Hiya BetterMost friends.
Today will be a quiet day at my house, as my niece has to work today, so we had Easter celebration yesterday.
As typical in an Italian family, there is always something that occurs that takes the spotlight from the holiday and puts it somewhere else....someone comes out....a family fued.....someone gets sick.....the evil eye gets used (
) and our little celebration had our "something" as well, as my niece confirmed that she is pregnant.
There are some mixed emotions about this. She's young (early 20s) and she and her boyfriend don't have any intentions of getting married. They both work at a supermarket part-time, and living together rent-free in a property owned by his parents. They definitely dont' make enough money on their own for a baby, so it's been decided that they will move in in my brother and sister-in-law for help.
I am happy for mom & dad, who missed being 'grandparents'.....my brother married my sister-in-law when my niece was 13, so we never knew her as a baby. I don't plan to adopt and my other brother is single and plans to stay that way. Now, they get to skip right to being great-grandparents! I get to be a great-uncle!
Oh, btw, anyone who is friends with me on Facebook, DO NOT mention this on my page. LOL As far as I know, my niece hasn't made any announcements yet, and since we share family as mutual friends, I don't want anyone finding out about this until she has the opportunity to announce it herself.
How come you eat fish on Good Friday?
When I was a kid, you were supposed to fast on Good Friday (also on Ash Wednesday), and eat fish on the Fridays during Lent. I guess the fasting rules have been loosened.
Here's an interesting article on the subject:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/05/150061991/lust-lies-and-empire-the-fishy-tale-behind-eating-fish-on-friday
Paul, thanks for the link, it was very interesting reading. I had also heard the "pope and the fishing market" story, and wondered if a pope would actually have that type of influence. I may be wrong, but I believe there are Catholics who won't eat meat on any Fridays, whehter it's Lent or not.
As an Anglican (Episcopalian) I do not eat meat on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday. It use to be that fish was cheaper and money could be given to the poor but last Friday I had smoked salmon for dinner which was not cheaper. It just helps to remember how special these days are. I absolutely refuse to have hot cross buns before Good Friday. Even when still working and they were offered the day before I would not touch them. I buy half a dozen each year and have 2 for breakfast then 2 for morning tea (the final 2 on Saturday morning) . I then went to the the 3 hour service in the cathedral which lasted from 12 to 3 so sort of fasted from 11 to nearly 4 when I had a banana 
then the smoked salmon for dinner. In NZ all shops and businesses are closed except petrol stations, restaurants and small family corner stores called dairies. In Dunedin there is no public transport but a heritage bus group run a few vintage buses on 2 routes across the city.
I have now risen at 5am on Easter Day and will be in church at 6 for the Easter Vigil. That will be followed by breakfast in the church hall then Eucharist. It will be such a different Eucharist to Thursday night which was very solemn and at the end we stripped the church of all the ornaments then left without talking. Some stayed another hour praying in the darkened church. In my church in Sydney they had rosters to pray in the church throughout the night. To me Easter is far more important than Christmas.
Hello Brian, I remember going to Catholic school, and the nuns also told us that Easter was more important than Christmas, as Easter was when Jesus rose from the dead, and proved he was the son of God.
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