Happy Easter 2026 from Lifeforce198

Good evening, 

Easter Saturday 2026. 

Just got home from a meeting to have a break before going out to the Easter Vigil. I'd been thinking about my poem 'Monaleen Church' and as it isn't in for a competition, I reposted it on Castletroy words: 

https://castletroywords.blogspot.com/2026/04/easter-memories-repost-of-monaleen.html

I should use URL shorteners, I know. 

So, Easter 2026, a pleasant enough time, a bit like last Christmas.

I went to the Last Supper service. Then yesterday I took part in 'The Big Clean Up' which is Limerick's Unique festival of spring cleaning the town and socialising. We had good celebrations of goodies and scones and tea and more goodies, I made it home with a load of snaffled goodies in my bag. I got part of the Stations of the Cross on the way home, watched the whole of it online, and I went to the Lord's Passion service at the local church.

Easter goodies at the Big Cleanup. 

I have been very busy despite it being a holiday, major spring clean of my own things, and also everything in the wash including bed sheets. Also I've been revising, doing important paperwork and much more. 

Now I'm heading for the Easter Vigil, and thinking the weather is the same as last Easter, which was a week earlier than this one.  

Easter Sunday 2026.

The Easter Vigil was good. I went to the local church again for that. I'd come back from a meeting and I'd walked alongside the Shannon to and from the meeting, with the storm blowing the Shannon back in big waves, awesome, and I got home for a quick break, thinking Easter is a very busy time, not much rest. I enjoyed the Easter Vigil, we did have a fire, but it was a little thing, hardly visible, not like the blazing brazier at Monaleen Church. I did consider going to Monaleen church but I've been so busy, so tired, I thought I'd simply be too tired to get home so late at night. I don't tend to be out late, and coming home just after 10 last night was late enough for me.

The Shannon going a bit wild.

This morning I woke peaceful with no alarms going off. The sun was shining and it was quiet. I enjoyed a lazy start. I watched my old favourite film 'LEnfant de Noel' just to prove I can get the seasons confused. I made up dinner tubs for the week, spaghetti and tomato and sauce, and I got on with studying and paperwork, I realised I didn't really want to go over for Easter Mass at the local church so I watched the Easter Mass at my church online. Sometimes I need to slow down.

The sunshine turned to heavy showers and strong winds, but by 1 pm it was okay to bike down to get my Easter dinner, and what a dinner it was! Yummy. Turkey with mash and gravy and loads of veg, I always ask for more veg as he does really tasty veg. There was Eaton Mess for dessert, delicious, and I got the Easter Egg I wanted. I saw the lads getting Kitkat eggs and I thought 'Oh no' because Kitkat isn't my favourite. But I got a white chocolate buttons egg, I was delighted. Ah it was lovely. Biking back along the Shannon, town has been crazy because two hurling matches were back to back at TUS Gaelic Grounds and the second one was Limerick, so the traffic was manic. 

I came home, tired, full of good food, enjoyed some Easter chocolate, and the sun is out again now, although it's windy and the clouds keep moving through. Today and tomorrow are just study and paperwork and final touches to the spring clean, maybe I'll relax and rest a little.

The box is empty, the egg has risen.

On a final note, as well as enjoying Easter, I remember Passover. Passover 1st fell immediately before Maundy Thursday, on the Wednesday.

It's a strange one. My dad was a Messianic Jew, and I guess I am too. He was very orthodox about it though, he used to say 'You don't 'celebrate Passover' or say 'Happy Passover', you remember Passover, it's a solemn feast. We didn't celebrate Easter at home but we acknowledged Christ Crucified for our sins and Christ Risen.

One of my memories of my father was him singing this, his hands in the air, joyful. It's still one of my favourites: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbBOOmkMLmI

My circumstances mean I have no oven, and grilling or frying lamb for Passover, is difficult even if I could afford it, so I asked my old friend Michael, AKA God, if I could have chicken for Passover. God answered by putting diced lamb in the reduced section at the supermarket and ensuring I had time and peace to grill it. So I had my Passover meal with lamb and bitter herbs. For so many years I couldn't read the story of Exodus without crying because I would always hear my dad's voice telling the story, and this year I found a nice neutral animated film, no extra dramas like some church films, it told the whole story in a calm way. although I told the film off every time there was a short cut that missed a detail - very Jewish of me. 

So there we have it, festivals and holidays. Beautiful. Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!