“Easter Day, Here in Arizona”

By

Gerry Niskern,

Easter day, here in Arizona, is a day of traditions. It will be celebrated in many locations and the rituals will be as varied as the individual families. How could it not, with thousands of new residents of every ethnic group arriving in the Phoenix area each week?

Many families will go to church on Easter morning to thank God for their many blessings. Other whole families will give up their day to serve others in the various charity dining rooms.

In some families, grandmothers and grandfathers will serve their children and grandchildren a fine old-fashioned Easter dinner, complete with ham, potato salad and homemade hot rolls that melt in your mouth. The carving knife is already sharpened and the table linens are freshly laundered.

Perhaps this Easter weekend newlyweds around the valley will invite the clan to their home for a barbecue and a dip in their new heated pool. Regardless of where family or friends gather, some will argue politics, religion and or latest courtroom trial. Everyone will over eat and some will drink too much too.

Many, looking to do something different, will wrap their ham up tightly, put their sweet potatoes and gravy in heated containers and head out for a desert picnic. They’ll fly kites, hike and go egg hunting, just as our family did for many years. Just a reminder, leave real early. You’ll have to drive outside of Phoenix a long way to find a pristine desert site for your picnic this year.

Lonely residents of nursing homes will be served Easter dinner at long tables decorated with papier-mâché chickens and jaunty little bunnies. They will be remembering other Easter days when children sat at their table.

Firefighters will cook their Easter meal at the station. Policemen will grab a quick bite while on patrol.

Other families will gather in hospital rooms or visit cemeteries, carrying pots of flowers and trying to remember why they are supposed to be celebrating on this day.

Families of all nationalities will talk about Easter to their children. They might explain how the egg came to be associated with Easter. It seems that in the Middle Ages it was forbidden to eat eggs during the 40 days of lent. However, the hens kept laying and out of the resulting glut, the Easter egg tradition was born. All the different countries around the world eventually developed unique ways of decorating eggs.

Hopefully these same parents will remind their families that there are moms, dads, and even grandparents who are hungry and homeless on this Easter day, here in Arizona

They’ll tell the kids that we have the freedom to celebrate out traditions or change them as we wish. They will remind them to nuture and cherish those traditions.

All these things will happen on Easter day, somewhere here in Arizona.