Pascha 2020 & Celebrating Toby's Birthday

Our icon corner by candlelight.

Christ is risen! Truly He is Risen! 

That is our Paschal greeting which we use for the next 40 days until Pentecost. It is beautiful. We will say it over and over, as we did during the Paschal Divine Liturgy. We will say it in many languages. English, Geek, and Slavonic, of course, but also German and even Swahili as we have a connection with and to an Orthodox Orphanage in Kenya. Our parish helps support it and Toby and I are regular donors. It is such a worthy cause.  

Pascha prep really helped Pascha itself. Yes, we were tired. The Zoom Pascha basket blessing went pretty late. When we finally logged off at nearly 6 a.m., our friends were still going strong. I think we all really miss each other. The Orthodox - at least at our parish and the one we visited in Honolulu - are very, very close and social. 

Services were beautiful even if we had to view them remotely. We have such a gifted choir. Our choir director, Matushka Jenny, at the last minute, could not come and lead. Instead, the oldest daughter of her and Father Nicholas led. She and her sisters were amazing. It was just such a gift. The services for that night went on over three hours as you see in the link above. But it did not seem that long. It was wonderful. 

I decided to prepare our home for viewing the services by using mostly candlelight. 

At our church, tradition is that the children can bunk in the Great Hall / Kitchen area on sleeping bags during the service if they become tired, so Anthony decided he would do likewise. He made it until about 1 a.m.

He's in there, sound asleep.

Eventually he woke up and, although still sound asleep, sat up. His head bobbled a while without him lying back down. Concerned that he'd hit his head on the tile, I drug him over to the beanbag. He woke back up when it was time for the Pascha basket blessings and to welcome Toby home. 

Our basket was ready and the Zoom meeting started before Toby got home, but he was able to participate then. 

Disclaimer: As I did last year, I must confess that we were not as compliant about fasting as strictly as the canon is, but we did more than last year and we felt it. I'm a terrible faster and make no pretense about being a super holy person. But we are all on our journeys. 

We snacked on our treats and the kids went to bed. Toby and I then visited a while longer with our friends until it was time for the Pascha bunny. Then we got a few hours of sleep. The kids slept in until noon, which actually surprised me a bit for Anthony. He was ready to see his basket and hunt eggs. I made us deviled eggs with our red Russian eggs.

We had another Zoom meeting for the Pascha Vespers service, a prayer service, then after that, we just had to have some rest before I could contemplate dinner. That was nice. There is nothing wrong with a low key holiday and resting on the Lord's day. 

Later, we did have our traditional Pascha dinner of ham, asparagus, green beans, and so forth. Of course, the main event was Toby's birthday cake which he very much enjoyed, as did almost all of us. 

My beloved. 

It occurred to me as I was icing and decorating this cake, that it bridges our two favorite seasons - fall and spring. A carrot cake is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and those warm spices of fall. But the cream cheese frosting has a lovely lemon lift to it with both juice and zest and really tastes of spring. As I was adding the final touches, I used some sprinkles leftover from Halloween that had the colors of the carrots and the flowers and bees I used to decorate it. Yes, the bees were a little cutesy for a 46 year old man, but Toby loves bees and honey and spring. It just seemed to fit. He was very pleased. 

It crumbled some which disappointed me, but it was chock full of 2 cups of shredded carrots, 1 cup of chopped pecans, and 1 cup of coconut. 

So Pascha 2020 is a wrap - well, at least the day itself. This is Bright Week - the whole week is Pascha and we do not fast this week at all. We celebrate the Paschal Season until Pentecost, but will resume fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays but it will be a bit more relaxed. We will be allowed fish, oil, and wine on those days. 

It was a lovely day and celebration even during these strange times. I did not feel that much was lacking, honestly. It felt like Pascha to me even though I did miss being in church. I was not, however, down about it and my spirit was at peace and at ease. I think that is because we've had such good instruction and guidance from our pastors during this time. Check out our YouTube page and see the videos, homilies, and meditations posted by our priests. I think most will benefit from their guidance. 

Christ is Risen!

Thanks for reading!