It's 9:33 pm on a Tuesday. I am spending another week with my Mom, who is also known as The Mother. By me, anyway. I'm one of two of her seven children who are in their sixties. Well, I'm only sixty, just barely in my sixties - my sister, Mo, is eleven months older than I so she's actually in her sixties. I've been calling my Mom "The Mother" since I was about twenty, so - for a long time. She was born in 1926 on Easter Sunday. Hmm. Those two words have always struck me as belonging in the files of The Redundancy Department of Redundancy, or it's sister association, The Department of Redundancy Department, since Easter is always on a Sunday. Ergo, no one ever has to say Easter Sunday. It's understood.
The reason Easter is a move-able feast, is because it always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, the season of new beginnings and renewal. In older days, people looked to the moon and the sun and stars for guidance. When primitive people were just beginning to understand that they were different from the other animals, because of the gift of thought and language, the sun and the moon, and the movements of the stars ruled their days. Until a real calendar was invented, those things were their guides. As more time goes by, people are astonished again at what those "primitive" people were able to accomplish using sheer sweat and muscle. Every time scientists find out how some ancient wonder was built and attempt to do it themselves and succeed, they find that they can't do it the same way. First, it's because they don't have years to finish it, and second, they just don't have enough people. It took an incredible amount of man-hours and literally, years to have built some of the things our ancestors built using what they had.
But, I've rambled off the subject, as usual. I was talking about Easter and the fact that my Mother was born on Easter on April 4th in 1926. Easter fell on April 4th only one other time since then - in 1999. There was so much time between 1926 and 1999 that my Mom always wondered when Easter would be on her birthday again, if ever. With the parameters set: It has to be on a Sunday and it has to be in the beginning of spring, and that first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox - there's a finite amount of days on which Easter can be.
The next time Easter was on April 4th was in 1999. My Mom always wondered why Easter hardly ever fell on her birthday. The thing is - she didn't only bring it up on Easter or on her birthday. She could see a picture of a bunny and segue over to the subject of the dearth of times Easter had been on her birthday.
A birthday cake would bring the subject to mind. Last year, when the conversation around the Easter dinner came around reached the reason for Easter occurring when it does, I left the table, repaired to the computer and looked up "Easter dates." When I came back to the table I stunned The Mother with the news that the very nice time the bunny's big day would be on April 4th would be ... twenty-ten. 2010. Next year (then) this year, now.
I have always gone to my Mom's for Easter. Since my sons were little boys, Bill and I have celebrated the dinner at wherever she was. After she married my step-Dad, Jerry, my (step)-brother, Gerry and his wife and children have joined us many times. However, this year I wanted to see if I could entice all my brothers and sisters (except for Ginny, who lives in the UK) to join in celebrating our Mother's 84th birthday. My sister, Susan, brought up the idea separately at my brother Chris's house when many of my siblings were there and we got a very nice response. Since I have so much time on my hands, I took on the job of getting us all together and with the help of my darling husband and with input from my Mom, got it done! Every one of us will be there celebrating our Mother's birthday on Easter morning.
I couldn't be happier.
I'm just sayin'
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