Easter joy

Easter feels different this year. Since last year, I started to attend the 7am Easter Sunday mass and waking up that early is usually not a good day for me. Last year I came very close to the starting time and although I still could get a seat, it was pretty crowded for a Sunday morning. So this year I decided to come earlier. I was surprised that I woke up feeling very on this morning and I managed to leave house at 630am.

The joyful Easter is not only felt by me. I feel that the priest was more energetic and excited than usual that he even forgot to incense the bible before the Gospel. Lol. He did that after the Gospel reading ended. The altar boys, however, seemed to be still sleepy. One of them dropped the stick for splashing of the holy water and another one rang the bell at wrong timing. Another thing which surprised me was the choir whose members are quite young. I always associate Sunday 7am mass as a mass for old people as young people will stay in bed until late on Sundays. They sang loudly and with full of spirit and the energy was infectious. It made me consider of going for 7am mass now since the timing of Japanese lesson has changed too.

I always enjoy Christmas but I usually associate Easter with doom and gloom, particularly after Good Friday. Only today I realise that there are a lot of nice Easter and uplifting Easter songs. In fact, my perspective between the 2 events sort of changed right now. Christmas songs which are more upbeat and happy tend to be more secular and about holiday and Santa Claus while Christmas songs which are more religious tend to be more mellow. At Christmas, we are happy in anticipation of something i.e the birth of Jesus or the coming of Jesus. It is a different kind of happiness when compared to Easter when we are happy for something that has already happened i.e Christ is already risen.

Going back a bit to the Good Friday, I realised that usually there are 5 masses on Sundays, including 1 sunset mass on Saturdays. However, there are only 2-3 Good Friday services. Does the church expect 40-60% of regular Sunday mass goers not to attend Good Friday service? I felt so irritated that the church was so crowded and it made the whole atmosphere not conducive. Last year I came almost on the dot and I had to stand. So this year I came about 15 minutes earlier and there were only pockets of seats left. I know it is so petty to complain about these inconveniences when Jesus suffered and died on the cross. I was surprised that I felt more irritated this time by the people around me who had to stand as compared to last year when I was the one standing. Bleah.. Anyway I saw my friend's photo at another church where people were denied entry because the church was already too crowded. One of the comments mentioned something similar happened on the Maundy Thursday evening at another church. Seriously man!

Anyway, wishing everyone a very happy Easter and may this Easter spirit last :)