Sretan Uskrs! (Happy Easter)
Today our family celebrates our second Easter in Croatia. It's fun now that we've passed the one year mark of arriving here, we are no longer going through the "first" of everything. (The first summer in Croatia, the first Christmas away from home, etc.) Now we can remember back to last year, and see how far we've come since then, or what changes have happened--but it is not all brand new like last year.One interesting thing we've noticed so far about Easter here is that in the Protestant churches, it doesn't seem to be such a big event as we would expect. Yes, there are songs sung about Jesus' resurrection. But overall, on Easter Sunday the church service seems pretty much the same as most other Sundays, and attendance actually seems to be a bit less than normal. Quite a difference from our church back in the States, where it is so jam packed on Easter that they have about 8 services throughout the day and there's not even a hope of finding a parking spot.
I don't think the difference comes from Easter being celebrated less here in Croatia in general. In fact, Easter is a huge holiday here, especially due to the Catholic heritage of the country. All over town you can see "Sretan Uskrs" signs up in businesses and stores. The national television channel broadcasts Mass on TV, live from Rome. On Palm Sunday you can see people everywhere carrying olive branches as they return from the Catholic church service.
One friend theorized that perhaps the Protestant churches make Easter less of an event as a reaction to the Catholic tradition. (Trying to set themselves apart somewhat?) Another part of it is probably that many people travel on Easter to visit their family, so they are not in town to attend church. Also, some believers who normally attend a Protestant church will instead go to Mass with their extended family on Easter as part of the family tradition.
Either way, Easter morning felt slightly anti-climactic to us. It seems like it should be the biggest, most important holiday of all for a believer. Today we celebrate how Jesus rose from the dead, and conquered the power of sin and death! What is more important than that? Now if I could just remember to focus on that instead of worrying about Emma's easter dress or how much candy she's eating from her easter basket!
Hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
posted by Amy C @ 7:15 AM
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