Easter

For Christians the world over, the week preceding Easter, which commemorates the Passion, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the Resurrection, is one of the most observed of religious holidays. Easter follows Lent, the 40 days prior to Easter, not including Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. On Easter Sunday, Christians will flock to their respective churches in numbers far exceeding those normally seen during regular Sunday services and, according to local clergy, more mainstream churches are finding it difficult to fill with members on a regular basis.

Before the days of cable TV, movies on demand and VCRs, holidays were the opportunity for television networks to showcase "special" movies. These classics would be pulled out once a year and were seen as a special treat for many families who would gather around the television after their holiday meal to collectively enjoy these films. For example, I remember the whole family settling down at a relative’s home after Thanksgiving to watch "The Sound of Music." And there were few things that could quiet a room as quickly as the first strains of Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in "The Wizard of Oz."

Marshall Allen LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Easter weekend is upon us, and at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church, that means welcoming people who come to church only once or twice a year. Often, churches see an attendance spike during the Christmas and Easter holidays as people attend out of nostalgia, curiosity, or a nominal connection to the church. The increase may be because Easter is one of the lifeblood events of the Christian faith, said the Rev. Thomas Longenecker of Church of the Brethren in Glendale.

I'm not sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the way my family celebrated Easter wasn't exactly what the creator of the holiday had in mind. Sure, we went to church on Easter Sunday. Easter was one of the three days of the year my mother insisted we attend Mass, the other two being Christmas and Ash Wednesday. These were the Big Holy Days, and by my mother's way of looking at things, if we were scrupulous in observing Catholic tradition during them, our souls would be safe the remaining 362 days of the year.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE ? The students in Faith Abboud's kindergarten class at Fremont Elementary School couldn't take their eyes off of multi-colored buckets of toys and candy Glendale Police officers brought to them on Friday. But when Glendale Police Officer Julie Daum and Sgt. Mike Glassick started asking the students about safety, their attention was suddenly focused away from the buckets and onto the officers. Nearly 10 officers, cadets and employees from the Glendale Police Department's Cops for Kids program delivered Easter buckets and bags to the more than 600 students at Fremont Elementary School on Friday, as a way of building trusting relationships with them.

Next week, we celebrate Palm Sunday, five days later, Good Friday; and then Easter. As Christians, these are pinnacle events for us. They represent the means to our salvation, and the One who came to die, resurrect and conquer sin for us as fallen humans. Palm Sunday is the day we remember Jesus as Messiah and reflect on His triumphal entry. Palm branches are a declaration of victory (John 12:13, Holy Bible). On this day, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of a King riding on a donkey from the Old Testament (Zechariah 9:9)

DAVID SILVA Every Easter morning, at first light, my mother would wake up the kids and commence the difficult task of getting us ready for church. This required a lot of time and endless patience, neither of which my mother ever had. As long as she loomed over us, threatening and cajoling every step of the way, we would steadily dress ourselves to the point at which we could be seen in public. But the moment she turned her back, off we would run to do something entirely unrelated to the subject of salvation.

Today is Easter Sunday, the high point on the Christian calendar and a powerful symbol of rebirth, renewal and hope. I believe the year has two starting points. The first happens on Jan. 1, with the noise, kissing and champagne toasts. The second happens at Easter as the world shakes off winter, my beloved Padres have yet to drop to fifth in the National League West, and the promise of long warm days spreads before us. As it happens, my birthday also falls around Easter, so I may have a bit of a selfish reason for liking the holiday so much.

CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON "The reason Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross was so He could reach them around people like you and me." KEVIN A. MILLER "Easter is to our faith what water is to the ocean, what stone is to the mountain, what blood is to your body." RAYMOND I. LINDQUIST "God's testimony. When was the last time you witnessed it? A stroll through knee-high grass in a green meadow. An hour listening to sea gulls or looking at seashells on the beach.

Easter Sunday will be cloudy with possibly a few sprinkles, but forecasters have toned down their predictions of a rainy holiday. The storm system moving through Southern California is not carrying as much moisture as initially thought, National Weather Service meteorologist Kathy Hoxsie told the L.A. Times. The chance of rain on Sunday has been revised down to 20% from earlier forecasts of 30% to 50%. No rain is in the forecast for Monday. If it does rain, expect only a light drizzle.

