New traditions

When I was young and lived in India with my family, we typically went for Easter Mass together and then headed over to my grandmother's house for lunch. In fact, we do the same thing for Christmas (although in later years we moved to attending midnight mass instead of going for mass on the 25th morning). The routine is quite typical at my grandmother's house: we ate -- a lot -- and then we played Scrabble, slept, watched TV, chatted, and then ate leftovers for dinner. In other words, heaven: Jesus had indeed been born and had risen from the dead (as applicable to Christmas and Easter, respectively).

With regards to foods --
First, at the 11am hour or so, normally my grandmother, mother and aunt would have a "Rum 'n' Coke." As children, we typically drank Indian soft drinks (like Rasna or Tang, sometimes Thums Up, the Indian Coke) and now I might go for a beer or a glass of wine. We eat sweets, too, just to whet the appetite. I know, you're thinking it a bit odd to be eating sweets before lunch but, especially at Christmas time, we would have been waiting for weeks to bite into Christmas marzipan (Indian-style, totally different from the European "real thing") or kalkals (doughy-rolled up things that are covered in sugar) or milk sweet.
Second, at around lunch time, we normally would eat (a) roast pork, (b) chicken curry, (c) sorpatel, (d) pulau (fancy rice) and a salad (normally, this would be my aunt's contribution to the feast, the other dishes typically having been prepared by my grandmother in earlier years, and now my mother helps in more recent years). Delicious. I mean -- utterly delicious. We would have seconds and thirds, and the meal typically would linger on and on . . .
After a few games of Scrabble (intense competition between myself, my siblings and my aunt) and/or reading and/or watching TV and/or snoozing wherever one could find a spare bed or space on the couch, it would be time for the evening meal.
Quite possibly, at the 7pm hour, there might have been another round of drinks (again, rum 'n' coke for the grown-up ladies, possibly a whiskey for my dad when he used to drink) and then leftovers for dinner. And somehow the food, which had marinated in itself during the afternoon, was even tastier. Night would fall. We would sit in my grandmother's dining room, which has two windows looking out on to the terrace. The terrace lights were rarely on, so outside was very, very dark, while inside, the dining room was lit up with bright, fluorescent lights, almost too bright. We'd sit there, our elbows occasionally bumping into each other (indeed, we had to pull an extra chair to the table when the complete family was eating together (this would become two extra stools when my sister's husband accompanied her to India, although admittedly, we've only eaten together -- all eight of us -- a handful of times)).
When I was a child, I typically would fall asleep right after dinner. My dad would have to carry me to the car and then from the car up to the apartment. I remember sometimes being told, "Lift your arms straight up," and my shirt would be pulled off. Then, lying on my back, I would raise my legs, and off would come my pants. Oh, the sweet life of a child.

Which reminds me, I titled this post "New Traditions" but haven't told you anything about how I spent this past Easter Sunday. But I'll leave that for a Part 2 - this post is long enough.