I never really thought of myself as a "Traditionalist" but as I get older I am finding myself attempting to hold on to traditions that I grew up with.This being Good Friday and the beginning of the Easter weekend, many traditions flood my memory banks. Being raised a Catholic the Easter weekend would start on Holy Thursday, where we would go to church in the evening. Today being Good Friday, it would be one of the few days of the year my father would not work. One of the traditions of course would be going to three o'clock mass. I always found Good Friday service very depressing, dark and gloomy and to make matters worse it often rained around the time mass would begin. I remember it being one of the longer services with lots of up and down. As child I was glad when the service was over.
Another tradition was that you never ate meat on Friday and Good Friday was no exception. My father would buy at least 30 lbs of frozen squid(calamari). He would clean and cut them up, separating the body from the tentacles. My dad made the best deep fried squid. Thank goodness he passed the recipe on to us. Of course as we got older we all took our turns at preparing and cooking the squid. To this day I love squid, unfortunately today I won't be eating squid but rather hubby is going to make a seafood bisque of prawns, scallops and salmon....yummy.
I have given up on decorating eggs as I often would find them weeks later stinking up the place(forgotten where they were hidden). Today I buy those small coloured plastic eggs and fill them with little chocolates and put them in baskets for display. I still love to decorate for Easter or any special event for that matter. This year it was difficult with it being St. Patrick's day on Monday, by Wednesday I had all the St. Patrick's day decorations down and Easter decorations up it's a nice change.
I can also remember as a child at Easter mom would take us out and by us all new Easter outfits. I loved it. A new dress, bonnet, gloves and new shoes....oh it was glorious. I really don't know how they afforded to do that but they did. As a result I can remember always buying my girls new outfits for Easter, bonnets and all. I have this one picture of my eldest daughter and middle daughter in their dresses and bonnets and gloves....oh they looked so adorable...but I think that was the last time my middle daughter who was 2 1/2 at the time I took the picture, would be seen in a dress up until she graduated from high school.
Easter Sunday was full of traditions....starting with breakfast....my mom would set the table starting with a half grapefruit at each place setting, then it would be a special sugar cereal(we only ever got that at Christmas or Easter)hot cross buns and then eggs and bacon. We use to think it was a feast fit for a king. After breakfast we would rush around cleaning up the dishes and get ourselves off to church for Easter mass. After mass we would come home and have the Easter egg hunt...the rest of the afternoon would be spent relaxing...until such time that it came to prepare for dinner. We always started with an ante pasta plate consisting of various seafood's, pickles and cheese. Main course consisted of ham, two kinds of potatoes and lots of vegetables....I know there was dessert but I can't for the life of me think what it was...I bet it was trifle...I never liked trifle so I wouldn't eat it.
Yes my life was full of traditions. I don't think I really appreciated it all at the time...but looking back I am so thankful that I have all those wonderful memories and traditions. I hope I have instilled in my girls some of those traditions are at least some fond memories.
What are some of your family traditions?
24 comments:
Nice post. Felicia and I are so excited about Micah's first Easter. We are combining the traditions of our childhoods and it is something I hope he'll pass on to his children someday.
Micah is just the perfect little boy and every day I just love him so much more...
I enjoyed this post and I'm similar in that my childhood was filled with traditions that I didn't fully appreciate at the time. I was raised in the Episcopal church but many of the traditions sound a lot like the ones you grew up with. We also ate fish on Friday and that included Good Friday. We gave up something for lent but could partake of what we gave up on Sunday. I remember the new Easter dresses, gloves, and hat and got my daughter the same when she was a child but minus the little white gloves I wore. I hope you have a happy Easter.
I remember as a kid always getting a new dress, bonnet and gloves too. We always got a pail and shovel and skipping rope in our Easter baskets. Now that I have my own kids we always decorate eggs, have an Easter egg hunt and have ham for supper. Aurora, 14, is getting a little too old enjoy Easter like she used to, but she's great to Aidan, 3, by telling him all about the Easter bunny coming and how they will look for his paw prints on Easter morning. Have a great Easter! :o)
Came from Janice - lovely post.
