Easter memories

Aside from the fact that Easter typically falls around my birthday (unless it's an odd year like this year), I absolutely love Easter and the first signs of spring.

I have all these memories of family times at Easter, usually at my house because my dad's a pastor and we couldn't go away for that Sunday. So I remember Easter photos of me and my cousin Jennifer dressed up in our Easter dresses, fake wicker hats, little purses, white shoes, and Easter baskets, with Brandon tagging along in a little suit :) We felt so grown up. Shortly after that, our Easter celebration consisted of yearly involvement in the Marion Easter Pageant.

These pageants, along with birthdays with my grandpa and musical theater, are some of my best memories of being a kid. The pageant in it's original form doesn't exist anymore, sadly, but for those of us who were a part of it, it was pretty great. We started out with my parents doing makeup every year for the Publicans (high priests). Brandon was a Jewish temple boy singing in this cute little boys chorus, dressed up in yamakas and white robes. And I was a palm and garland girl with my little pink dress and floral headband, always in the garland line. After a few years in this role, I graduated to the older kids as a member of the illuminated cross that begins the pageant. My dream was to graduate all the way to the top as a cymbal girl (the choreography I had memorized by the end of my first year in the pageant)...but alas, my family's pageant involvement didn't last long, and pretty soon the pageant was no more. No more getting up at 4am and driving into Marion for the 6am Easter Sunday performance. It was the best way to celebrate Easter. Then, for a couple of years, for the first time ever, I was able to see the pageant as a whole as a spectator in the stands of the old Marion coliseum. Not quite the same, but I could see why this amazing pageant was such a great part of Marion's history.

You had to see the pageant to understand, and chances are, if you're from anywhere near Grant County, you probably did at least once in the 50 some odd years it was alive. The music, though old, was so beautiful with all these sacred hymns sung in 4 parts. The costumes were pretty amazing. And there was absolutely no dialog, only music and pantomime. The best part? The resurrection scene at the end and the choir singing the Hallelujah chorus with the whole audience standing to their feet in reverence. Even writing about...still gives me goosebumps. The pageant was really special.

So many great memories, but there's one more I have tell you about. The year my dad hit the Easter bunny while we were driving to Marion at 4am for the pageant. Dad hit a rabbit as we were just leaving Fairmount. I wish I could say my childhood innocence ended that day. It'd probably make the story even better. However, I was raised knowing that there was no such thing as our furry friend or his red-suited Christmas sidekick.

Be blssed this year as you celebrate this wonderful day.