Holy Saturday

 This is a day of waiting. It was a day of sorrow for they could not understand what had happened. Mary was one who could still hope. She belived her Son's words and pondered them in her heart. I suggest we try to imitate Mary as she waited for her Son to return. 

This is copied from somewhere and I thought it interesting. I had never heard of this before. 

1. I learned of another Holy Saturday tradition this year – the blessing of the Easter basket.  A typical Eastern European Easter basket would include a variety of symbolic foods, although families can personalize to their liking.

• Bacon is a symbol of the abundance of God’s mercy.
• Bread represents the staff of life given by God.
• Butteris one of the dairy products included to celebrate the end of Lent and the richness of our salvation. The butter is often shaped into a lamb, which is symbolic of the Paschal Lamb.
• Candles symbolize Jesus, the “light of the world,”
• Colored eggs as well as uncolored hard-cooked eggs, indicate hope, new life, and Christ rising from his tomb.
• Ham as well as other meats, symbolizes great joy and abundance in celebration of Christ’s resurrection.
• Sausage links are symbolic of the chains of death that were broken when Jesus rose from the dead, as well as of God’s generosity.
• Horseradish is a reminder of the bitterness and harshness of the Passion of Jesus, and the vinegar it is mixed with symbolizes the sour wine given to Jesus on the cross.
• Salt is present to add zest to life and preserve us from corruption.
• Sweets suggest the promise of eternal life 

We always had Easter eggs to hunt for out in the backyard and Easter baskets to find in the house. Ours always contained a solid chocolate Easter bunny and lots of chocolate marshmellow eggs, other chocolate eggs and jelly beans all on paper green grass with the entire basket wrapped in cellaphane. Now that I think about it, did my parents buy the baskets like that or did they fill them themselves? It was fun to hunt for our baskets and each had a name so we could not touch or tell if we found a basket that was not our own. Later, I would find a gift instead of a basket - at least I remember that one I had one of the boarders from Mexico come home from school with me for the holidays, we each got new fountain pens. Then, I began coloring the eggs and hiding them for my little brothers. My grandmother and one aunt always arrived to watch the boys hunting for their eggs. 

I am spending a good deal of time in prayer, but when I come to write I do not seem to have spiritual thoughts to share. Maybe I will now that Holy Week is ending. I love Easter and the entire season when Jesus went about giving joy to others.