Easter, Divine Mercy and Våffeldagen - a Seven Quick Takes

Happy Easter to you all!

- 1 -

I love that we will get to say this for 50 days! Prior to starting to live along with the liturgical calendar I was only aware of the church celebrating Easter for - oh, I don't know - maybe a week or so after the actual date. But now this will be the first year where we try and hold space for the season for all 50 days. One of the ways that I've considered doing this is by greeting fellow believers with "Happy Easter!" all Eastertide long. So far, it doesn't sound too weird to anyone I've wished it to this week, but I'm thinking that next week I might start to get some strange looks... that is if I don't chicken out by then.

- 2 -

In any case, Easter was lovely! So much so that my children decided they would rather look at the beautiful church than the camera...

We had my sister and her family over, as well as another guest, but it still wasn't enough to take care of The Ham. Once again, I overbought (though not in the same way as I did at Thanksgiving - a story for another time) and brought home a ham that could feed 10-12 people. Which wouldn't be too bad if we were feeding 10-12 people. But, really, we were feeding 5 (the kids hardly made a dent here). Oops. So that got me looking for ways to use the ham...

- 3 -

And while poking around the internet looking for hamspiration I came across this tremendously yummy looking recipe for Monte Cristo waffles...

Yummmmmmm...... (photo from The Kitchn)

... which triggered my memory about eating waffles for dinner for the Annunciation. Bingo! A way to use the ham and live liturgically! I love it.

- 4 -

This year we celebrate the Annunciation on April 4th. Back in January when I was planning our Liturgical calendar I didn't know any better, so I didn't catch that this was actually not the normal day that we celebrate it. It's normally celebrated 9 months before Christmas on March 25th - but this year that day was also Good Friday. Laura from Mothering Spirit wrote an achingly beautiful piece on this overlap of days here. I shared it on Facebook (since I could - Lent was finished on Holy Thursday night, after all) but I feel it's so worth reading, it deserves a second shout-out.

- 5 -

So someone might ask, why waffles on the Annunciation? Well, because Kendra does it. (Obviously. That's why we do anything around here. ;) ) But in addition to that, the tradition comes from Sweden and anything that comes from Sweden has a small piece of my heart. Still confused? Here's the deal: in Sweden, March 25th is called Vårfrudagen (literally, "Our Wife day" or "Our Lady's day") but if you say it quickly/mumble it a bit, it can sound a bit like Våffeldagen (literally, "Waffle day"). So there you go. Våffels till Vår Fru. Var så god.

- 6 -

When sharing all this with my younger sister she asked if I had seen the Alton Brown episode on waffles. I hadn't. But then I looked it up and YouTube...

Skip the opening bit. It's too corny for words. But would you believe that, in a way, we even have the Catholic church to thank for waffles?! Look for the bit with the nun (about a couple minutes in) to get the lowdown.

- 7 -

This Sunday is also Divine Mercy Sunday. Paul and I have been praying the Divine Mercy Novena, and I think the Divine Mercy chaplet has become one of my most favorite prayers. To celebrate we will either have this cake from Better Than Eden or these Divine Mercy Sundaes from Catholic Icing. If you'd like to read just a wee bit more about Divine Mercy Sunday, click on that link from Better Than Eden above. And if you've made it this far in my 7QT, I welcome your vote! Cake or ice cream?

Head over to This Ain't The Lyceum for more 7QTs, and again... happy Easter! :)