Italians celebrate two days of Easter. Sunday is Pasqua and Monday is Pasquetta. While they sound like friends of Squanto, they’re really two days of much-anticipated holiday for the Italians.
I don’t know if I see the Italians generally happier than right around the Easter holidays. It’s Springtime. The region is blooming with all kinds of flowers. The weather is warming up beautifully. And most likely, the Rome-followers are happy that Lent is finishing and they can start eating chocolate again or watching TV.
However, there is one thing that I really like about Pasquetta. Family. All day Monday, families are out everywhere. They’re riding bikes together, trimming the garden, having a bbq, walking through town, playing in the parks etc. No stores are open. Nobody’s coming to fix your sink or hot water heater on that Monday… never. Just wait. Rest. It’s family — because we’ve always done it this way. Now that’s a redeemable part of Italy, taken directly from the weekly Creation planbook of Israel, and a superior example to my earthly nation.
Here’s a picture of our little girl Jessi at our Easter picnic with our Church. She was guzzling Frizzante water and my good buddy Jay from Germany snapped this shot.
Ok Mom, there’s her Easter dress. It came complete with a hat for little girls “who like to wear hats and not throw them at their brothers.”
So, Silvio Berlusconi loses last week’s election (President — or Champion o’ Bureaucracy) by a narrow margin to Romano Prodi. Italian politics are hilarious. The Italians are generally upset about feeling the pinch of the poor condition of the Euro. So, they blame the richest man in Italy who also happens to be their president - Silvio. Then, they elect the man that brought the Euro both to Italy and the EU commission. Oh ya, that’s gonna’ make it all better.
Italy & Politics
Politics is enormous, gigantic, grandissimo to the Italians.
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A Little TV
It’s Sunday evening and just before I hit the hay. I’m watching Mickelson sweep the BellSouth Classic. Many think that watching golf is boring. I don’t. I think the announcers are dreadful, but I love the sport. We Krauses are golfers. In fact, my uncle Peter (dad’s brother) recently won the PGA Tour’s National Teacher of the Year award. Please let the record show here that I am boasting on his golfing ability and none of my own. He’s the pro and I ride the bogey train. Speaking of the links, Reilly learned how to swing his new golf clubs for the first time this week too. It’s a good tradition to pass along 
Earlier, I saw a special from CNN on the two Mary’s surrounding Jesus’ life — His mother and Magdeline. It was about as pro-Romanist as you could come without actually posting a toll-free number if you’d like to convert. Something that I hadn’t heard around Italy was that they’re now trying to say that Mary Magdeline was one of the apostles maybe even taking the place of John as the beloved disciple. Some of the fuel for their fire has come from The DaVinci Code where the author makes MM a central character in his phony plot. The piece stated that she is now viewed as a new feminist-religious icon. Finally, the portion that I ended with was a woman (one of their experts, I suppose) saying about Mary (Jesus’ mother), “Just as the ancients needed to have their godesses, so we now have our godess in Mary.”
Reilly-ism
Our son comes up with some one-liners that are real treasures. I sprinkle them through the blog here on occasion and I want to share some of them as they come along. I’ve gotta’ record these while he’s five and before he stops talking altogether at about thirteen. So, out-of-the-blue today at the Sunday lunch table, Reilly says, “We need to go to Grandma & Grandpa’s house so that they can feel my muscles.”
