Anne DeMarco / Special to The Citizen
JORDAN - At 8:56 a.m. they began to arrive, carrying baskets, buckets and bags.
There was a calm in the air. The children, some just old enough to walk in their winter coats, surveyed the pink, yellow and purple plastic Easter eggs dotted across the green grass on a cool Saturday morning.
A moment later the Easter Bunny arrived, posing for pictures and handing out foil covered candies but still, that calm remained.
Until the clock hit 9 a.m.
That's when the bunny chose to walk out into the center of that field of plenty next to Saint Patrick's Church and ceremoniously raise his right paw.
A laugh, then screams punctuated the bright morning like exclamation marks as the line of children turned into pinwheels, scrambling for the candy filled eggs, which disappeared, one by one. The annual egg hunt in Jordan had begun.
“There's one - can I get it? One up in the tree!” 4-year-old Jordan resident Marie Napolitano said, pointing to a tree over near the section marked off for the older children.
Sure enough, she had spotted one up in a crevice no one else had seen.
“Sure, I'll lift you up,” said her grandfather, Don Napolitano, also of Jordan. Marie had quietly taken two from a windowsill just before that.
After the egg hunt, the fifth annual for the church, everyone was invited inside for a breakfast of New Hope Mills pancakes and sausages.
Parishioner Donna La Prairie said the event, which included a bake sale of such goodies as tri-berry pie, peanut butter cookies and cupcakes, all baked by the Altar and Rosary Society, was more just for fun for the children.
But the extra funds raised come in handy, too.
“It helps pay for the Holy Water founts, to refurbish the chapel, for altar clothes; it all goes into the general fund,” he said.
“We vote it out, and out it goes,” she said, helping parishioner Carol Smart lay out the eggs earlier. “The older kids, we let them go around the building. There's a lot of nooks and crannies to hide them in there,” Smart said, while members of the Confirmation class helped do just that.
“One year we put them in snow banks. It all depends how early Easter comes in the year.”
Meanwhile, Cindy Collins, president of the Altar and Rosary Society, was mixing the bags of pancake mix, breaking eggs into the bowls and buttering the grills. She usually serves about 75 guests each year.
“Easter is very important to us,” she said.
“It's what our religion is all about. It's what our life is all about.”
Outside, Smart was tickled to have the last egg set in place, to be waiting for the fun to begin.
“It's all over in five minutes, you know,” she said with a smile, gathering her arms together in the cold, while she walked through the polka-dotted field.
She was right.
There was a calm in the air. The children, some just old enough to walk in their winter coats, surveyed the pink, yellow and purple plastic Easter eggs dotted across the green grass on a cool Saturday morning.
A moment later the Easter Bunny arrived, posing for pictures and handing out foil covered candies but still, that calm remained.
Until the clock hit 9 a.m.
That's when the bunny chose to walk out into the center of that field of plenty next to Saint Patrick's Church and ceremoniously raise his right paw.
A laugh, then screams punctuated the bright morning like exclamation marks as the line of children turned into pinwheels, scrambling for the candy filled eggs, which disappeared, one by one. The annual egg hunt in Jordan had begun.
“There's one - can I get it? One up in the tree!” 4-year-old Jordan resident Marie Napolitano said, pointing to a tree over near the section marked off for the older children.
Sure enough, she had spotted one up in a crevice no one else had seen.
“Sure, I'll lift you up,” said her grandfather, Don Napolitano, also of Jordan. Marie had quietly taken two from a windowsill just before that.
After the egg hunt, the fifth annual for the church, everyone was invited inside for a breakfast of New Hope Mills pancakes and sausages.
Parishioner Donna La Prairie said the event, which included a bake sale of such goodies as tri-berry pie, peanut butter cookies and cupcakes, all baked by the Altar and Rosary Society, was more just for fun for the children.
But the extra funds raised come in handy, too.
“It helps pay for the Holy Water founts, to refurbish the chapel, for altar clothes; it all goes into the general fund,” he said.
“We vote it out, and out it goes,” she said, helping parishioner Carol Smart lay out the eggs earlier. “The older kids, we let them go around the building. There's a lot of nooks and crannies to hide them in there,” Smart said, while members of the Confirmation class helped do just that.
“One year we put them in snow banks. It all depends how early Easter comes in the year.”
Meanwhile, Cindy Collins, president of the Altar and Rosary Society, was mixing the bags of pancake mix, breaking eggs into the bowls and buttering the grills. She usually serves about 75 guests each year.
“Easter is very important to us,” she said.
“It's what our religion is all about. It's what our life is all about.”
Outside, Smart was tickled to have the last egg set in place, to be waiting for the fun to begin.
“It's all over in five minutes, you know,” she said with a smile, gathering her arms together in the cold, while she walked through the polka-dotted field.
She was right.
The Citizens' Say
There are No comments posted.