Let's Call it Throwback Thursday...and pretend I didn't forget something.

Hello all!

So last week I wrote a Five for Friday about my holiday traditions. And, as I worked my way through Easter Weekend (which was quite nice, thank you for asking) I remembered two very weird, and yet quite important traditions that I'd forgotten.

Since these are traditions I no longer observe and I'm not passing down, I figure we can pretend I didn't forget anything and we can call these my Throwback Thursday Easter Traditions.

Or I could acknowledge that I'm getting old and honestly I need to start writing stuff down before I blog so I don't forget things  like this.

Anyway, here they are, the two Easter Traditions I no longer hold to:

2)  Do nothing, go nowhere on Good Friday.

My mother came from a very strict, very religious family where whimsy  and nonsense of any kind was not allowed. So it seemed pretty natural that one of the traditions she brought with her to the marriage was this one:  You go nowhere and you do nothing on Good Friday.

When I was a kid, businesses all over closed from noon to three, the time when, traditionally, Christ hung on the cross and spoke His words.  That time is all but gone, although I understand from my atheist niece that the Target store in her hometown in North Carolina still keeps to this practice.

                                       

 

For me, growing up, I hated this tradition because the way my mom kept it really felt more like she needed chores to get done before we went to Wisconsin rather than we were observing the day of our Savior's death.  I'm not kidding.  We'd get home from church between 1 and 2 and she'd tell us we could not go outside until at least 3 because it was Good Friday and we shouldn't play outside.  That did NOT stop her from tuning in to Guiding Light and having us dust the whole house and fold the laundry.

As I got older, I learned to appreciate Guiding Light, sure, but still. Even one we were past the 3 PM mark, we weren't allowed to leave the property. That's how Mom put it, "We don't leave the property on Good Friday."

I was 22 and living on my own before I left the property on a Good Friday. I was teaching in the Detroit area, my boyfriend (Hubby) and my roommate got tickets to see the Tigers play. We had a blast.  I felt more than a little naughty.  But I got over it and since then I don't dust or fold laundry on Good Friday...and I rarely stay on the property.

1)  Playing Hack and Slash right before Sunrise Service.

"Hack and Slash" is a term coined by my dear roommate from college, the ever hilarious "Carrie."  It's a term she used to describe the leg shaving process of a college student who needs smooth legs and can only shave with cheap, single blade razors (the pink ones) and must do so quickly between classes, giving said legs the look of a poorly butchered leg of lamb, all hacked and slashed.

I didn't have a term for it when I was 13 and started shaving my legs (with soap and water and that
single blade razor) but I knew how the game was played, ESPECIALLY on Easter Sunday.

Remember Sunrise Services?  Yeah, once I was old enough to shave my legs, those services got even worse.  See, I've always been sort of an idiot. I don't tend to plan ahead as well as I should.  So, every year I swore up and down I would prep myself for Easter Sunday Sunrise Service the night before and every year I would forget, get my sleepy butt out of bed at some ungodly dark hour of the morning and proceed to hack and slash my legs in the name of smooth skin.

So fun going to church with band-aids on my legs.  Good thing I didn't have a crush on a boy in church when I was in high school. Oh wait, yeah I did. Believe me, I felt SUPER SEXY seeing that guy see me with chopped up skin.

Hmmm, one probably shouldn't strive for "super sexy" on Easter Sunday anyway.

I told you, I'm an idiot.

I no longer keep this one, not because I'm better prepared for church on Sundays than I used to be, no that's asking too much. Instead, I've just pretty much given up 1) wearing skirts and 2) shaving my legs in months where snow might fly.  (That's all but 2 here in Wisconsin.)

So there you go, the two traditions  I no longer keep. But why not share them for a throw back Thursday???