Lent  Holy Week  Easter

Laura Sarubbi

St. Paul Parish, Princeton

Laura Bacich Sarubbi’s Croatian family of origin enjoyed the traditions of baking special Easter bread from a family recipe as well as having it blessed on Holy Saturday morning at church in a basket with eggs and other special fare, and incorporated into an Easter Sunday meal that included lamb, and a new Easter outfit that was “gizdavac” – or “fancy” in Croatian.

But her most treasured memories center around the Triduum in the Croatian Catholic parish of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and St. Raphael in Manhattan, N.Y., as a child in the 1970s – where the transition from music in a minor key to acapella to the glorious major keys of Easter morning was a tangible reminder of the

Church’s holiest season.

“The Triduum is still my three favorite days – they’re steeped in such devotion,” recalled Sarubbi, who serves as St. Paul’s director of religious education. In her childhood church near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, “Every song during Lent was in a minor key. Then on Holy Thursday there would be a [replica of a] tomb set up” where the Eucharist would be reposed following Mass. “The moment Mass was over, the organ would be locked, and every song on Good Friday and Holy Saturday would be sung acapella.”

Good Friday services in the Croatian parish began with an outdoor procession and Stations of the Cross with a giant wooden cross that men of the parish took turns carrying for an entire city block.

“My grandmother talked about how in Croatia when you enter the church on Good Friday, it’s on your knees – you would drag yourself kneeling up to the tomb to pray,” Sarubbi recalled, noting that it was customary for people to remain after the service for several hours on their knees.

“The whole weekend is all about remembering the sacrifice and celebrating the Resurrection,” she continued. “My grandmother often reminded me that ‘we all have to live through Good Friday to celebrate Easter.’”