Easter Weekend in Sardinia

Easter in England in recent years has been a relatively quiet time for me. Indeed, with four days off from work I often used to feel at a bit of a loose end. This year was a complete contrast as I spent my first Easter in Sardinia and we headed down to Lotzorai on Easter Saturday to join other assembled member of the extended Selenu family in the holiday home that they share there. In all, there were fifteen of us although we all did our own thing much of the time, except at meal times which are always a time for sharing.

I didn't know quite where we were going on the morning of Easter Sunday when Maria Rita took me out for a short walk but we ended up at the local church, Sant'Elena Imperatrice where a traditional Easter procession through the town was about to begin. Maria Rita's brother Raimondo and his wife Gianfranca were already there and shortly afterwards we saw Patrizia, Maria Rita's sister and her husband Gianfranco. I have to confess to having been completely ignorant of the local traditions and it was explained to me that the men and women would be walking seperately and would meet up at another point of the town before proceeding back to the church all together. Soon the procession began with church dignitaries at the head of each file with the women carrying a model image of Mary, the mother of Christ, and the men carrying a model image of Jesus. Along with Raimondo I joined the men. I felt a bit strange walking along, hearing the Lord's prayer recited aloud in Italian as we walked, as I'm not a Catholic and would hesitate to call myself a Christian in the conventionally understood meaning of the word. Philosophically, I'm probably more in sympathy  with Buddhist or Taoist views of the world. However, despite its shortcomings, I have to admit to having a certain amount of respect for Catholism even if I find papal rulings on certain contemporary issues rather strange and completely lacking in pragmatism. The devil is in the detail rather than the spirit. What I was witnessing here had a genuine innocence that was so far removed from the charge of the British high priest of atheism, Professor Richard Dawkins, (that giving a child a religious upbringing is akin to child abuse), that it was hard not to laugh at the appalling arrogance of Dawkins' "towering intellect". Anyway, I digress. The two processions met and joined together for the short walk back to the church where a service took place. We didn't go in for the service. However, it was interesting to hear the other members of the family talk about how in small communities like this it was the church which held the community together and that it has an ever more difficult job today with the constant media scrutiny that it comes under. And the media is more interested in the perverse exploits of a few renegade priests than celebrating anything positive and worthwhile that religious communities do.

Back at the holiday home, there was a huge family feast early in the afternoon, with everyone in attendance, and this really was a time for joy and celebration. There was so much fantastic food that it was hard to stop eating but fortunately for me my stomach gave me the warning signs about when it was the right time to stop! It really was a splendid family get-together and we were lucky to enjoy some fine weather throughout the weekend before we returned to Nuoro late afternoon on Easter Monday.

Below, family feast Easter Sunday