Author Archives: John Cutrone

Apr 01 2026
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All Fools' Day, Book of Days Calendar, Easter Triduum, Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday, Passover

April Showers, or Your Convivio Book of Days for April

For your printable Convivio Book of Days calendar for April, we are tuning into the old adage: April showers bring May flowers. Here in Lake Worth, the flowers are blooming already (Amaryllis on the ground, and when we look up, the sky right now is crazy yellow with the blooms of Tabebuia argentea). Spring is most definitely with us. We realize, though, this welcome season takes longer to reach other places. If you’ve seen little evidence of it yet, worry not, it will soon arrive.

If you’re reading this in the morning, beware, for it is All Fools’ Day, when tricks and practical jokes abound until noon. You may, of course, be one of the tricksters, in which case we wish you good luck and healthy fooling. I’ve initiated some good April Fools’ tricks in my day, but this year I am feeling rather dim-witted and so I am sticking to the defensive role, remaining on lookout all morning, with the goal being to avoid becoming un poisson d’Avril, as they say in France, or il pesce d’Aprile, as they say in Italy. Both would translate to An April Fish, the fish being the fool, and very often the unsuspecting fool might find a paper fish stuck to the back of his shirt. Why a fish? I don’t know. I’m going to leave it at that.

The setting sun this evening will bring the beginning of Passover, or Pesach, commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, and is celebrated with a meal, the seder. A friend explains it thusly: “We are traveling through the desert with our ancestors via a table filled with metaphor and symbolism.” Unleavened bread is a central part of the celebration, for the Israelites had to leave Egypt so quickly there was no time to let the bread rise. Instead, it had to be baked immediately.

The Italians call Passover Pasqua Ebraica, which you might translate as “Jewish Easter,” but in fact in many languages the names of both Easter and Passover are the same. Pesach informs the name given to Easter in Italian: Pasqua. The English word “Easter” does not share this etymological relation to Pesach. It is related more to the the Old English “Eostre,” which is the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess whose feast day was celebrated around the Spring Equinox.

Among the questions asked at the seder table is this one: Why is this night different from all other nights? And just as I cannot tell you why when it comes to the poisson d’avril, I also cannot tell you why this night is different from all other night. I’ve never attended a seder. But I will join all who are in spirit tonight and wish you abundant blessings.

In my Christian tradition, it is Spy Wednesday today, which has to do with Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples, betraying him and setting the course for the rest of Holy Week. Tomorrow night, on Holy Thursday, we will make our pilgrimage to three churches, deep in the night, moon illuminating the skies above us, for the Night Watch. It is a not necessary an easy night, and yet it is one of the most beautiful each year, one of the most special. And so our April will begin. A most eventful few days.

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OPEN SHOP DAY!
We’re planning to open the shop this Saturday from 11 to 4, for your last chance to pick up Easter goods like traditional wooden bunnies from Germany’s Erzgebirge woodworkers, beautiful pysanky eggs from Ukraine, German splintwood baskets and wood wool Easter grass (none of the plastic stuff!), German papier mache eggs to fill with treats, and as far as the sweets in your basket, how about sweet and sour Swedish candies, licorice (some chocolate covered) and fruitful gummies from Denmark, and marzipan piglets from Germany? CLICK HERE to shop, and come on by this Saturday, please!

And please make plans to join us later this month for our annual celebration of Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 25. We’ll be making a full weekend of it, opening the shop on Friday night, the 24th, plus Saturday and Sunday the 25th and 26th. We’ll have some appropriate treats, no doubt, plus a free and simple letterpress and bookbinding project for all who come.

Image: “April Showers, Napa Valley” by Jules Tavernier. Oil on canvas, circa 1880-1884 [Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons].

Mar 30 2026
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Easter, Easter Triduum, Good Friday, Holy Thursday, Holy Week, Lent, Maundy Thursday

The Strangeness of Holy Week

The spring equinox has come and gone, the moon grows larger each night, and our Lenten journey nears completion now that Palm Sunday has passed. We have entered into Holy Week, holiest of weeks, culminating in Easter Sunday and the core of what those of us who profess to be Christians believe: that Christ suffered, died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day.

This is a lot to process, no? And the violence at the week’s end, unnerving. I’ve been reading these past few weeks a book we sell in the shop, Bitter & Sweet: A Journey into Easter. It is a Lenten devotional by Tsh Oxenreider with daily readings for each of the days of this season that began in February with Ash Wednesday. Her welcoming chapter begins with words that have stuck with me since I first read them: “Lent is strange because Easter is strange.” She’s absolutely right. We are asked to believe an awful lot.

But this is my heritage and I enter the week with the reverence that I was taught by those who came before me. I remember them as I proceed with the ceremonies and rituals, as I sit in dark churches late at night, as I gather with the ones I love to cook and bake and feast. There are things we do each year just because we do what we do, and it would be strange indeed not to do them. And so the waxing moon will wax and grow and the days and nights will come and go: Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday. The moon will wax to fullness that night.

As for Lent: it will come to a close with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday). The Mass sets in motion the Easter Triduum, as we are taught, through Christ’s example at that Mass, to be humble and to be of service to our fellow human beings––a sentiment so very out of favor these days.

