St. Elizabeth's Easter Egg Hunt Saturday Morning

St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is hosting their annual Gerry McCarthy Memorial Easter Egg hunt this Saturday morning. The event will take place on the former St. John's Seminary grounds -- now Boston College "Brighton Campus" -- near the Chancery and Gymnasium buildings.

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
2121 Commonwealth Avenue, Brighton, MA 02135

Preceding the egg hunts: Visits by Mayor Thomas Menino and the Easter Bunny, as well as displays by Fire Department and Ambulance Services

9:30 am -- Toddler Easter Egg Hunt
10:00 am -- Older Children Easter Egg Hunt

BYOB (bring your own basket)

Not only is Easter very early this year, but the hunt is a week before Easter, probably resulting in the earliest date on record for an Easter Egg hunt. Weather forecast? Rain and snow Saturday morning.


St. Elizabeth's Medical Center press release:

Saturday, March 15, 2008 - the week before Easter - St. E’s joins local children and families in festivities; commemorative gifts will be given to each child who attends

Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center celebrates Easter with its 25th Anniversary of the Annual Gerry McCarthy Memorial Easter Egg Hunt. During the 15-minute hunt, approximately 1,000 neighborhood children and their parents will search for more than 16,000 trinket-filled eggs. A special Toddlers’ Egg Hunt will also be held for children ages two and younger. Event location is the Archdiocese Chancery/Boston College at 2121 Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton.

Morning activities include a scheduled appearance by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny. There will also be demonstrations by the Boston Fire Department and Armstrong Ambulance and refreshments

Egg hunting for toddlers begins promptly at 9:30 a.m, Hunt for older children begins promptly at 10 a.m. Event will take place rain, snow, or shine.

The annual egg hunt is named in memory of the late Gerry McCarthy, an Allston-Brighton resident and youth activist, who started it in the 1960’s.

It's Official: In Boston, St. Patrick's Day Will Be Celebrated On St. Patrick's Day

As most people know, the Roman Catholic Church's celebration of St. Patrick occurs annually on March 17.

This year the lunar calendar has resulted in an early Easter on March 23, which causes St. Patrick's Day to fall on Holy Monday -- the second day of Holy Week. (March 22nd is the earliest possible date for Easter.)

Irish bishops decided in 2007 to move the feast day of St. Patrick in 2008 to be earlier, on Saturday, March 15, to avoid the conflict. They didn't want to postpone St. Patrick's Day to April 1st, because it would create a scheduling mess with the civil celebrations.

Seán Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, notes, however, that Saturday, March 15 now conflicts with the official church calendar schedule for celebration of St. Joseph. (Did the Irish bishops realize this conflict?) Cardinal O'Malley doesn't want to bump the feast of St. Patrick a day earlier because March 14 is a Friday during Lent -- which is a traditional day of fasting (although now it is observed by not eating meat).

So Cardinal O'Malley has chosen instead to strike out a different path within the Archdiocese of Boston by celebrating the liturgical Mass for St. Patrick on March 17th, i.e., on St. Patrick's Day itself. That day also happens to fall on Evacuation Day, a civil holiday here.

There we have it: this year, St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated as a religious day on St. Patrick's Day -- here in the Archdiocese of Boston, but not in Ireland or in many other dioceses that follow the Irish bishops' lead.

Fortunately, this big mess won't happen again any time soon:

This marks the first time the date has been changed since 1940. The next conflict with Holy Week is not expected until 2160.

The construction mess over at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center has caused their annual Easter Egg Hunt to be moved over to the (former) St. John's Seminary land for the second straight year. But this year, it will occur a week early -- on Saturday, March 15th, the date of the entire church's St. Joseph's Day as well as the Irish bishops' St. Patrick's Day.

Next week: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Leaping by Loving the Gregorian Calendar.

Cute children with Easter egg stash

See the cute picture from The Bulletin Newspapers of last Saturday's Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by St. Elizabeth's Medical Center and held at the Archdiocese's Chancery.

Easter Egg Hunt: Saturday April 7th

St. Elizabeth's Medical Center is hosting the annual Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday, April 7th (rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, fog, or shine).

The location this year will be the Archdiocese's Chancery at 2121 Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton. (The usual location is about to become a construction site.)

The festivities kick off with a toddler hunt at 9:30 am (under three years old).

The all-out egg hunt for children age three and over begins at 10:00 am.

Here's a picture of the mayhem from last year: