It’s incredible how different customs and traditions are
when it comes to events and holidays.

Christmas, Halloween, Easter….
Everybody has their own way of spending these festivities.

Today, after church,
We were going to paint the eggs for Tyler to do his First Easter Egg hunt,
but we decided that he is still too young to help with the painting.
Well, actually, Tracy decided that.

Because, I have no clue.
I have never really participated nor experienced any Easter egg hunting in my life.
We do not do this in the Philippines.
At least not when I lived there.
And I was just too old to partake in this hunting gig while I lived in Canada.
So I never really know nor understand how a kid feels at Easter time.

See back home in the Philippines,
we celebrate Easter very early in the morning.
At dawn, and in Church.
We call it the “Salubong” (the meeting).

It is basically the highlight of a procession of both the images of Jesus and Mary,
meeting for the first time since the Lord resurrected from Death.
Their images on a big float, which came from 2 different points in town.

Then when they meet, Mary’s black veil will be lifted and replaced by a white one.
This is where the event organizers do the main show,
They sometimes train doves to take off the veil,
Or dress up a little kid as an angel and make them remove the veil and replace it.

Pretty neat, really.

Then, after the mass, we all have our breakfast with real Filipino delicacies.
Puto Bumbong, Bibingka, Palabok… and many more.

Hey hey hey, You know me.. I like food!!

But here in North America,
People do it differently.

First everyone goes to church, or better known as “The Great Fashion Show”.
Then this special day is celebrated by hiding all the Easter eggs,
tell the kids, a certain Rabbit hid them,
and everyone races to find as many as they could.
With prices to win, and fun times to experience.

As long as nobody forgets the real reason we celebrate this event,
It’s all good, I always say.

I am just worried I might mix up all the traditions and practices I have acquired,
while living in different places.
And tell the stories to my grandchildren ….

Grandkids: Grandpa, what is Easter?

Me: (in a husky grandfather voice)
Kids, Easter is the day when we celebrate how the Lord died for the sins of mankind,
because they cannot find the hidden eggs, and then at dawn, He rose from the dead,
came out of his tomb, saw his shadow and we had 6 more weeks of winter.