Okay, we are clearly not in Kansas (or California as the case may be) anymore!

We should have known that something was up, that something was different. For one thing the children didn't have school on Friday and they won't have school tomorrow. These days, according to the public school, are "Easter holiday." Tomorrow is, specifically "Easter Monday." First time I'd ever heard of it. And a public school mentioning a religious Holiday as the reason for a break from school? Again, I should have known something was different.

Then yesterday we needed to run to a bunch of stores and at every store we went to the cashier said to us "Happy Easter!"
"Isn't it illegal to say that?" Mark whispered to me. Well, in the SF Bay Area it is. Or rather, it isn't exactly "illegal" but it would certainly result in a lynching or at least a good protest and a front page article in a newspaper announcing the lack of sensitivity, cultural awareness, and prejudice against other faiths demonstrated by that phrase.

Then comes today. Normally we would spend Easter at one or other parental unit's houses, watching the kids look for eggs, sharing a big family meal together. Or maybe we would attend some kind of "Easter supper" at our home church for those who don't have family around and want to share a community meal. No-one invited us to dinner this year, though. And we've been so overwhelmed with other church work (remembering that we are both "half time" - ha!) that we just could not manage to organize a "dinner for those without extended family" on our own. So we thought it would be nice to spend the day with just our little family unit, especially since we are all still recovering from strep throat.

However, my image of a nice Easter afternoon does NOT include me cooking. For one thing, as many of you know, I really hate cooking. Second, I was exhausted from the activities of the morning. So, we planned to eat out. After all, while we usually have Easter dinner with family, who can avoid all the ads and restaurants in the Bay Area with big bill-board signs posted all over them that say "Easter dinner - here!" or "Open Sunday!" etc, etc, etc. So we all packed ourselves into the car to head out to our favorite restaurant in the area, and guess what? It was CLOSED for Easter. But not just that restaurant. Every restaurant in town was closed for Easter. What is up with that?!! Don't people like to eat out on Easter? Isn't it a lot like Mother's day where everyone eats out? And then as I thought that I began to wonder about Mother's day, too....

It is clear we are not in Kansas anymore, or rather, that we are not in the Bay Area anymore. The things we take for granted, the attitudes and opportunities that we take for granted are different here.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I mean, it's great that people want to spend Easter with their families and that the community values both that faith time and that family time so much that restaurants (and other businesses) are closed. It causes more than one person, I imagine, to really look at the meaning of the day and to think about what it means that others (a whole community, even) takes the day seriously and sets it aside as not just any other day. Things are different today. The world has been born anew today. It is good that we take the time to really focus on that and take it seriously. It is good that workers, like waitresses/waiters and cooks, are also given this time to be with their faiths and their families, to focus on the day as a day of rest, celebration, and community. It is good, even for those who are not Christian, to have this day of rest, to do something different, to remember that every day is a new day, is a gift, is something to celebrate and relish and is a day to remember what each of us values.

Still, I am really hungry right now...and I'm not going to cook. After all, it's Easter!! ;-)