Happy Easter Fools Day?
No pranks here because I am not a fan of April Fool’s Day.
But I was curious how churches would handle Easter falling on April Fool’s Day. Are church leaders joking around during the sermon or using the convergence to talk about how we should treat each other better?
I’ve never been to church for Easter — only random services on non-holidays — so I’m not sure how somber the sermon usually is on a non-April-Fool’s-Day Easter. I’m assuming it usually focuses on rebirth and spring and family building because our spring holiday — Pesach — has themes of rebirth, spring, and family building.
The last time Easter fell on April Fool’s Day was 1956. The next time it will fall will be 2029.
So if you went to services, what did your church do today?
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It would be my guess that the fact that it’s April a fools day would not be addressed in the Catholic Church service. The service I went to this morning focused solely on Jesus rising and what that means for us, and what we are to do about it. The message was one of hope. I don’t think I have ever heard a church sermon (on Easter, especially) talk about family building.
I attended mass at the Catholic Hospital I work for in the inner city. A homeless man was in the back row. I moved from my spot to wish Peace to this man, and after mass was over asked him if he needed breakfast. We walked to the cafeteria together so he could have a hot meal.
Easter services are usually themes of hope, rebirth, and focus on the rising of Jesus. In 40 years of services, I’ve not heard one about family building. I doubt that there will be any message of not pranking others today. Today will be focused on Easter and it’s meaning for Christians.
My priest talked about being hopeful and having faith, as well as the importance of gathering with the people who love you, whether it be family or friends. It was a great homily and I was happy when I saw that our service of “overflow” people who didn’t arrive 30 minutes early to save seats got my favorite priest. We will sit in the main church next week when it’s far more empty so the location didn’t matter to us – it was nice to hear a positive, uplifting message.
Also #notafan of this day.
No jokes at our Catholic church, except a gentle little one aimed at the hard-working choir, and no reference to April Fools Day at all. Likewise, nothing about family building. (The focus was mostly on the recent 75th anniversary of the parish, looking at where we’ve been and where we want to be headed.) I went last night, to the Easter Vigil, which is kind of the “mother of all Masses” – two and a half hours long, lots of Scripture readings, and that’s when the new converts get baptized. Since I volunteer with the “so you wanna become a Catholic” program, as an outlet for those maternal energies, this Saturday night before Easter is the closest this childless-not-by-choice woman gets to a Proud Mama feeling.
We had palmsunday on qpril fools a couple of years ago. The children always do a singing procession through church then and they had decided to sing the wrong song from a different feast. So exited about fooling us.
I go to church on saturday night for easter so no april fools.