So what's that have to do with colored eggs?

Today I was sitting with my youth group trying to figure out a good day to do a movie night. I was looking through my calendar and proposed April 14th. I happened to look at the small print and see “Good Friday” written on that day, and asked my students if anyone was opposed to doing a movie night on Good Friday.

“What’s Good Friday?” one of them asked. I laughed at the ridiculousness of this question, until I realized that no eloquent words of explanation were coming out of my mouth. I paused for another second and realized – I don’t know.

“Uhhhh….I….don’t know.” I looked around – thinking someone would save me and jump in with a beautiful explanation of what the hell Good Friday is, only to see blank faces and guilty grins looking back at me. "Isn't that when you get the ash thing on your forehead?" Ohh the naivety of.....me. Yep. I'd like to pretend that it was a student who said that. But it was me.
"No - that's Ash Wednesday. Even I know that."
“Ohh – isn’t that the start of Mardi Gras?”
“Ohh yeah - that’s it, isn’t it?”
“No – Mardi Gras comes before Good Friday – OH! Maybe it has to do with lent.”
“Yeah – because Mardi Gras is when you eat and sin all you want, right before you’re supposed to cleanse yourself for lent. And it lasts like 50 days or something.” Yep - that one's me again.

The guessing went on and only stopped when I heard my boss chuckling in her office. “Are you laughing at us?” I asked.
“Yes! You guys are hilarious! You don’t even know what Good Friday is – you fucking pagans!”
“Come on! I’m a Joho**! How the hell am I supposed to know these things?” I countered. Seriously – this kind of information was not included in the Joho handbook.

She continued to comically berate us for our stupidity, as we laughed hysterically at the ridiculous thought that none of us knew what Good Friday was.

After the explanation (from the Recovering Catholic) we decided to go ahead and plan the movie night for the 14th, figuring that if none of us even knew what the day was we must not have anything special planned.

I left the meeting feeling very aligned with my students, and very at home in a workplace where my boss can say “What is wrong with you, you fucking pagans!”

**Jehovah’s Witness. It’s not offensive, trust me.