Easter in Jordan

Yesterday was Easter here in Jordan. Since Easter occurred a month ago at home, this may surprise a lot of people who read this, but we celebrate Easter here according to the Orthodox calendar, which is different from the western calendar. Since Sunday is the first day of the work week here, Easter Sunday is, of course, different from Easter Sunday at home. Christians may have the day off--although not necessarily--but everyone else is working, or does whatever else they do on a regular day of the week. Also, at the most the population of Jordan is around 5 percent Christian, so very few people were actually celebrating the holiday.

Still, there were signs that Easter was being celebrated here. At 11 o'clock the night before we could hear the bells from a church ringing in the distance, calling worshippers to a pre-Easter, midnight service. As I sat in the windowsill, taking in the cool night air and enjoying the absence of almost any other sound, it was a simple, beautiful reminder of the coming of the day. Also, it is traditional here for Christians to visit their friends and family on Sunday after the Easter service and for one or two days afterwards, like Muslims do during their two Eids. We have several Christian families on our street, and as a result on Sunday we saw a steady stream of people outside our apartment making the rounds in their best clothes. At times we could hear them laughing or just talking loudly--cheerful sounds that we don't always hear on our street. This helped--along with the church bells--in a small way to give the day a festive, holiday atmosphere, at least in the area around our apartment.

Happy Easter From Jordan!