#Haikai Challenge #82 (4/21/19): Easter Lily #haiku #senryu #haibun #tanka #haiga #renga

Welcome back from your moon gazing, haijin! Congratulations to last week’s contributors:

Haikai Challenge Participants

1. Tessa
2. Dwight L. Roth
3. Ennle Madresan
4. The Dark Netizen
5. Jane Dougherty

6. Deborah
7. Suzanne
8. Jules
9. Violet
10. Helene Vaillant

11. Pat R
12. Frank J. Tassone
13. Janice

Ultreya!

Welcome to this special Easter Sunday edition of the #Haikai Challenge! You see, yesterday was a busy day of shopping, followed by our attendance of our Church’s Easter Vigil mass. The mystery, pagaentry and music of that celebration defy words.

**Easter Vigil Mass**, April 20, 2019. **Church of the Presentation**, Upper Saddle River, NJ

Easter, itself, is a quintessential Spring celebration. While Christians celebrate it as the feast of Christ’s ressurection (the most significant liturgical celebration of the year), Easter is also a proclamation of awakening and rebirth. During this time of the year, many flowers bloom in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the New York Metropolitan area. Lawns have become green overnight. Birdsongs inaugurate each daybreak. Easter at its heart celebrates the fundamental fact that Life finds a way.

And so, like last year, this week our kigo will be the Easter Lily. As I quoted last year:

Lily
image: http://www.theholidayspot.com/easter/images/lily.jpg

A popular symbol of the Easter festival, the white lily is held as the traditional Easter Flower and represents love and hope. The single flower stem originating from a bulb represents the resurrection of Christ three days after his apparent death by crucifixion. Legend has it that white lilies were grown at the place where drops of blood fell from Jesus Christ’s body. Some Catholic nations regard white lilies as the symbol of the purity and divinity of Jesus Christ and dedicate them to his mother, Virgin Mary. This is the reason why churches are decorated with white lilies during Easter.

Gifting white lilies to someone during this time indicates that you are very happy to be acquainted with the recipient. Giving yellow lilies to a person represents your request or advice to him/her to “live for the moment”.

TheHolidaySpot

This week, write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga, etc.) that states or alludes to the Easter lily

As always:

Here’s how the challenge works:

1. write the haikai poem of your choice.
2. post the link of your post to Mister Linky.
3. pingback by posting the link to the challenge on your site.
4. read and comment on other contributors’ posts.