Easter Sunday

Today as I was out doing my last minute end of the holiday shopping I saw several women wearing great Easter hats and several little girls wearing beautiful frock coats.  Winter in New York usually ends before Easter, so wearing beautiful straw hats and pastel spring coats makes perfect sense. 

I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts. Spring usually needs an additional three weeks before it arrives.

 For several years my sisters and I took Sunday morning piano lessons from the patient Mrs. Zack.  Mrs. Zack lived near the top of Mount Wollaston in the Merrymount section of Quincy.  Her house was next to an undeveloped tract of land. I have vivid memories of an Easter morning with a full on blizzard. As my sisters had their turns having their lessons with Mrs. Zack I watched family after family all decked out in their Easter best walking to church.  It was a vision seeing all of those girls in their white Easter mary-janes, lacy socks, pastel spring coats and straw hats all walking through the blizzard to church.

At that moment it seemed to be both supremely silly to wear those light weight clothes on such a snowy day but also a profound declaration of faith.

I usually got a new fancy outfit before the high holidays and one before Passover. Given the reality of weather in Quincy, I usually wore the  wintry Rosh ha Shanah outfit for Passover and the springy Passover outfit for Rosh haShanah.

Happy end of Passover and a Happy Easter.