Holy Holy Week

As a child growing up in a religiously ambidextrous family I made lots of arbitrary rules on how to attend Christian religious gatherings, especially Mass. Since arriving in Dominica my copious church experiences have made my rules come flooding back to me:

Erin’s Guide to attending Mass at a Roman Catholic Church circa 1993

Okay	Sacrilegious
Walking into a Catholic Church	Blessing one’s self with Holy Water
Saying the “Our Father”	Kneeling when entering pews
Saying prayers up until the moment when they mention “Jesus, Saviour, Christ, or Son of God”	Making the sign of the cross or the other sign the Catholics do a lot
Standing up	Kneeling while praying
Giving the Sign of Peace	Saying prayers that you know talk about Jesus
	Taking communion
	Saying prayers about the Virgin Mary
	Anything that involves lining up in the aisle and walking to the front of church

Over the past 18 years this system has worked impeccably; I’ve never been yelled at by anyone in church. I had to examine it this holy week though. I was told by some of the children that not blessing myself with holy water implies that I am a Soo Coo Yah, a terrifying witch/vampire that flies in the night and is disgusting looking and kills people. Soo Coo Yahs melt when holy water is thrown on them and not using holy water demonstrates the great possibility of being a Soo Coo Yah. As I am quite sure being labeled a Soo Coo Yah will greatly impair my ability to work with people I set out to discover whether blessing myself with holy water is as morally compromising as my 8-year-old self imagined. After conducting extensive research on the differences between Sacraments and Sacramentals I have created an updated Guide that will keep me from being labeled a Soo Coo Yah.

Erin’s Guide to attending Mass at a Dominican Roman Catholic Church (2011)

Okay	Sacrilegious
Everything else	Taking Communion

I had a field day this Holy Week! I blessed myself with holy water, kneeled, and tried out making the sign of the cross!

I put on my game face for Holy Week. Go big or go home, wi*? I pre-gamed Holy Week by helping out at the National Catholic Youth Rally on Friday and Saturday (4/15-16). I joined the women of the church in cutting hundreds of onions (I’m not quite allowed to do actual cooking here yet), cleaning the kitchen, and serving over 900 youth food at the Rally on Saturday. Most of you will be pleased to know that beer is served at the Catholic Youth Rally.

Palm Sunday officially began Holy Week! I walked with my knife, not an awesome cutlass, and cut my own palm to bring to the processional, which began at 7 am on the Savannah (the playing field about halfway up the hill) and continued down through the village praising Jesus loudly. The mass was a cool 3+ hours and included reading the entire Easter story.

Thursday night was my next Holy Week experience with a Holy Thursday mass at 7:30 pm. The priest called up 12 men from the community and washed their feet in front of the church. At the end of mass we enjoyed an hour in the rectory silently worshiping Jesus.

I woke up at 4 am on Friday to prepare for the Stations of the Cross. I packed a small bag with water, crackers, my EpiPen, a knife, sunscreen and bug spray, you never know what might happen during Stations of the Cross. We met at the Church minutes before 5 am and began our journey in the dark. We were to walk from the bottom of the hill up approximately 2,500 feet to the top of the community waking everyone on our path. The Stations were small shrines (with candles, pictures of Jesus, flowers) set up outside people’s homes. From Station to Station we sang hymns, said “Our Father’s”, “Glory be to the Father”, and “Hail Mary’s”. It was a little like the Catholic, non-costumed, non-alcoholic, version of Bay to Breakers. It took us a good 2.5 hours to make it up to the top and I now officially know how to pray the Rosary. At the final station Father delivered a short homily and we then went through a series of Litanies (i.e. really repetitive prayers) for about 45 minutes. One of my favorite parts came on our way home, my friend who is in her mid 50’s who I was attending with stopped at people’s houses (it was still just after 8 am) and hollered at them until they came outside and then berated them for not going through the Stations of the Cross. I always like sport smack talk but religious smack talk is WAY better.

After I took a brief rest I got up for Good Friday mass. Apparently I was supposed to have fasted all day and received a brief reprimanding when I arrived eating a big PB&J sandwich. I quickly redeemed myself by blessing myself with holy water and kneeling as I went into the pew. I did not have my handy manual for attending Good Friday mass with me and spent several minutes debating whether the Veneration of the Cross (kneeling down and kissing the cross) was acceptable. I decided against it.

My penultimate Holy Week experience was our 3.5 hour Easter Vigil on Saturday night. The majority of the church took several short “rests” during the mass, including the lady next to me who slept through the entirety of Jesus rising from the dead. I guess she’ll have to wait for next year to find out what happened.

My final Easter celebration was the Baptist Easter Rally at my host mom’s church. It was very much what you would assume a Baptist Easter Rally at a rural church in Dominica to look like.

Easter finally finished up with a huge party down by the Bay all night on Sunday and all day on Monday. (I bartended on Sunday night and look forward to telling you about my bartending tribulations.) Happy Easter!

* wi is yes in Kweyol and used like the Candians use eh.