Entry for 6 April 2007:
Over the past week, we have been inundated by religious rituals and music on the radio and in church, including at least three different musical versions of the Passion/ Crucifixion story, including a couple of Bach Passions (missed the Arvo Part, unfortunately), and finally tonight Stainer’s The Crucifixion (1887), a couple of Tenebraes (music for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services emphasizing darkness and the intense emotional aspects of this part of the Christian narrative), lots of Bach cantatas (he was Composer of the week on BBC Radio 3), and various hymns and readings. By the end of tonight’s Good Friday concert of the Stainer, we had completely overdosed on it all.
This doesn’t happen in America, where Easter feels mostly like a secular holiday with easter eggs/baskets/candy/bunnies/dresses, and you have to go out of your way to hear Easter music. Even National Public Radio doesn’t play that much of it, and it turns to get interleavened with Passover material. Secular universities don’t close for Good Friday, and Easter Monday is not a general holiday So you have to go out of your way to obtain a full-immersion Easter Experience.
We also walked/run for miles and miles today. I ran 8 or 9 miles again, along the canal (and around Port Dundas and past the huge Asian market on Saracen Road, then down the River Kelvin to the Transportation Museum). We walked to and from the place that was fixing our car; to and from one of the places Mikio was interested in, and to church tonight for the concert. Creating a new family rule, we decided that after walking 5 miles in one day it was OK to take a taxi home.
Bach was on the radio again (or still). Off he went, leaving blessed silence.
I think we’re ready for Easter…
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