Today is Easter Sunday, the high point on the Christian calendar and a powerful symbol of rebirth, renewal and hope. I believe the year has two starting points. The first happens on Jan. 1, with the noise, kissing and champagne toasts. The second happens at Easter as the world shakes off winter, my beloved Padres have yet to drop to fifth in the National League West, and the promise of long warm days spreads before us. As it happens, my birthday also falls around Easter, so I may have a bit of a selfish reason for liking the holiday so much.

La Crescenta Presbyterian Church will be rocking in a most unusual way Sunday — parishioners have pushed a 14-foot-high stone in front of their meeting house door and will roll it away after Easter service. The effort echoes the Bible story of Jesus’ resurrection, when visitors to his tomb rolled away a stone and were amazed to discover he had risen after his crucifixion, proving to believers he is the son of God. Church leaders decided moving a large stone in front of the door would be an apt way to end Good Friday service, and removing it would serve as a closing ceremony for the Easter Sunday service.

This was Arabo Beiki’s first Easter back home after the 23-year-old graduated from UC Santa Barbara last year. “It’s a nice homecoming,” he said. “There’s a traditional dinner at my grandparents house the night before. Then we wake up at 5 a.m. for a sunrise service . . . and then we come over here. I haven’t been able to do that in a few years.” Beiki sat in the back rows, and was one of about 150 worshipers who commemorated the resurrection Sunday in Brand Park.

I have always been amazed at the breadth of services that local churches organize in the days surrounding Holy Week and preceding Easter. Last year?s Holy Week and Easter Sunday services included choral passions and baptism by candlelight, presented by St. George?s Episcopal Church; a telling of the Passion story, presented by La Cañada United Methodist; a self-guided spiritual journey and Easter Sunday services on a hill behind Descanso Gardens presented by La Cañada Presbyterian; and six Masses at St. Bede?

Forest Lawn Glendale has three religious artworks on continuous display that are especially appropriate for Easter weekend. A stained-glass window replicating Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is revealed in a drama presentation every half-hour from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Great Mausoleum. Up the hill, at the Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection, an oil on canvas painting of “The Crucifixion” spans 195 feet across one wall and is 45 feet tall.

CENTRAL GLENDALE — The large furry rabbit walking between Central and Garfield avenues Wednesday was no hallucination, especially for drivers who failed to yield. For an hour and a half, Glendale Police Officer Tom Broadway donned the eye-catching costume during an enforcement sting aimed at educating motorists to yield for pedestrians walking along unmarked crosswalks. Police cited 24 motorists on suspicion of failing to yield to Broadway as he walked across Central.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Glendale police officers went forward with another pedestrian enforcement operation Thursday, a day after Councilman John Drayman took them to task for an earlier sting in which an officer dressed in a rabbit costume. Glendale Police Officer Tom Broadway dressed in a pair of shorts and T-shirt, a far cry from the furry Easter costume that he sported a day earlier. On Thursday, he walked back and forth at two crosswalks, one lighted and marked, the other not. All the while officers cited drivers who failed to yield, while giving them a rundown of pedestrian safety rules.

More than a dozen children gathered Sunday around the Rev. Anne Cohen at First Congregational Church-United Church of Christ for a quick lesson about the Easter egg. As Christians who believe Jesus Christ emerged from a tomb resurrected three days after being crucified, the egg too symbolizes the emergence of new life. It was a story of particular significance at a time when households throughout the region grapple with the worst recession in decades. In what is typically the most jubilant Christian holiday, congregants across the city Sunday came away with messages of hope that they would emerge from the financial hardships stronger and better.

When I was growing up, the tradition of dyeing eggs for Easter and breaking them at the churchyard or the school playground seemed a uniquely Armenian one. That was easy, as I spent some of my early teenage years in a predominantly Muslim country. Any traditions that had to do with Christianity were synonymous to being Armenian. Easter was one of my favorite holidays as a child. It was a symbol of spring and it brought hope for being released from the grueling workload of private school.