I like squid but am allergic to iodine! Have noted your other blog - know a few folk with ibs etc.
The old traditions were the best weren't they?
We always had fish on Good Friday because my Dad is Catholic, thought Mum and us kids were CofE, but Mum cooked fish for Dad.
Such a lovely post. Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter!
A delightful post Mary Anne. Family traditions give us so many wonderful memories. Ours was pretty much the same - minus the squid lol.
Our tradition at Easter was basically the same as yours. When my girls were young they always recieved a new dress and shoes. Also hats that they wore to mass and then never wore again!
Good evening , what wonderful memories you have posted and are so much like mine.We were raised Catholic and I remember years ago that you could not eat before Mass.When we brushed our teeth before church, we could not drink a lot of water..Not eating candy until after church was hard, but worth it when we came home.We always had to have new underwear too...and new slips.I don't see how our parents could afford all of this stuff..We never felt poor , but times were hard back then...Thanks for sharing .. have a Happy Easter.Hugs, Baba
I remember the traditions too. Now that I am a married adult and we moved away from the home state, things are much different. I can't wait until this house is finished and I can decorate and carry on the traditions I remember.
Oh traditions! Such sweet memories, similar to yours, although we weren't Catholic. We went to the United Church of Canada. We started out with the bacon & eggs and hot cross buns for breakfast plus a new egg cup (with special Easter design on it). Then we'd hunt for the eggs around the house, under the cushions, in the corners, in plant pots, etc. For dinner, my mother always made baked ham, scalloped potatoes and kernel corn. For dessert it was usually lemon meringue pie. I continued with the traditions with my children but now it's just me, so I guess the only thing the same is me going to church - only with a friend now. Dinner will be alone.
By the way, I've tagged you - you're IT! See my latest post. ;D
Mary Anne, what a lovely post. I still have pictures of me in my little Easter outfits, holding my mother's hand, and she is in her best bonnett. Easter just would not be Easter without dressing up for church. I miss those days.
Happy Easter, my friend!
I think that is what makes my mom sad about leaving canada....the traditions and family stuff she left behind.
It always seemed a bit sad with just the two of us and my dh doesn't get it either....so the traditions are going ....but hopefully being replaced with new one's.
What a beautiful post! I didn't want it to end!
Our young lives are filled full of nonsense, I pretty much don't do Easter in any form. And being raised by a Catholic mother I don't do anything Catholic.
The fondest memories of my youth are spending time camping, often alone.
Deep fried squid sounds great, I haven't had any squid for years.
I remember getting new shoes with heels that made noise on the sidewalk. I was like the "big girls" in their high heeled shoes. I felt like such a big girl at Easter. We also got new dresses and had our hair in curlers overnight so we had ringlets. It is disappointing in church these days, because many of the little girls and boys were not dressed up like we used to do. that was the fond memories that I remember most about Easter, otherwise it would have been overshadowed by Christmas. Easter had to have its own fun, and getting new shiny "heeled" shoes, was the best about Easter.
Mary Ann, you might be interested in my latest post about "customer service." Didn't you do something like this some time back?
Mary Ann, you might be interested in my latest post about "customer service." Didn't you do something like this some time back?
Wonderful post! I'm so glad I dropped by to readit. I love the one below too.
Good manners and traditions do seems to be going by the way side these days by many people.
I hope you had a very blessed Easter!
Hugs, Pat
I enjoyed reading this great post too! I'm so glad I dropped by to readit. Good manners and traditions and customer service seem 'new' to some people.. I love it when people recognize it's just plain good 'ole stuff that nice people do.
We started a new tradition this year by having Easter with Mom (turning 92 this month) at our float cabin. While I love the old ones, it's fun to make new traditions as well. - Margy
This reminded me of an old friend's family tradition -- they enjoyed a box of lucky charms every Christmas morning. She spoke of that tradition so often, that you know the emotional significance far outweighed the treat of the sugary cereal.
Thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment