Happy Easter 2011

Happy Easter

As some of you might know, we  are Catholic. For us, Holy Week is the holiest of weeks, so I wanted to talk a little about Holy Week (from the Sunday before, Palm Sunday, to Easter Sunday). At Palm Sunday Mass we did not receive palms like we do in the US, we were given branches (see picture). Not sure if this is because the Church can not afford them and they just went and cut the branches off the bushes, or there is no business to supply the palms because Christianity is not recognized here. I guess I might never know. 

At Good Friday service, over 300 people attended the service. The service was an hour and forty-five minutes. I think it took so long because we went up individually to venerate the cross (where we reverence the cross by kissing it - here we also knelt in front of the cross before kissing it) and we also knelt for each Prayer of the Faithful (prayers for others). Fr. Francis sang "Reproached" during the Veneration of the Cross, we sang the refrain. He has a nice singing voice. This is a pretty hymn, it is the first time I heard it.

Will have to tell you about Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday next year as I was unable to attend those Masses.

On Easter Sunday, it was standing room only with at least 600 people at the Mass. After Mass they gave each of the children an egg. Not a plastic eggs, which you can not get here, but a real egg that was colored.

The branches we received for Palm Sunday.

Our sanctuary (altar area) decorated for Easter.
Very simple because it is a poor church.

I have mentioned before that the Mass is projected onto an overhead. This is
it (the recessional is on the overhead), it is to the left of the sanctuary.

Spring has finally sprung here. The weather is beautiful. Trees and flowers are blooming. My friends and I headed out to explore a sculpture park on one of the first nice days. Shanghai has many, many sculptures everywhere.

This is near the entrance of the Sculpture Garden. There are five
sections like this, each with a sculpture and flowers. Each
section is a different color. It is very pretty.

There are a couple of color sculptures.
This is one.

Looks like twine to me!

Love the flowers, sculpture and fountain.

Center of the Garden. Those are sculptures of bulls and then a
red sculpture behind it.

Thought he was funny.

My friends, the ones in the middle!, Heather, Veronica
and Alexis.

This is called Orange Tree. I would have
called it a Dr. Seuss Basketball Tree.

This is a sculpture near Randy's office. It is people waiting
for a bus.

This sculpture is along  main road in Puxi

In front of an office building. Looks like flowers to me.

Another type sculpture around Shanghai is topiary.

This sculpture is in our complex.
I like it when the fountains are going.

Daniel has had two performances this spring. First was the Spring Concert. (As you may recall he had one in the fall.) The 3rd and 4th graders performed a song that was written by one of the music teachers. They played instruments an some sang.

Spring Concert. Daniel is center, middle row.

The song was written for the 4 "houses". You might remember that the school
is broken into houses. Dolphins (Daniel's house), Bears, Pumas, and Falcons.
The students are wearing their house shirts. The House name is written in
both English and Chinese on their shirts.

The 4th grade classes have been studying poetry, so they had a "Poetry Cafe". Each child was asked to wear black like you would find in a cafe where poetry is read. Each class had a microphone set up in the room and it was "open mike" for the kids to go up and read their poems.  There was no set order, they just went up when they felt like it. Parents were invited, but we had to bring poems as an entrance ticket, and we had to read them at the microphone also.

Daniel at the microphone reading one of his poems

The class reading a poem together. His friend, Matthew, is to left of Daniel.
Grant, my friend Alexis' son, is behind Daniel. The second from the right
is Bryce, Veronica's son. Next to him is Kevin, another friend of Daniel's.

Cultural Difference/Frustrations 101: China celebrated the national holiday, Qingming Festival, from Monday through Wednesday, April 2-5. This very important holiday is set aside to remember and celebrate the lives of ancestors. The actual holiday was on Wednesday, April 5, which is the day that celebrants visit the resting place of their ancestors or friends. Some people refer to this holiday as "Tomb Sweeping Day", because, as the name suggests, people would clean headstones to show respect. People also bring gifts like fruit, breads, and paper money. Yellow flowers are also very common gifts, as yellow is the color of joy and happiness.

Wishing you all a Blessed Easter Season.