LAUGHTER TO FILL BETHEL CHURCHES ON APRIL 12

Peals of laughter and the occasional animal sound will fill Bethel’s historic downtown churches on Sunday, April 12.

Bethel United Methodist Church (BUMC), St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, and the First Congregational Church of Bethel (FCCB) will each in their own ways celebrate Bright Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. Though absent from official church calendars, Bright Sunday brings lively fun and humor to many churches on a day when energy and attendance typically dip.

BUMC will observe the day as “Heifer Sunday,” the culmination of a weeks-long project raising awareness of the non-profit Heifer International.

“We’ll bring in a farmer and their animals to talk about what it is to raise animals on a farm for the sustenance of the neighborhood and world,” BUMC Pastor, Karen Cook, said. “Last year we had goats in church! They stayed in a pen out on the front lawn and were then brought in for the sermon. It was a blast!” Cook added, “Every animal is prayed over.”

Worship on April 12 at St. Thomas’ and FCCB will include knock-knock jokes, church bulletin bloopers, and humorous stories and music. FCCB will focus on the theme “New Life Is Springing Up.”

“People will be invited to wear clothing and hats that express that: Hawaiian shirts, florals, bright colors,” FCCB interim pastor Laura Westby said. “The service will feature ‘fractured hymns’ -- Christmas hymn tunes with Easter words – like ‘Hark the herald angel said, Christ is risen from the dead.’”

St. Thomas’ is billing the day as “Holy Hilarity Sunday,” with an invitation to “wear something wacky to church” and send jokes to the priest for use in her sermon.

“Last year we had a couple of choir members in bath robes, some amazing hats, and great jokes contributed by church members,” St. Thomas’ priest-in-charge, Norma Schmidt, said. “The choir surprised me by using the tune of the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ theme song for their anthem. I can’t wait to see what our choir and church members come up with this year.”

Humor and fun as part of the first week after Easter go back to ancient times, Schmidt said. According to the Joyful Noiseletter website, Christians in different parts of the world celebrated the week after Easter as “days of joy and laughter.” They held parties and picnics, played practical jokes, told jokes, sang and drenched each other with water.

The custom’s roots lay in the musings of theologians who described Jesus’ resurrection as a great joke on death and the devil, the website states. In 1988, the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging a revival of Bright Sunday celebrations, and many churches from different traditions responded.

“Laughter can be a form of worship,” Schmidt said. “Laughing in church as an expression of Easter joy makes good sense.”