We celebrate Easter Polynesian style in Gambier. I join my friend Poerani (the English teacher in Gambier) at St. Michael’s church. Several days before Easter we peek in the church and see them creating magnificent floral arrangements.
Easter floral arrangements
They are both beautiful look at and smell amazing. The kind of smell you want to roll around in! The church always leaves the windows and doors open. However, it is always super duper hot once the population fill the pews. I decided to sit near the side door so I can get a breeze and escape if I get too hot. Lucky for me it was not a particularly roasting day and there was a decent breeze.
Easter services at St. Michael’s church meant that the entire church was decked out. Flowers on the pews and the vestibule covered in a pretty pale yellow.
Easter at St. Michael’s Church
They had about 20-25 people singing and several others on instruments. The songs were in both French and Mangarevan which did not help me at all. A large screen displayed the words but by the time I figured out how to say one word, they were twenty words down the road. But I enjoyed it none the less.
I had to use my imagination a lot and did my best to remember Easter services back in the states. With everything in French there were few words I understood. But it felt good to participate.
Afterwards, Matt met us for Easter lunch at Poerani’s house. She went crazy with lunch. She served a huge leg of lamb, rice and corn, and a gratin plantains. After two bottles of wine and lots of food we waddled back to the boat.
A truly wonderful Easter celebration
Events from this blog took place on 4 April 2021. Yes, we are very behind on our blog postings because the internet is 2G in Gambier. At least they are coming out 🙂
