Easter Plans and Accidents (from earlier this spring)

I celebrated St. Patrick’s this year in proper Irish green, but stayed sober. I honored the Pagan "snakes" of Ireland with a snake wrapped around my left wrist and told the truth of the story to any who would hear. Ahh, Patricius, you lost after all. We’re back, and we revel drunkenly in your name, sporting the symbols of a liberated Eire. May you understand better, now.

I celebrated Ostara with family for the first time. It was beautiful, the fruit trees are fluttering, their arms full of pink blossoms. Hemet is greener than I remember it ever being. The mountains were clear on the horizon and I did not greet the spring alone. Blessed Ostara, to those of you who would keep or did keep this sabbat. May you hatch from a shell, germinate from a seed, rise with the sun and be reborn! Blessed be!

I will celebrate Easter with family and friends of the Christian persuasion. I’m entrusted with making some of the more important dishes of the day and I honestly look forward to it. Easter is one of the easiest days to see the way our faiths entwine.

This year, these three feasts seem to dog each other’s heels in a way I never perceived before. A Catholic saint’s day, a Pagan day of remembrance, a public spectacle of drunkenness. Corned beef and cabbage, rye bread with the family. A Pagan holiday, the day my nephew came into the world, a beautiful moment of spring. Lamb steaks and asparagus, fresh strawberries and Martinelli’s to taost the babe. The gravest of Christian holidays, the miraculous rising of the slain Christ, celebrated with the Pagan symbols of the egg and the hare. Roast ham and enough eggs to satiate an ovaraptor. All braided together this March, in the windy time, all proving my vision to be true.

It is all one. Bring your faith with you. There is a place set for you at our table if you will choose to join us.