In the Episcopal Church, it is not unusual to celebrate Easter twice: once the night before and again on the morning of. The first one is called "The Great Vigil of Easter" and takes place after the sun goes down on Holy Saturday. It is a service filled with symbols of light. At the beginning, the celebrant strikes new fire from which wax tapers are lit, from which the Paschal Candle is lit, and then there is much singing about the light. I am pleased to report that I managed to strike new fire (again) this year without setting my vestments aflame.

The tradition of crepes on Easter results from the tradition of a severe fast during Lent, in which neither eggs nor fat nor white sugar were consumed between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day. The folks who so abstained were so happy to be freed of these dietary restrictions that they made crepes (with eggs, sugar and butter) to break all of these fasting rules at once.

At our house, I kept the Easter Feast by roasting a leg of lamb in the Greek fashion: boned and stuffed with garlic, onion, kalamata olives, lemon juice and wads of fresh oregano.

The blush, by the by, is on MY face, to have such nice things said about me by so wonderful a person as our Jackie.

Happy Easter!

Father Steve