Easter Rituals - Tradition and Culture

What does Easter mean to you?  My cousin Diana asked me last Sunday. Six feet across her, my mother sat drinking her Asosi (Cerasee) tea. After years of begging for her chokola ayisyen (Haitian hot cocoa) recipe, she’d finally decided to give it to me, not of her own volition, but simply because she didn’t want to make it this time.

“Nothing,” I genuinely answered. “Easter means nothing to me.” Baffled, both stared at me as if I’d just committed a crime. Understandably, being raised in a Christian household and Easter weekend is of great cultural significance almost everywhere. It wasn’t until later that I realized why my answer could be such a revelation. Except for Christmas and Mother’s Day (even though I firmly believe doting on your mom should be a year-round ordeal), they are superhero women who do it all. Rightly so, they deserve a day to be revered internationally. Ever since I could remember, I can honestly say that I was that child who wasn’t particularly keen to observe most holidays. But I always looked forward to some of them because they were extended weekends or time off from school. And now an adult, my sentiment remains the same. I’m not sentimental about Easter. However, it means something entirely different to many people. And for my mother and my cousin, it means something pure and sound.

Most places celebrate Easter with egg hunts, bunnies, and candy. In Haiti, celebrating Easter means church services, traditional meals, rara bands (Rara bands are assemblies of people dressed in colorful clothes as they dance and sing in the streets from Good Friday to Easter Sunday), and colorful kites. Several traditions mark Haitian culture in the days leading up to Easter. No red meat is served during Lent (According to an old Haitian myth, not only is seafood good to eat, but red meat put on the table would turn into the blood). Flying kites, beautiful colored paper, plastic bags, or taps kites made by artisans are sold in parts of the country, while some do it themselves. Most importantly, the holiday is also an opportunity for some to serve others, as they would visit prisoners or those in the hospital.

© Elizabeth McAlister

Rara is prominent in honoring and celebrating part of the slave revolt that led to independence. When it started, slaves were prohibited from traveling or communicating between plantations. They could leave the plantation only to go to church for Easter.

It was the one time each year they could mix, even in chains. Several tribes used both speech and music to talk with each other. Beating drums were vital in ways of communication. It became a universal language. Stripped of that tool, the African slaves used the sound of their feet marching to church to make rhythm and communicate between chains.

I was listening to them, painting a picture reminding me of those beautiful traditions I inherited but never actually assessed due to my indifference to the many holidays’ culture and buying and consuming things. Finally, it occurred to me that I’ve failed to see why Easter is the most important to them all this time. It is not because of its religious inference or commercial and consumerist part. It’s because every one of these traditions has a story, sing of a tale of how a group of people found ways and avenues to keep their earnest beliefs and customs alive, transforming their own traditions and then matching the colonizers. It also made me realize that tradition and culture, though interchangeable, have a significant and different meanings.

A sad reality is that Easter is a bit thorny in Haiti this year as the last months, especially these past weeks, have become intensely dismaying.  Hearkening the hurt and optimism in my mother’s voice about traditions or what it symbolizes, in my lack of interest in the whole idea of Easter –I’ve failed to acknowledge and get the drift beyond the surface. What does Easter mean to me? Personally, it is still just another day. But traditionally, its practices beyond the surface are justified.

Until next time, xoxo. 

Sherdley S