Syracuse Parent and CNY Family

Jennifer Wing, editor of "Syracuse Parent" and "Mother Knows Best," lives in Manlius with her husband, Eric, and children, Cassidy, 7, and Jacob, 5. She has worked at Eagle Newspapers since 2005. You can leave comments below. She may also be reached at editor@syracuseparent.net

An Eastern European Easter
Posted on Mon, February 22nd, 2010
Written by: Jennifer Wing, Editor
email: editor@syracuseparent.net

My Polish heritage has always been a comfort to me, and the celebration of Easter reinforces that feeling of carrying on traditions established years ago by my ancestors.
I have many fond memories of going to my Baci’s house in Utica and my Grandmother’s house on Kayuta Lake in Remsen. After dressing in our finery and pinning on corsages of sweet-smelling orchids, we would go to church at St. Mary’s, a beautiful church atop a hill in New Hartford that has a stained glass window with our family name etched into its many-colored pane. The church smelled of lilies and incense, and we would always run into various relatives who had decided to attend mass at that particular time.
After church, we would sit down to a traditional Polish Easter feast, complete with eggs, kielbasa, ham and rye bread that had been blessed along with butter pressed into the shape of a lamb and, of course, babka, that sweet, dense bread dotted with raisins. Following dinner, the men would gather in the dining room with their beer and cigars, the women would chat in the kitchen while cleaning up and the children would have the run of the rest of the house.
Photos would be taken, gossip would be exchanged and laughter would bounce off the walls of the little house on Erie Street. If it was warm enough, the kids would gather on the steps of the front porch and watch the cars drive by.
It seemed such a simple time, one that, with the naivete of the very young, I never thought would end.
But times do change. My Baci’s house, long vacant, burned down last year in a neighborhood that had been long declining. The cousins I used to run from room to room with in that house are now scattered across the country. The older generation who would gather for after dinner drinks has slowly faded, with many gone but not forgotten.
Easter these days is no less joyful than it was then, however. It’s just different.
I am now the older generation - the one that is now raising the small children who run around the house, look for Easter treats in wicker baskets on that fateful morning and eat kielbasa, ham and rye bread with gusto. My mother still makes Easter dinner and bakes homemade babka worthy of our ancestors. But now my mother-in-law also makes a meal, one with new traditions, such as ham gravy on mashed potatoes, a new favorite of mine.
We still go to church. We still dress up. We still spend time with our loved ones.
Some traditions never die, just like my memories of those wonderful Easters spent with those who are no longer here. I know the time will come when I will take over the role once occupied by my Baci and Grandmother, the role now occupied by my mother and mother-in-law. It is a role I was born to take, and I will gladly, one day, turn the reigns over to my daughter.
And so the tradition continues.

Jennifer Wing, editor of "Syracuse Parent" and "Mother Knows Best," lives in Manlius with her husband, Eric, and children, Cassidy, 7, and Jacob, 5. She has worked at Eagle Newspapers since 2005.