The power of awe during the spring holidays

We’re celebrating two awe-inspiring occasions: Easter Sunday and Passover. For Christians, Easter is about the miracle of the resurrection and the promise of eternal life. For Jews, Passover is a celebration of liberation from slavery as well as a reminder of resilience and their ability to overcome adversity.

The word “awe” fits these holidays perfectly. It’s defined as the emotion we feel when encountering something immense that transcends our understanding of the world. It makes us feel good by connecting us to something bigger than ourselves.

Awe is critical to?happiness ?and well-being.?Researchers have found ?that like the emotions of joy and love, the sensation of awe calms us and triggers hormones that promote trust in our relationships.

Your sense of awe might be triggered by Easter Sunday services today or during Passover Seders. But it also can be felt enjoying the personal traditions of the day, such as an egg hunt, watching a child enjoy an Easter basket, or having a conversation with a family member.

Last week,?we shared ?some of our family’s favorite Easter memories and traditions, and invited our community to submit their own. The response and the stories were awesome on many levels. Here are a few of our favorites.

The power of reconnecting with grandparents

Elizabeth shared a story about growing up in Upstate New York. In the 1950s, her dad worked in the General Electric factory in Schenectady, New York. Her amazing mom was a homemaker who fed her family, took care of the children, and found “ingenious ways to stretch the household budget,” including making all the clothes worn by Elizabeth and her sister.

"One Easter in the early ‘50s, my paternal grandparents came to visit for the weekend. The old photographs show them smiling and relaxed as my parents fed them and feted them and took them to church.

We were all dressed in our Sunday best. My mother had made my father a new shirt that he wore with a tie that she also made. She wore a new dress that she designed and sewed. My sister and I were dressed in the latest ‘50s fashion: new patent-leather shoes and adorable little girl dresses in tiny pink florals.

My grandmother exclaimed over us, telling us how cute and how pretty we were, and urging our grandfather to agree with her. At which point he would grunt, “Yup.” Grandma would be dressed in her best, and she always wore a hat to church.

Even as a child, I was aware of the love and connection in the Easter season. Being with my parents and grandparents was the most wonderful part of the holiday."

The scramble for Grandma’s kisses

Jane wrote about memories of visiting her grandparents’ house for an Easter feast – and a great after-dinner tradition with her cousins.

"After returning from church, we’d go to my grandparents’ house, where the warm, sweet scent of ham, which to this day reminds me of my grandmother, wafted in the air. She would have several tables set, one with her finest china and crystal. Of course, as I was number six in the lineup to adulthood, I never did make it to the grown-up table with the fancy settings.

After dinner, Grandmom would sit in her favorite wingback chair at the front of the room, with all the furniture pushed to the sides to accommodate our big family. She reigned there, like the Queen of England on her throne.

In her hand was a bag of Hershey’s Kisses. She tossed handfuls of them to all the cousins. There were 22 of us! She called it a “scramble.” It was every man for himself, attempting to collect as many chocolate Kisses as possible while laughing and yelling. They are treasured memories for me."

Finding peace at Passover

Benji shared a memory of enjoying a Seder with his girlfriend’s parents, siblings, and their children – and how it brought out a side of the family he had never seen.

"Holidays with her family were uproarious, since her five older sisters all had kids, but nobody could match the ruckus of her mother and father. They fought and bickered constantly. To give you an example, at Thanksgiving, her father motioned to her mother at the other end of the table and said, ‘Pass me the potatoes.’ Her mother glared at him, and without missing a beat said, ‘God gave you two legs and two arms, come get them yourself.’

When I was invited for the first time for Passover dinner, I expected the same organized chaos, but that’s not what happened. For the first time, they sat together at the dinner table, and as their grandchildren read stories, they held hands and gazed at each other with pride. That's when I saw a real-life example that Passover was most definitely about peace."

More Easter memories & traditions

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their Easter and Passover memories with our community. The ancient events that inspire today's celebrations are indeed awe-inspiring, but so are the personal moments and memories associated with the holidays.