Mmmmmmm. Around here we're eating eggs and chicken-apple sausage for breakfast. I would have taken a picture but it's already in my stomach.
We celebrated Easter yesterday in the Greek Orthodox Church*. As part of the preparation for Easter we fast from meat, dairy, fish, eggs, oils, and any type of seafood with a backbone. For forty days.
I'm not a particularly gluttonous carnivore. I can go without meat. But take away cheese, margarine, and eggs, and I start feeling deprived. This year we did not do the full 40 days because my husband has had to do all the meal preparation and cooking, and all the extra planning required was just too much. But I had been especially good during the week before Easter.
Easter Sunday is called "The Feast of Feasts" for a reason. A search on Twitter on the words "Orthodox" or "Easter" showed me that all over the world we Orthodox were doing the same thing on Sunday - pigging out.
At our house we're enjoying all the wonderful foods we have available to us, and all the wonderful leftovers from my Greek mother-in-law's celebration yesterday. And all this delicious eating and celebrating makes my Monday.
To read other "Makes My Monday" entries, visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation.
* It's a bit of a complex story why Easter falls on different dates in the Eastern and Western churches. When Pope Gregory established the Gregorian calendar, he also fixed the date of the first day of Spring as March 21. The Eastern Church continues to follow the lunar calendar in it's calculation of Spring, so Easter always falls after the vernal equinox (have I lost you yet?). Therefore, Orthodox Easter always falls after the Jewish observance of Passover. Sometimes we're as much as five weeks apart. Sometimes we celebrate on the same Sunday, which is disappointing because I don't get to shop the post-Easter sales to buy things for our Easter. I'm sure somebody will correct this clumsy explanation, but really, do you need any more detail?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Eggs and Sausage
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10 people stopped folding laundry to write:
Happy Easter to you!
That is neat. I never realized that there were two different Easter dates! And the breakfast sounds yummo!
Happy Easter to you and your family!
I don't do Easter, but I know exactly how you feel.
Since we do passover, my kids (and I, to be frank), are always DYING for a pizza by the end of the eight days.
Pizza NEVER tastes as good the rest of the year.
Glad you are back to eating and Happy Easter!
Now I want to learn more about the Greek Orthodox church. Except forty days with no dairy? My teeny little brain cannot process this.
What an interesting post and makes me want to know more...also made me think of the wonderful movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding where he says he is a vegetarian and the aunt says it is ok he can have lamb. I so love that line. Thank you for the interesting post.
Roberta Anne = The Raggedy Girl
Ooo 40 days without cheese! That is so hard. I didn't realise about the difference in Easter dates, only about how the UK Celtic church in 631? AD was united to the Roman church at the Synod of Whitby as they had differences of date and how to celebrate etc.
That is so many things to give up at once- I would have a very difficult time figuring out meals too!
Admittedly since not living with my parents (so I'm not that young- 24- but have only lived in my own house for last 5 years)- husband and I are very bad about celebrating holidays correctly. Our parents raised us both the same- learn about the meaning behind the holiday and not the "worldly" things (ie eggs, baskets, christmas trees, etc). Fellow Catholics the world over would be appalled that we don't even give up anything for lent anymore.
Your adept explanation of the varied calendars (not to mention the yummy feasty foodstuffs of yesterday) completely Makes My Monday!
Our church is smack dab next door to an orthodox church and I LOVE seeing the pomp of Easter twice!
Thanks for playing along, ThreeUnder! (Hope you're feelling better every day...)
LOL - I was talking in line this morning after Bright Monday liturgy and we all said we had promised not to overdo it this year- but we all failed... sigh.
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