dinner out afterwards. :(
In DC, farmers markets aren't essential by order of Mayor Bowser:
https://wtop.com/dc/2020/04/farmers-markets-no-longer-essential-in-dc-food-stores-must-post-signs-telling-customers-to-wear-masks/ (https://wtop.com/dc/2020/04/farmers-markets-no-longer-essential-in-dc-food-stores-must-post-signs-telling-customers-to-wear-masks/)
Will your parish offer an online prayer service?
If not, this one may be worth considering:
Www.Stpaulparish.org
M.
I've been forced to turn down my parents' invitation to come home for Easter for fear of exposing them. So I'll be all by myself this weekend. On Sunday I plan to go in to my office and watch the church's Facebook Live service. Our pastor has taken to recording messages to put online fairly well. But his interactive preaching style loses something when he can't address an in-person audience.
As a "connoisseur of faith communities" this format allows for interaction with a sermon, and provides some excellent sermons:
Ssje.org
Under "Brother, give us a word,"* there are sermons listed; each has a blog-reply setup with many replies and comments...
Just a format to consider: a live chat, with the appropriate protections from hackers, is another way to enable discursive sermons...
M.
* The title is not meant to be sexist: it just reflects the fact that this is an Anglican monastic men's community, which is very open to women speaking, reading, celebrating, etc., otherwise.
We've had church via Zoom the last two Sundays, and Zoom services tomorrow and Sunday are planned. (Tomorrrow including communion FWIW)
Quote from: mamselle on April 08, 2020, 07:26:31 PM
Will your parish offer an online prayer service?
If not, this one may be worth considering:
Www.Stpaulparish.org
M.
I think so...My parish has been streaming weekend Masses online since last month. Just the fact we won't be able to attend Easter Mass in person is a bummer!
Quote from: hmaria1609 on April 09, 2020, 12:41:50 PM
Quote from: mamselle on April 08, 2020, 07:26:31 PM
Will your parish offer an online prayer service?
If not, this one may be worth considering:
Www.Stpaulparish.org
M.
I think so...My parish has been streaming weekend Masses online since last month. Just the fact we won't be able to attend Easter Mass in person is a bummer!
How does Mass work if the priest can't consecrate the elements?
The priest can consecrate, they just can't be distributed.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on April 09, 2020, 06:54:29 PM
The priest can consecrate, they just can't be distributed.
M.
So can individuals at home use their own elements, like in Protestant congregations, or do they just observe the priest?
Historical side note: In rural Quebec, isolated communities would have a container called a tabernacle in which the priest would place consecrated elements when he visited, so that they could still have Mass until the next time that he came.
That would be a kind of reseved sacrament. Under current restrictions, I don't think those are being shared now.
There are guidelines on the Vatican's website, I believe.
M.
Double-posting, sorry, but I just saw that all the churches in town have agreed to ring bells at noon on Sunday.
This is lovely in one sense...my God-sister directs their bell choir and they do change-ringing as well as tune-ringing...but in the broader interfaith context, I'm wondering what that means to those for whom the bells either may represent uncomfortable reminders of various kinds.
Or perhaps there will be Passover ringing? Other public observances?
Mm.....
M.
I demand an easter egg hunt.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 10, 2020, 08:38:37 AM
I demand an easter egg hunt.
Our big community-wide Easter egg hunt was a casualty of the epidemic, of course. I'm sure a lot of families will be going ahead with their home Easter egg hunts, at least. The egg supply at our local grocery store seemed to be adequate earlier this week.
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 10, 2020, 03:31:07 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 09, 2020, 06:54:29 PM
The priest can consecrate, they just can't be distributed.
M.
So can individuals at home use their own elements, like in Protestant congregations, or do they just observe the priest?
Historical side note: In rural Quebec, isolated communities would have a container called a tabernacle in which the priest would place consecrated elements when he visited, so that they could still have Mass until the next time that he came.
I'm from a tradition where Communion ("The Lord's Supper") is treated as an occasional special service in itself, rather than an essential part of other services and celebrations. For us it's not a sacrament. I'd never thought about how awkward quarantine measures would make sacramental celebrations. I'm sure the churches that have such practices developed work-arounds a long time ago. This isn't their first pandemic rodeo.
https://www.kulr8.com/top_story/gov-bullock-deems-easter-bunny-tooth-fairy-essential/article_3bc52c88-7ab6-11ea-a950-6350206eb927.html
For all those concerned about about the Easter Bunny's travel plans and whether his offices and factories were shut down for Social Distancing. The ruling in MT (and Im sure applicable in all jurisdictions) is that The Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and 'other magical creatures' have been deemed ESSENTIAL. Please note the restrictions, though:
"The directive puts in place the following measures, effective immediately, and for the duration of the emergency:
Magical entities, including but not limited to the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, may freely travel into and through Montana to perform services essential to Montanans.
Magical entities must leave behind a gift—for example, eggs, chocolates, or the fair market value of a baby tooth—at every home they visit, and must follow social distancing guidelines.
This Directive does not modify, abridge, or limit the effect of any other statute or administrative rule regulating magical entities."
(emphasis added, but this may relieve the concerns of some youngins you may have in your household).
Quote from: apl68 on April 10, 2020, 08:46:31 AM
Our big community-wide Easter egg hunt was a casualty of the epidemic, of course. I'm sure a lot of families will be going ahead with their home Easter egg hunts, at least. The egg supply at our local grocery store seemed to be adequate earlier this week.
I think I purchased more of the crappy chocolate eggs than I ever have, this year. (Crappy as in: Carnaby is gross, I prefer the 'great value' brand or equivalent.) Which is good, because I love them so much, and never have enough.
I've also probably already eaten far more than I ever do. It's a little alarming.
Vatican Good Friday (starts at 5:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-zj0XZg11s
M.
Question for the religion and culture experts: does this reflect a sympathetic magic practice from Black Death-era Europe? Or does it depict a tradition associated with Easter or Mardi Gras?
The Parade. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGddy-LzywI)
Quote from: spork on April 12, 2020, 05:57:14 AM
Question for the religion and culture experts: does this reflect a sympathetic magic practice from Black Death-era Europe? Or does it depict a tradition associated with Easter or Mardi Gras?
The Parade. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGddy-LzywI)
This is just based on some googling, but it looks like someone has made a sort of model and figures representing a Bolivian catholic festival called La Fiesta del Gran Poder, but with topical figures for Covid. I couldn't find anything about it normally being particularly about disease or illness. It appears to be something that started in the 20th century and is connected to a painting that is a few hundred years years older, with a mestizo Jesus. Apparently the painting has been associated with miracles. The festival is apparently in May and June.
Did the Easter Bunny make his visits?
Any reports on how the CV19 changed the festivities this year? (were eggs hidden and searched for as usual?)
Did two Zoom seders (or zeders as they've become known) plus a drop-in social visit to a third. Not the same, but better then nothing. My parents and I even cooked the same dishes so we could have dinner "together". Lots of resonant themes for the times-- plagues, narrow places, things getting worse before they get better. How is this night different from all other nights indeed.