Good Friday Tradition

 

 

 

 

 

It's going on ten years now that we have celebrated Good Friday together as a group and it is a day I look forward to all year. We mix together faith and fun as only Catholics can do and we come away stronger with a true sense of community.

At the Polish Yacht Club in Detroit, we sit at the same long table every year, surrounded by others who have the same tradition. We partake in the worst Bloody Mary's imaginable, trying to improve them with a lot of salt and pepper, but laughing at how bad they are is also a tradition. There are platters of perch, potato pancakes and pierogis, as well as a basket of Easter colored Jell-O shots passed around for dessert.

Over the years we have gone to other churches for the last hour of the Good Friday vigil, but the last few years we have gravitated to the beautiful Gesu, right in the heart of the vibrant University of Detroit - Mercy neighborhood. The service is moving and the music is wonderful and you leave with a sense of peace.

This year after church, we headed to the historic Dakota Inn for German beer and snacks. A few of us even stopped at another bar on the way back home to the suburbs, meeting one of our friends who was unable to miss work that day. The sun was shining, a beautiful Easter weekend beckoned and we were with good friends - why not extend the day?

Of the many things I will miss when we move, this lovely day of faith, friendship and tradition will be high on the list.

Happy Tuesday.