Easter in the "Islands"
My two older sisters and I spent this past Easter weekend together in Hilton Head Island (HHI). It was a mini-family reunion of sorts: my husband and two kids came, so did one nephew and one brother-in-law. We gathered to celebrate, primarily, my husband's 60th birthday, and mostly, to be together as a family. Life has gotten complicated, you see. We were born and raised in a small town in a small island in the Philippines. Then we all grew up and went to college in the city of Manila. Then we all decided to immigrate to the US. We all used to live in New Jersey, and spent many Easters indulging our kids in the American tradition of Easter-egg-hunting in each other's suburban backyards. This in itself was a huge change from how we, as children spent Easter in the Philippines. Our mother always made sure we had new dresses and new shoes for Easter (and Christmas, and New Year). We were brought up in the Catholic tradition, and the way we observed religious tradition in the Philippines, you could very well be in Rome -or -Spain. Holy Week memories were (and still is) marked with church attendance in one's Sunday best; "processions" - where statues of saints, also dressed in their fineries are paraded about in carousels. There was rigor, and precision around the entire religious observation. And we had big family dinners on Easter, where we'd have my father's "nilaga" (beef stew) and, some fine catch of the day -- fish from the lake, crabs and shrimp.
In New Jersey, we adopted to the "American" tradition: Easter egg-hunts and baskets, hats, a ham dinner, watching the "Easter parade" on Fifth Ave. in New York. As the kids grew and "spring breaks" coincided with Easter weeks, we discovered Hilton Head Island, and spent many a happy Easter/Spring break as an extended family in HHI. The kids played and biked on the beach, the sisters walked, chatted and shopped, the men just followed us around.
The kids have now grown, and we find ourselves living in three states: my middle sister stayed in NJ, my oldest sister now lives in San Francisco, I moved to Virginia, my nephew is in Phillly, another nephew is also in California and my son is in Chicago. As I said earlier, life has gotten complicated.
But, alas, there's HHI. I have a small condo there now, and this past weekend, we, all 8 of us packed into this 2 BR condo. Two slept in air mattresses, we slept on the living room futton. We considered renting another condo, but decided -- what fun would that be? We cooked big breakfasts, ate out, drank good scotch and wine, shopped, walked on the beach, and one night stayed up till 2 in the morning-- talking, laughing, reminiscing. We allowed and forgave ourselves for not attending all the Catholic church religious ceremonies, but made it a point to dress up and attend Easter services.
Yes, it is a long way from the Easters that we celebrated in that small town in that little island in the Philippines, or even those we celebrated with pomp and circumstance in New Jersey. There wasn't much rigor nor precision in anything we did this weekend. And yet, in many ways, it was reminiscent of happy days gone by. Of tolerance, love and caring and acceptance for each other, made even more special from knowing that these precious moments of being together as a family are now rare and not easy to come by.