After Mass, the Night Watch will begin, only after the sun has set and night has fallen. The Pange Lingua, the beloved song of St. Thomas Aquinas, will have been sung, the statues in the church will have been covered in purple cloth (purple, the color of penitence), the blessed sacrament will have been set on display amongst lit candles, as the lights in the church are dimmed. The crowds, by this time, have gone, leaving but a few hardy souls who will sit and hold their vigil.

Seth and I, we will sit in the close and holy darkness of three different churches that night. This is the old pilgrimage, usually beginning at your home parish, but then processing beyond, out into the world. It is a custom taught to me by my grandmother, Assunta, and I will think of her, and I will think of all who have come and gone through my life, for this, too, is what we do. The night will grow late, and it will get quieter and quieter, and the moon will be ever present, and it will follow us, constant companion, on our pilgrimage. Good Friday will come the next day, followed by the stillness of Holy Saturday. On the third day will come Easter Sunday. All of it, a most strange week, when you really think about it.

 

OPEN SHOP DAY!
We’re planning to open the shop this Saturday (Holy Saturday) from 11 to 4, for your last chance to pick up Easter goods like traditional wooden bunnies from Germany’s Erzgebirge woodworkers, beautiful pysanky eggs from Ukraine, German splintwood baskets and wood wool Easter grass (none of the plastic stuff!), German papier mache eggs to fill with treats, and as far as the sweets in your basket, how about sweet and sour Swedish candies, licorice (some chocolate covered) and fruitful gummies from Denmark, and marzipan piglets from Germany? CLICK HERE to shop, and come on by this Saturday, please!

 

Image: “Christ on the Mount of Olives” by Paul Gauguin. Oil on canvas, 1889 [Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons]. This is one of my favorite paintings, set on the night of Maundy Thursday, and it resides locally, here at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. I need to go see it again soon.

 

Mar 25 2026
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Feast of the Annunciation, Lady Day

Waffle Day, Proper

I’m generally not one for proclaimed holidays like National Ice Cream Day (July 19) or National Pizza Day (February 9)––days that trade associations make up to drum up interest in their products. (Insert official disclaimer here: You will indeed find us celebrating Independent Bookstore Day (April 25) with a full weekend-long event at our shop next month. After all, I do own an independent bookstore, of sorts!) There is also a National Waffle Day in the United States, too. It falls on August 24, which is the date, in 1869, when the first U.S. patent was issued for a waffle iron.

And that’s an interesting story, I suppose. But there is a Waffle Day of much older origin and, truth be told, with a backstory that is infinitely more interesting. It originates in Sweden, and it has to do with the fact that today, the 25th of March, is Lady Day: The Feast of the Annunciation. This old celebration of the Church marks the visitation of the archangel Gabriel to Mary. Gabriel came to deliver the startling news to Mary that she was to bear a child, a son, and that that child would be the light of the world, the son of God.

So yes, a bit of startling news not just for Mary but also perhaps for us: it may feel (it does to me, anyway) like the year is still new, and yet here we are now, nine months to the nativity, nine months to Christmas.

But let’s get back to the waffles. A bit of linguistic confusion in Sweden has made this––for centuries now, with no relation to the day an American patent was issued in 1869––a day to enjoy waffles. This is the kind of Waffle Day story I can get behind and so I, of course, heartily endorse this particular culinary tradition.

So, now, let’s get to the Swedish linguistic confusion. The name Lady Day comes out of the tradition of calling Mary “Our Lady” (as in Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe, etc). In Sweden, the day is called Vårfrudagen, which follows the same logic, translating essentially to “Our Lady Day.”

Vårfrudagen, in some Swedish dialects, is awfully close in both spelling and pronunciation to Våffeldagen. And while the former translates to “Our Lady Day,” the latter translates to “Waffle Day.” It is this bit of linguistic confusion that has had Swedes, for centuries now, eating waffles on the Feast of the Annunciation. It’s a tradition that has spilled over to wherever Swedes have left their mark, this annual excuse to eat waffles at any time of day on Vårfrudagen––breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We will be joining their ranks today, and we encourage you to do the same. And while we here in the States are partial to butter and maple syrup atop our waffles, the waffles in Sweden today are typically served with whipped cream and lingonberries or cloudberries. There are also savory waffle dishes, and one of our favorites: waffles with ice cream. If you partake today, and I think you should, we encourage you to enjoy yours as you wish. There is no right or wrong way.

 

EASTER & SPRINGTIDE DELIGHTS AWAIT!
Shop with us online for traditional wooden bunnies from Germany’s Erzgebirge woodworkers, beautiful pysanky from Ukraine, German splintwood baskets and wood wool Easter grass (none of the plastic stuff!), German papier mache eggs to fill with treats, and as far as the sweets in your basket, how about sweet and sour Swedish candies, licorice (some chocolate covered) and fruitful gummies from Denmark, and marzipan piglets from Germany? CLICK HERE to shop. Lake Worth and South Florida locals: I’m not sure if we’ll be open again before Easter, but we’ll gladly open for you by appointment, or place your order online and come by for pick up this Saturday (March 28): We won’t be open, exactly, but we’re hosting a letterpress printing birthday party at the shop and you may pick up your order while the party is going on. Interested in having your own gathering at the shop? Let us know. You can have a pasta making party, or a letterpress party, or a bookbinding party. My kind of party!

 

Image: “Het Vertrouwelijk Onderhoud” by Adriaen van Ostade. Oil on panel, 1672 [Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons].

 

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