As ah remember Good Friday and Easter

Lie-Za fuming mad! She say in all her years pon dis earth, is de first time she ever see Easter fall at the end ah April. How school children went pon dey Easter vacation, but dey had no Good Friday, no Easter. Dey went back to school and after one week, school will close again this week-end to celebrate de real Easter break.{{more}} First she blamed de Catholics foh de late Easter saying is only since Bishop Ben-ah-dick come Pope he changing up ah lot ah thing but not de real thing. Ah told her bluntly, real thing or unreal, ah ain’t going down dah road wid she, especially how dis is child abuse month. She even blame-in de ULP, saying dat one ah de item pon de Bills dah passed in Par-liar-mint is de shifting ah Easter to de end ah April.

Ah told her dat many years ago my Grand-parents, who were Salvation Army officers, explained how dey arrived at de dates foh Carnival, Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. De whole mystery surrounds de influence ah de Earth and Moon. De significant date is March 21 st, de “First day of Spring”, de Vernal or Spring Equinox. Easter is celebrated after March 21; to be precise de Sunday during de first Full Moon after March 21. It so happened dat dis year, March 21 fell one day after Full Moon , which mean dat we had to wait till April 24, almost ah whole month foh de next Full Moon or first Full Moon after March 21, de first day ah Spring. Once yuh calculate when is Easter Sunday, yuh subtract two days and yuh get Good Friday. Ash Wednesday is another forty days before Good Friday, and Carnival as we all know, is de Choose-day before Ash Wednesday. Lie-Za looked confused, all she said was: “ Why yuh Grand-parents and dem go thru so much ah see-me-de-me wid Earth and Full Moon and Spring to find ah date foh Easter, and look how simple Mary wrote down de date when de Wise Men found Jesus, up to today over two thousand years later, de date ain’t change, every 365 days on December 25 is Christmas”?

Dat is Lie-Za. Every year she comes by foh me to explain all dem ‘mits and miss-tree’ associated wid Good Friday. How she hear dat if yuh bake Cross Buns pon Good Friday it will never gather moss. Of course ah told her dat is true, and dat ah know people who tried it and after ah month waiting foh moss, not ah spek, dey had to throw away de bread; but ah told her dat she got to bake exactly one dozen and give dem all to her best male friend; she read right thru my trick and told me: “If yuh planning to eat my Cross Bun, ah got news foh yuh, my ‘best male fiend’ is not yuh”! Ah know she not interested in Cross Bun, she want to hear about de “setting up of de egg” to hear her fortune, if Lie-Owe will marry her. So ah told her at de stoke ah noon on Good Friday, she must place de white of an egg in ah glass, de egg must be laid by ah white fowl; and wait and watch for de next three hours – de time dat Jesus suffered on de Cross- she will see an image being gradually formed that will indicate what will happen to her in de immediate future. “What sort ah images ah should look for” she asked. Is every year she asking de same questions. So ah told her she might see de image of ah boat or plane which suggests dat she will travel. She love dat because she keep asking if de Red Airport at Argyle will be Red-e for Red-Jet airlines. Anyhow she didn’t wait foh me to finish, hear her: “If ah set up ah egg and see ah Church, dah mean ah getting married, right ?”.

Yuh should see her dismal look when ah told her it could also mean ah funeral. All joke aside, from de time ah was small ah look forward to de seasons: Christmas wid Nine Mornings and henging up de stockings on Christmas Eve night to see way Santa Claws bring, was number one. Number two was Carnival wid Kong and de Bum Drum. Kong was ah villager named Leonard Williams who played Monkey Man, modern day King Kong. Den dey was Lent, de curfew, ah most torturous season wid ah lot ah restrictions, no Fetes! no Parties! no Weddings! no Kaiso pon radio!

Imaging after ah hectic two days ah Carnival jumping up, de Carry-beyond Civil-lies-say-shun became locked into mourning foh 40 days ah Lent, from Carnival Mas to Church Mass every day. Good Friday was de climax. De day foh Hot Cross Buns, ah still look forward foh me Cross Buns. But Good Friday lunch was ah challenge, mackerel and sweet potato, ah couldn’t get dat stuff down my throat; today that’s my number one dish. Interestingly, just like me, my kids can’t stand de sight ah mackerel and potato, ah hope dey remain dat way foh ah long time. And den from noon on Good Friday Three hours ah Church Service; ah sang de song “There is a green hill far away” so many times as ah kid, dat when I was six years ole ah knew every word. And Alas! Lent was over, its Easter Sat-dey when de country went wild again, de dance halls reopened dey doors foh fetes and parties; people who been making wedding plans foh months could get married; Easter Sat-dey held de record foh de most weddings.

But bright and early at six o-clock on Easter Sunday morning ah had to be in Church to sing “Up from de Grave He arose” to be back at 3:00 p.m. foh Sunday School. On Easter Monday it was Excursion Day, when de Clubs or Cricket Teams or Steel Bands from de different Communities went on trips by boat or bus, de long wooden buses. Dat is ah part ah we culture dat we have lost, communities going pon trips to other communities on Easter Monday, August Monday, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. My Easter special was kite flying, was only ah Soon-ah-me dat could ah stop me from going up to Dorsetshire Hill to fly my kite come Easter Monday. Granny would pack ah lickle something to eat, some juice and ah bread wid some kind ah flesh, we didn’t know bout sang-wedge in dem days. And every year after hype-in up foh de event, ah will come back home crying, either de wind too strong and my kite cut-away, or someone else’s kite get entangled wid mine and ah lose it. But on reflection, it was an accomplishment being part ah over two dozen kites of all sizes, shapes and colour way up in de sky, buzzing over Kingstown from on top Dorsetshire Hill, Nostalgia. Which reminds me dat me lickle boy say we going kite flying and ah ain’t buy kite paper yet! So wid dat, is gone ah gone again. One Love Bassy.

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.