Easter in Sydney

Easter for me was a little hard but It was also really fun. Easter is very important in my family so it was hard to be away from the people that I love but it was also really fun to see how other cultures do Easter. I am Catholic so I am showing a bit of my Polish Catholic traditions as well. The easter festivities started on holy Thursday. My friends and I went to the beach for a picnic, a very Australian thing to do during Easter weekend.

My friend Shanley gave me a chocolate Rabbit for easter, which is very common for Australians as well. Australians love their chocolate, there is a chocolate shop on every street and all the chocolatiers were in full force for the holiday. I got my chocolate from Haigh's, a chocolate shop that originated in Adelaide, Australia. They use a lot of nuts (which I love) and it is very creamy which makes it melt in your mouth.

On Holy Thursday mass I went to St. Benedict, which is a small church that caters to college students. It was a little different than I was used to, instead of ringing bells at certain times during the mass, they beat two sticks together and they used a lot more incense than I was used to. The whole church was filled with smoke and I thought they might set off the fire alarm.

On good Friday, which is a national holiday, the whole city, except the bus drivers and trains, shuts down. All of the stores were closed including the grocery store. This was a bit of a shock and because of this, I spent the day in the park which was still really nice. I then went to Good Friday service at the Cathedral. St. Mary’s Cathedral was packed. There was probably between 3-4 thousand people in that church and veneration of the cross took close to an hour. It was cool to be part of something that big and to see that amount of people all part of my faith. I then went home and had fish. Most Australians fast from meat on Good Friday and all east fish.

The next morning I put together my Polish basket and went all the way to Bankstown to get my basket blessed. In the Polish tradition, all of the foods you eat on Easter morning is to be taken to church and the priest blesses it. I refused to give up on my tradition, so I went to a Polish church and got my basket blessed. The blessing was in polish and i didn’t understand any of it, but it was cool to see other Polish women participating in the tradition. The baskets were all decorated with ribbons and flowers. It was very beautiful and we have nothing like that in the states.

My basket

It was a lot more full than this, but this was the Polish Parish that I got my basket blessed at

That night, I went to the Easter vigil mass at St. Peter’s church. This mass is done halfway in candlelight so it was very beautiful and peaceful. What’s cool about the Catholic faith, is that this mass is the same anywhere in the world so it made me less homesick to be able to go to my regular mass.

My Easter outfit 

On Easter, I ate the food that was in my basket and I went to the beach. Everyone goes to the beach on Easter, it is one big celebration on the beach. I went to Freshwater beach, the originating place of surfing, which meant I had to take the Manly ferry. Even with loads of tourists, I still had a lot of fun. I got to see how the locals spend Easter and got to see one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen.

Easter Monday here is also a national holiday so I had the day off school. I spent the morning skyping with my family to combat the homesickness and then I  went to take a walk across the Sydney Harbour bridge with my friend Lizzie. I got to see the opera house from the other side of the harbour and had some incredible moments looking over the boats in the harbour. In the end we ended up scarfing down some pizza and heading home. It was a great day.

Cool shot of the bridge 

Pirate ship in Sydney Harbour