Week 36: EASTER in Argentina!!!

Happy Easter!!  Felices Pascuas!! 

It was fun being apart of Easter in Argentina.  The Easter holiday in the Argentine Lutheran Church is celebrated pretty much the same as in the US.  We celebrated Semana Santa (Holy Week) with a service every night.  Jueves Santo (Maundy Thursday) we striped the altar and left the service in silence.  Viernes Santo (Good Friday) our pastor presented an interesting powerpoint relating Good Friday to Latin American Struggles (and to liberation theology).

Pastor Angel presenting his power point

The alter draped in black

On Sabado Santo (Saturday before Easter Sunday) we had a program for the children all day.  I was the head of arts and crafts and we made rainbow crosses that my parents had brought as gifts from my home congregation.  The kids loved the project and were really excited to bring them home.  I worked with the older kids and the preschool-2nd grade kids got to make homemade chocolate bonbons to eat and to bring home.  All ages also got to paint eggs and work on little egg baskets for the Easter Sunday breakfast.    

One of the girls from church working on her cross

Other children working carefully on their rainbow crosses

 We also had a snack together before the kids left.  We ate ham sandwiches, sweet popcorn, and rosca de Pascua (special Easter bread).  We all had a good time chatting and snacking.  After the projects where finished we started setting up of the Easter Sunday breakfast.
 

Cristina with the yummy sweet popcorn she made.  It is really tasty!

Close up of the eggs that were painted by the children

The little egg holders that the kids made as table decorations for the Easter breakfast

The tables all set and ready the night before Easter Sunday

Elsa (woman from church) and Chabela (pastor's wife) cutting the rosca de pascua bread for the Easter Sunday breakfast.  The rosca de pascua is a traditional bread eaten on Easter that is a sweet bread painted with eggs and them drizzled with sweets such as chocolate or frosting. 

Easter Sunday Breakfast

On Easter Sunday at 10am we had our special Easter breakfast!  It was a great turnout...I do not think I have seen so many people in church ever.  We enjoyed tea, coffee, rosca de pascua, cookies, cheese bread, lemon bread, and Birthday cakes!  The kids got to have chocolate milk and soda...lucky I was sitting at the kids tables and got to drink a bit of chocolate milk myself :)  

Singing Happy Birthday to some of this month's Birthday kids

After breakfast at 11am we all headed into the chapel for Easter Sunday service.  There were so many people that we had to bring in extra seats!

The lovely Easter altar with flowers from the church garden

Pastor Angel reading the Easter Sunday gospel

After the service and I got to hand out chocolate Easter eggs to all the kids.  Then after helping clean up the breakfast dishes and tables I headed over to Kate (my country coordinator), David and family's house for Easter lunch.  The are from the USA and are missionaries with the ELCA.  David grilled meat outside over a fire on a grill (Argentine custom known as an asado) and we enjoyed stake that almost melted in your mouth.  Argentine meat is really tasty...no wonder it is known all over the world for being so yummy!  

Kate had recently been in the United States for her job and brought back funfetti cake for us to bake and Easter candy for the kids!  They were nice enough to share with me...man I forgot how good sweet tarts taste!  Before lunch I got to color eggs with Matt and Emily.  After lunch we went over to a local plaza and played American football.  The park was packed but I am pretty sure we were the only people there playing American football :)  It was fun spending time with Kate and her family for Easter...it made the holiday seem more homey. 

(order L to R) Matt, me and Emily painting Easter eggs

Our splendid colorful eggs :)