Academy Life

Academy girl Easter traditions

Pia Roca, Senior Staff Writer|March 22, 2016

Credit: Gabby Accardi (used with permission)

Seniors Gabby Accardi and Remi Storch eating peeps together at a family luncheon on Sunday.

The Easter season is often associated with spring and new life. Easter egg hunts, pastel colors, and community adoration are trademark during the season. Many families attend mass on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, while others choose to attend just on Sunday. For Catholics, Easter is the last day of the Lenten 40 day period in which habits are given up. The 40 day period is symbolic of Jesus’s forty days and forty nights of fasting in the desert.

Academy girls and their families each celebrate Easter differently, engaging in unique traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Senior, Jeanine Ramirez, commemorates Good Friday by silence between family members, “On Friday my family and I don’t speak to each other from noon to 3pm, the time when Jesus is nailed to the cross till He breathes his last breath. It sounds hard but it’s well worth it. On Easter Sunday the first thing we do is have an Easter egg hunt followed by Mass. After mass we celebrate and have a big lunch at my Grandma’s.”

Easter is really important to my family so we make sure that we always celebrate it together every year. Credit: Courtesy of Jeanine Ramirez — Easter is really important to my family so we make sure that we always celebrate it together every year.
Credit: Jeanine Ramirez/Achona Online

Jeanine shares that it is difficult to go hours without talking and, if necessary, her family resorts to communicating through notes and hand signals.

“During those three hours we are quiet, we watch The Passion as well”, states Jeanine. The family activity has become a yearly event in itself.

Since they live out of state, this is one of the few times we see each other a year. We are so blessed to be so close. Credit: Courtesy of Jeanine Ramirez — Since my fimily lives out of state, this is one of the few times we see each other a year. We are so blessed to be so close. Credit:Jeanine Ramirez/Achona Online

Senior McKenzie Miller also places special emphasis on the Good Friday: “During Passover we wash each other’s feet and have a traditional meal with matza bread, bitter herbs, and lamb.”

Followed by Saturday, a day of reflection, Academy students celebrate the day of Easter with a mass and brunch.

Senior Maddie Matesich and her mother make twice baked potatoes shaped like eggs on Sunday: “I love making these with my mom because it is a fun tradition that everyone loves to eat and I can continue making them when I have children one day!”