Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Blog Easter In Lhasa
How do you celebrate a holiday in a place where not only does no one really know anything about it but there are no holiday supplies to aid your festivities? This is the situation I am in for Easter in Lhasa. I mean don't get me wrong, they do have eggs and chocolate is attainable. But I've been forced to deal with an Easter sans chocolate eggs and bunnies. Oh and jelly beans, there are no jelly beans!!! (p.s. Jelly Belly, if you're reading this I have a business proposition for you. No seriously I do. Thing is we have to start off with only red and yellow beans). However, this may not be such a bad thing and as usually the supplies that are available make the holiday that much more rewarding. Because it forces us to be more resourceful and dig deep in our creative genes as we attempt to recreate holidays from scratch (as our forefathers once did). I am going to attempt to make Italian Easter bread along with my second attempt at eggplant parmesan or my first attempt at lasagna in Lhasa. My latest idea is, since we have no chocolate eggs or bunnies to find some kind of mold in the shape of eggs or bunnies (maybe a bit harder) and pour the melted local chocolate into it. Now I just thought of this so I have no real idea of how possible this is here but of course impossibility has never stopped me before so way start now? Case in point, we recently purchased a baby pool which is now located on the roof (on top of a supporting beam of course) and has a set of its own ruby duckies that one can fish out with a magnetic fishing pool. Hopefully this illustrates that essentially the sky is the limit here (no pun intended).
Besides food and chocolate limitations here there is a general lack of knowledge concerning the Easter holiday altogether. On three separate occasions I have explained the tradition of Easter in the US and its European roots. Interestingly, similar to Buddhist religious holidays which have roots in local religion pre-Buddhism, Easter has roots in local traditions pre-Christianity. I think this similarity helped in understanding American tradition versus American religion. Because let's face it Easter is not just a Christian holiday, its part of American culture and people of all religious backgrounds can and do enjoy it.
A second big part of my talks on Easter had to do with the food associated with it. As many of my holiday informational talks end up having to do with their culinary traditions, Easter was no exception. Being of Italian heritage of course I talked about my own families traditions. Showing various pictures that illustrated the deliciousness of Italian Easter foods quite well, I made my way through Torta di Pasqualina and Pana di Pasqua. Both with an interesting incorporation of whole eggs into their culinary architecture.
After talking about the food associated with my family's Easter traditions I touched on Easter activities. I spoke about Easter Mass at the Vatican and how many people have a tradition of going to church on Easter Sunday. And after showing some breath taking photos of St. Peter's Basilica moved on to more of the kid's side of the holiday. Easter egg hunts, picnics and the strange games we play with chicken embryos are quite amusing to foreigners. I explained and demonstrated (not with real eggs), the egg toss, the egg roll, egg passing with spoon, and the carrot relay (they thought the carrot relay was pretty funny). Between the explanations of chocolate eggs and bunnies and eggs and rabbits as symbols of fertility and new life, every time this made for an amusing moments of cultural exchange.
Update: The dishes I aimed to prepare for our Easter potluck dinner turned out to be ok. Even though the Torta di Pasqualina took one more day to set, I was pleased with all the results of my many hours of labor (since Lhasa doesn't have western style cheese, I ended up making not only the tomato sauce and the dough but the ricotta cheese that went into the Torta). And even though making chocolate bunnies and eggs didn't materialize we used Chinese candy (White Rabbits) and Hershey's Kisses to fill in for their absence. However, my Pana di Pasqua or Easter Bread worked out (with the help of Julia who lent me some of her yellow dyed eggs, nice work by the way) serving as a true Easter style dessert. The best part was that people made so much food that we ended up have second and third Easter potluck for the following two days. Oh and one of our guest's kids played with the rubber duckies in the baby pool. Go fish!
Update: My mom sent me a package on behalf of the Easter bunny on April 9th and I didn't receive it until May 4th. This is strange because it usually only takes 10 days for a package to make it here. I finally just went to the post office without a package slip and asked if they had a package for me just showing them my passport. After a few conversations about my address and a phone call hanged over to me in Tibetan I finally got the package. I was a perfect Easter package if I ever got one. All the things I missed, all the things not available here where in this package. From the loving Easter card from my mom and nephew to the chocolate eggs and solid chocolate bunny ("man this is heavy" said my German friend) to the wonderful naturally flavored jelly beans it was just perfect. I don't know what kept the package slip from my mailbox but when I finally picked up the package (so expensive to ship too) they month long wait was worth every chocolate and jelly bean. Yumm Yumm!
- comments