April 12, 2009

Easter Sunday. My first Easter that I can remember that I am away from my family. We always go to Grandma’s house for Easter, have done for as long as I can remember. First, we would attend Easter Sunday Mass in the morning and then we would travel to Grandma’s house. There, with as many family members as could make it, we would have a large Easter dinner. Usually ham, turkey, venison or pork, pierogi, mashed potatoes, and various other trimmings would be served as the meal. Of course, deviled eggs would be served as well, those that were dyed the day before. For dessert there would always be a lamb cake, almost always poppy seed as it is Grandma’s favorite. But the most important aspect of the whole day would be that we were together as a family, enjoying the bounty of God, and celebrating the joyous occasion.

Grandma always has little baskets hidden around the house for all the cousins and parents. After greeting everyone already at her house, your first order of business was to find your basket. I always find everyone else’s before I find mine. Without fail, I am usually the last in my family to find her basket. I miss all these little traditions our family has surrounding this holiday. It’s been a rare event that has kept me away from my family during holidays. I don’t remember the last holiday, major holiday that I’ve been away from everyone. I think I’ve always been home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter. It’s weird to think of my family, immediate and extended, enjoying the holiday and each other’s company without me present. I’m not being pompous by saying this but I guess I miss that. I’m really missing my family now that I’ve been over here in Europe for so long. I guess distance does make the heart grow fonder.

So, on to what I did on this celebration of Christ’s rising from the dead. Ania and I awoke at 10 to prepare for the day. We walked to St. Mary’s Basilica around noon but when we got there Mass was already in progress so we left with the purpose of coming back for the 1pm Mass. We walked around the main square and ran into a few interesting performers. There was a man playing the xylophone on the corner near the church. He was accompanying the songs playing from the speaker set near him. The music was wonderful to listen to and he showed extreme talent in the songs he was playing. After pausing there and listening to him for a while, Ania and I continued on down the street. The next performers we came across were this older couple playing the accordion and cello. They were playing, when we first heard them, the chicken dance and other typical Polish music, polkas like ‘Roll Out the Barrel.’ It was glorious listening to them play because they took such joy in playing for the crowd in their traditional Polish attire. Ania and I walked around a little more before heading back to the Church. On our way we got distracted by the sound of Sting’s “Fields of Gold.” We walked over to the area where the man playing the song. He was playing an electric violin. We listened to him play two more songs before journeying back to the church for mass.

We entered the church as the previous Mass was just finishing. Ania and I took a seat near the back of the church. It was a different experience, attending a Polish Mass. I didn’t understand the majority of the Mass because I don’t know Polish. I knew when to say Alleluia, Amen, and make the sign of the cross but that was about it. Even Ania was stumped at some points because the Mass was different then the Polish Masses she attends back home. But, the basilica is so pretty inside that I just let the feeling and presence of the church command my attention during the mass.

After Mass, we walked to the other side of the square and bought pierogi and kielbasa for lunch from one of the stalls. We then went and got ice cream (lody) from another stall. We then just walked to the park and walked around through the park. We ended up down by Wewal Castle. Down there we came upon another musical group performing. When we got closer, Ania joked that it was the guys we saw in the market. I joked that it was a bunch of priests singing. Low and behold, it wasn’t priests singing but a bunch of monks. Both of us were slightly shocked because the group was all monks. Nuns were in the crowd dancing and the crowd was singing along. There was a monk playing the drum set, two or three playing various guitars, one on a flute of some sort, and one lead singing. It was the most interesting musical group I have ever seen. We stayed, watched, and listened for a while. It seemed the majority of the songs they played were religious themed but still interesting to listen too.

After we continued on our way we ended up back in the main market square. We walked a circle around the town. We headed back to the apartment to take a break before fixing dinner. We were slightly tired from our walk which took us around most of the center of town. Dinner consisted of the rest of the pasta we had and sauce with the rest of the Bundt cake we bought on Friday. Not much for an Easter dinner but nothing was open on Saturday and nothing would be open on Easter Sunday so we made do. After dinner we watched “The Italian Job” before getting ready for bed.