Happy Easter!

Yeah, Easter is actually tomorrow, but I don't think I'll have time tomorrow, so here it goes.

I don't think we really have any religious traditions when it comes to Easter in the church. We have Easter lessons for the primary classes, and there are talks on Easter in sacrament meeting, but that's about it. Actually, our stake conference is tomorrow, and general conference was last week, so we'll probably postpone our Easter lessons until next week.

I read a few blog posts this week, one about the Jewish seder (and how the symbolism points to Christ, but it does talk about the ceremony and some of the meaning behind it) and one on a Catholic Easter Mass (which for the life of me, I can't find). I say that because I have experienced both ceremonies.

When I was a kid, maybe about ten or so, my sister and I had a friend a year or so older than I was, whose family was Jewish. We had them over on Passover and they shared the seder ceremony with us. There's a part near the end where a door is opened to let the spirit of Elijah enter the house. Well, I don't know if Elijah made it in or not, but our cat did. ^_^ A friend of mine was baptized into the Catholic church when she was about 19 or so, and I was able to go to the mass for that. The symbolism there is neat as well.

I think it's neat to experience something in a church other than your own, and to feel the same spirit there that you'd feel in your own church.

...

I've been writing this post on and off for a few hours today, and during one of my off times, I got to thinking about how good I've felt when reading about some of these traditions and ceremonies. Now I'm thinking about how neat it might be to include some of these traditions in my own life. I'm not talking about going all out, even though it'd be cool to do so, but to add in bits and pieces into my own worship of God, you know what I mean? The 13th Article of Faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." President Hinckley also talked about recognizing the truths in other religions, and I know of people who are LDS but also use the truths they see in other religions and incorporate them into their own lives. I don't quite know where I'd start, but it is something to think about.

Anyway, whatever spring celebration you ascribe to, have a good one!