Dakota Beacon

Easter for most of us will be very quiet - perhaps blessedly so.  We think of Easter in the Christian tradition as a day of celebration, the most important day in the Christian religion.  It represents for many a glorious rebirth after the long, long winter. It is perhaps especially symbolic to those of us who live where winter is long and cold and often bleak.  

This year we will not be celebrating in the usual way.  Those simple things we used to take for granted - gathering with family, with friends, with those we love to welcome the spring, to celebrate the rebirth, to worship together or to just smile again, well, we can’t just take those simple things for granted anymore.  If we are fortunate we can celebrate our good health, celebrate that we have not lost anyone to the coronavirus thus far, and we can keep looking ahead and hoping for a better time, and not forget Easter.

In the meantime, I have found some Easter- and Passover-inspired selections to help us  celebrate, if vicariously. There’s something here for everyone. In fact, there’s more than you can probably listen to in one day - so keep it around and listen when you need something very special.  I’ll start with Passover finds.

Dance has always been a great part of Jewish culture and I happened upon a bit of a Passover dance troup’s performance here - not quite “traditional” but a great melding of Jewish and American culture.  Indeed, we would not have America’s music - Jazz - without the contributions of Jewish musical traditions.  

Here’s a special Passover “Mashup”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0qsy32Hk4s

And a really nice version of Hava Nagila:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OnMkLzs8TQ

And a Yiddish tango

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENSFSYqqfOk

A Yiddishe Mame:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hczu5WQQ328

And I can’t resist just one more beautiful Yiddish song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAP7PbOZmOU

Easter has been celebrated by some great composers.  Here are some of the magnificent “Images” of Easter. First, the Easter Hymn from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxzDSy8MpGs

Paul Harvey tells a story for Easter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3s8Tdi5Xb4

From Mozart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljvTwbxrylc

Andrew Lloyd-Weber’s Pie Jesu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xgVUjSFfCU

Christopher Parkening plays J.S. Bach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBatWi2Wwx

The Russian Easter Festival Overture, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mXEqg6FdA

Here’s a lovely harp version of the Celtic “Easter Snow”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqEj_RR6c_U

And here’s one for fun and old times’ sake, from the great Irving Berlin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfB0TAAW8y0

It is a strange time.  We are all so ready for it to be over.  While we wait let’s be grateful for the time we can spend together or in each other’s thoughts. Have a blessed Easter - I hope you can spend it with those you love - but if not this year, at least be with each other in spirit.  Happy Easter!

Some music to relax with at the end of the day - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWixIrNuoKk

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