Not so long ago around this time, you would hear “kite pop!” ever so often.
It would start a mad chase by the neighbourhood children to see who would catch it. For the younger ones, and girls, the chase would end by a particular wall. It was kind of a barrier or force field which you dare not overstep for fear of what would happen to you.
That had nothing to do with being swept up in some vortex and being transported from earth but the out of this world beating you would get if your parents or guardians heard or saw that you ventured too far from the home base.
There were a couple of guys who were champion retrievers and kite makers in the district: Eddie and Roger. Upon reflection, it was worth it to see them in action and at the time, they engaged in some of the longest stake-outs of kites with the loudest “bulls”. At the time, we had no idea of the disturbance we were causing at night. Sorry.
But Easter was always a time when people seemed to engage in wholesome cooperative events.
I’ll take Easter over Christmas every year. The whole prevailing atmosphere is quite different.
There’s more passion in Easter rather than the widespread insincerity of the robotic “Merry Christmas” greeting. It is not that I do not appreciate Christmas, I truly do. However, when it comes to marking Christian events, I feel more passionate about Easter.
It is easy for anyone to fall in love with the notion of an adorable baby born into a lowly station in life but destined for great things. The threat of death is not immediate and so, for a while, that is pushed out of our minds.
Who wouldn’t want to be associated with a season in which the emphasis is on gifts one way or the other and everyone appears to be in good spirits?
Try, on the other hand, imagining rather than receiving a gift, giving away your life. Try knowing that you had a limited time and that a whole lot of people’s destiny rested on your dying. That is a bit harder to accept and even harder to delight in.
Therein lies the problem for many, for while Easter rests on faith, it also is backed by history, making the grim reality harder to dismiss, even by scholars.
Under these circumstances, wouldn’t you then start prioritizing?
Wouldn’t people, rather than material things, matter in life, and wouldn’t you try to be a better person? You see, Easter calls for a lot more effort than Christmas.
At Easter, the church goes through a similar transformation over the three days that marked the lead up to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The sombre approach of the Good Friday service is replaced with the colourful awakening of purple, pink, green and blue of the joyous Sunday service.
The Christmas season is riddled with church plays, excessive cleaning and feasting. Easter has some of those elements but there is also an element of restraint as people will forego certain pleasures for the Lenten season.
There are other value added events with the latter.
Last week, I watched a group of smiling, chatting Lawrence T. Gay students all armed with kites making their way back to school. The contentment on their little faces was a joy to behold.
I imagined there were similar scenes throughout the country judging from the requests to the newsroom for coverage of kite-flying events. Then, there were the bonnet parades and egg hunting which no doubt appealed to both adults and children.
These events cause communities, whether they are schools, church, social groups or neighbourhoods, to come together in a fun environment. It breeds appreciation and tolerance for each other.
However, to the kite-flyers, please, in the spirit of Easter, haul in your kites at night, there are people who need their rest.
• Antoinette Connell is the DAILY NATION Editor.