Bernice Kwong
When junior Bernice Kwong and her family moved from San Jose to Cupertino, they decided to start going to church and adopt the Christian faith. Every year since then, they enjoy celebrating and participating in Easter festivities.
Kwong and her family are currently part of a non-traditional Orthodox Church, a Chinese Cantonese congregation that often prepares Chinese dishes for Easter. However, Kwong has visited a variety of different types of churches with varying Easter celebrations in the past. She recalls one of the churches she visited when she was younger would put on an Easter play with all the youth members. In the play, they would dress up and act out the story of Jesus’ rebirth. Kwong believes the celebrations at church have allowed her to develop a deeper connection with Christianity.
“I celebrate with my church members because religion isn't something that's really prevalent in my family, because everyone has a different religious path,” Kwong said. “We all believe in similar things like Christianity, but we all have different depths of understanding of Easter.”
Though Kwong has celebrated Easter for years, her views of Easter as a holiday have changed greatly as she has grown up. As a kid, Kwong remembers Easter more for the activities rather than the religious aspects. She recalls she and the other youth members at church being bored by the Bible lessons held on Easter, but excited for the egg hunt that came after. As she’s grown older, Kwong has been able to appreciate aspects of Easter outside of the games to a greater extent.
“I went to this Christian afterschool and I remember sometimes the pastor would come and then he would recite the story and then the meanings behind it, but as kids, no one would listen to him, because it was just something silly, right?” Kwong said. “I think later on, reflecting back on it, I realized how important remembering Easter is because it's a community day.”
Today, Kwong ties the holiday with Bible verse John 3:16, one she remembers everyone memorizing as a kid and still can recite as “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting love.” She feels as though John 3:16 fully encompasses the religious aspect of her feelings on Easter.
“As a kid, you would see these kinds of verses in the easter eggs that we would crack open and it basically just means a holiday that gives us the rebirth of God,” Kwong said. “And also the reason why when we sin, we do not perish or die, but we are forgiven. So it's just a holiday which is a reminder that no matter what situation happens, bad or like really, really bad, everything's going to be OK in the end.”
