Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504180013
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Wherever there are seasons, the renewal of the Earth's life after the seeming death of winter is a time for celebration. The promise of warmth and growth is not only physically invigorating, but gives us a psychological - some would say, spiritual - boost as well.
Given that metaphysical dimension of spring, it is no surprise that this is a season of religious festivals as well.
Evidence of ancient spring festivals - many apparently intended to ensure fertility for the coming growing season - is found around the globe, many apparently dating into prehistory. Some biblical scholars, for instance, believe that the ancient Jewish festival of Passover has roots in even older fertility festivals.
Whatever the origins of today's festivals, they continue to evoke feelings of rebirth and renewal and to generate lifetimes of memories for their participants.
Several readers responded to our invitation to share some of their memories of the religious festivals of spring for this special section.
Betty Shepherd of Roanoke recorded her mother's recollection of Moravian sunrise services in Winston-Salem, N.C. Katherine Futrell is now 82, but her memories of Holy Week as a child are filled with colorful detail.
The Moravian observance focused heavily on resurrection - Christ's and the one promised to believers.
"Every Good Friday we would walk to the Moravian graveyard and take a bucket and scrub brush and cleanser. ... We would walk to the grave site of each of our ancestors and clean the tombstones. This included my grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, and my youngest sister who died at the age of 3 of whooping cough. We would go to each grave and pour water and cleaner [on the tombstone] and scrub it until you could see the perfectly white beautiful marble.
"On Saturday morning, we would go down to the marketplace and buy pots of chrysanthemums, daffodils, geraniums or tulips. ... The graveyard really became a city of flowers."
Because family members were not buried together, but by gender and marital status, it took a long time to get to every grave, Futrell recalls. Saturday afternoon included a church service with coffee and sweet buns, and throughout the night, bands would play hymns on street corners.
Easter sunrise service was held in the graveyard the next morning.
Cemetery services are long traditions in many communities.
Cedar Lawn Memorial Park will hold its 58th annual Easter sunrise service this year. The service is sponsored by Christian Endeavor, an international, interdenominational organization dedicated to attracting youth to Christianity.
Myrteen Heslep remembers going to the cemetery at 5:30 each Easter morning to help her father, J. Russell Cronk, set up for the services.
"I remember the excitement as the large crowds gathered on the hill. The service included special music, scriptures, hymn singing, an Easter message and the warmth of sun rays over the Last Supper monument. I handed out programs while shivering in wet, patent-leather shoes and Easter dress - and hat, of course."
Debbie Kaplan says it is not always the traditional Seder meal that is as special as all the preparation for Passover in her family's house.
"My husband and children know Passover is coming when about the first week of March, I make the pronouncement that no more leaven will be bought and that it's time to clean out the pantry."
The traditional observance of Passover means cleaning the house of any products with leavening in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt when Moses led the Jews to freedom 4,000 years ago. In their haste, according to the biblical account, they prepared bread without letting it rise.
"Gradually in the weeks preceding Passover we will eat away at pretzel boxes, bagels, pizza and all the bread products we can find ...
"Despite the occasional complaints ... memories are definitely being made here," Kaplan said. "As we remember the Passover story which recounts the exodus from slavery to freedom, so, too, we remember the importance of being thankful for the things we often take for granted each day."
Tom and Ronda Clark of Salem are creating Easter memories for themselves and their children with an Easter tree.
"On Palm Sunday, after church, we cut a small three branch and put it in a pot to hold it up." Over the next week, they read biblical passages leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. "For each event we place an egg on the tree that somehow symbolizes the event."
"To make the eggs, we blow out the center and then use paint, paper and spices [decorating them] to relate them to the story. We save the eggs from year to year and only make new ones to replace broken ones. Easter Sunday we finish by adding two halves of a broken shell to symbolize the open tomb."
Egg hunts were an important part of the day for several people who wrote in, including Gretchen Boeren. Boeren now lives in Roanoke, but grew up out of state.
"Easter meant an exodus to my grandmother's house here in Roanoke. To make that annual pilgrimage was a wonder and a tonic: there is no place like Virginia in the springtime."
After spending hours decorating eggs, her grandmother hid them, "being careful to leave some in conspicuous places for the littlest ones to find."
"The Easter baskets of candy, the new Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, the church services all seemed of secondary importance compared to those warm afternoons filled with red eggs amid yellow daffodils - eggs scattered like so many jewels and my Grandmother's childlike delight."
Becki Holody's Easter baskets contain what is probably a rarity in Southwest Virginia - Polish sausage. The meaty tradition came from her Polish mother-in-law, who also included fruit in the baskets.
Sometimes an Easter holiday memory can carry over into another season.
Cheryl S. Gilliland of Roanoke said she and her three sisters used to get new outfits, including gleaming white gloves, each Easter. Her youngest sister, however, insisted years later that she had never gotten any gloves, despite pictures showing that she was wearing them.
"She sadly insisted that they weren't hers, only borrowed for the photograph. Imagine the fun we had the next Christmas when we made sure that Anita FINALLY got white gloves of her own. She got knit gloves, lace gloves, elbow-length gloves, and even gloves with fingers cut out like members of marching bands wear. Every time she opened a package it was white gloves."
The Greek Orthodox Church often celebrates Easter later than most other Christian churches because it insists on following the biblical description of the Resurrection of Christ coming after Passover.
This year, for instance, Orthodox Easter will be one week later than "Western" Easter.
The Rev. Nicholas Bacalis, priest of Roanoke's Greek Orthodox congregation, recalls one special Easter spent in Greece in 1972 visiting with his father's family.
In every village, families were cooking their Paschal lamb outdoors. Huge crowds joined in the traditional processions and church services. The powerful Orthodox services, combined with the excitement of joining his grandmother's family for the season, made for an unforgettable Easter.
Finally, Evelyn Slone Lander of Roanoke has a memory of lucrative Easter mornings.
"When my sister, brother and I were growing up, we celebrated Easter morning by waking up and immediately scrambling into the bathroom to wash our faces in a basin of warm sudsy water that our mother had drawn. To our delight, after we had washed and drained the water, we found a silver dollar! We collected these silver dollars throughout the years and while a few were spent in our youth, we each still have some of these treasures."
The tradition came from Lander's mother, whose father was a West Virginia coal miner who had been paid in silver dollars.
"It sure did make us get out of bed and clean up in time for church."
by CNB