Easter remembered

It seems that Palm Sunday was "celebrated" more when I was a girl than it is now -- Although I don't remember specifics except that we sometimes had our choir contata on Palm Sunday.
We had a communion service on thursday night and on Good Friday most of the churches participated in a 2 hour service. Each pastor had 20 minutes with a hymn beginning and ending each section. People were free to come and go as they pleased although when it was at our church I was there for the two hours since I was organist. I never minded because it was interesting to listen to each pastor talk on the particular scripture he was given. Oh and ALL the stores closed for those 2 hours.

My non church memories include the many Easter dinners we had at my Aunt Beth's home. She was my mother's sister. We all lived in the same town so it was easy to get together which we did often. Aunt Beth loved to intertain. Since there were quite a few of us she had to have several tables . Everyone had their own place setting including a bread and butter plate, a finger bowl, salad plate, several forks, knives and spoons, water glass - even our own salt and pepper shakers. There was so much food: different kinds of meat, vegetables, salads, and many desserts. Mashed rutabagas was the one dish that neither my dad or I liked. Each family would bring colored eggs and after the dishes were done and food put away we (the kids) would go Easter egg hunting. I suppose the adults hid them but I don't remember. Even after I married and had kids we often went to to Aunt Beth's for Easter. It then became my age group to hide the eggs. She tried one more time when my kids had kids to have a big Easter dinner. It was still very good food but it was too much for her. So that tradition ended.