Easter

Hold the popcorn, but keep the engine running: It's show time for "The Scenes of Easter, A Unique Drive-Thru Experience" at The Tabernacle in Laurel.Squint your eyes a bit, and it could be Charlton Heston out there in the parking lot, reliving the last days of Jesus Christ.More likely, it's David Ingram, a personal computer analyst from Elkridge and one of seven men who portray Jesus in the church's first drive-through Passion play tonight and tomorrow night, featuring a cast of dozens.Mr.

Happy Easter! With the holiday right around the corner, events especially for children and those for the whole family are being held in all of our neighborhoods.* The Arundel Improvement Association will sponsor an Easter egg hunt (for children up to the age of 11) from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on the grounds of the AIA Hall, 705 Cross St. Children will be grouped according to age to hunt for eggs. Volunteers are needed to help supervise the hunt and offer donations of cupcakes.For information, call 789-2192.

The First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3604 Chatham Road, Ellicott City, offers Lenten Worship at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, this week and March 18 and 25, and April 1 and 8. The youth will serve a light supper of regional cuisine at 6:15 p.m. in the Fellowship Center. A freewill offering will be collected to cover food. A Service of Word and Sacrament is planned at 7:30 p.m. April 9, Maundy Thursday. Good Friday Services are planned at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Easter Sunday Services of Word and Sacrament will be at 7 a.m., 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. April 12. The 2,100-member congregation is at Chatham and Frederick roads.

Easter's message of hope and new life is a universal and much-needed one throughout the world, but particularly for Marylanders this year as we celebrate the passage of the offshore wind bill by the Maryland General Assembly. I'm filled with thanks to The Sun's reporter Tim Wheeler for covering the story over the past three years and to all of our leaders who made this hopeful decision in 2013. My thanks to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, original co-sponsors Sen. Paul Pinsky and Del. Thomas Hucker as well as the Senate Finance Committee (including Baltimore City Sen. Catherine Pugh)

It would appear that Easter has arrived a little early at Connie Bialecki's house."I am knee-deep in bunnies," said Mrs. Bialecki, who has been painting the ceramic figurines in preparation for the Easter Market, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at Carroll County Agricultural Center on Smith Avenue in Westminster.For the past three months, the Westminster ceramicist has been helping coordinate the event, the first of four seasonal markets planned this year."We will have flowers, homemade candy, beautifully decorated cakes, local produce and baked goods," she said.

EASTER IS SUCH a money-grubbing business these days that the message, "He has risen," is buried in the artificial grass. Everywhere you turn are bunnies, chicks, eggs and candy in every size, color and wrapping imaginable. Mass-produced bunnies dyed pastel pink or powder blue, with floppy or upright ears, spill out of every nook and cranny at your local store You can buy a palm-sized, yellow fuzzy chick that chirps or an oversized stuffed duckling with an orange platypus-like beak. Let's not stop at stuffed though: If an animated "toy" suits your fancy, visit your local pet shop.

AN EASTER tradition continued at St. Stephen's Reformed Episcopal Church in Eldersburg on Sunday when the Sunday School program presented its annual Easter play. Children have performed a play at Easter and Christmas for more than a dozen years.Under the direction of teachers Frances Frey and Suzette Godman, 14 youngsters presented "Easter Praise Parade." The play told the Easter story through a group of neighborhood children planning and preparing to hold a parade through their town.Emily Riddle, Stephanie Carney, Jill Bankard, Brooke Laur and Brian Crouse had the primary roles.

Easter at the Inner Harbor provided a good example of how people looking at the very same thing often see it in completely different ways.For most of the 9,000 people who visited the Inner Harbor to hear the free jazz music and enjoy the ambience of the promenade, Sunday was a most enjoyable day.But an incident -- unnecessarily blown out of proportion -- did mar the experience for others who lingered for the evening concert. As it was drawing to a close, a group of up to 25 teen-agers, by all descriptions mostly African Americans, suddenly ran through the harbor, pushing and shoving to get by.Many people among the holiday throng, most of them white, apparently feared the worst and hurried to get out of the way. In the confusion, someone knocked over a potted plant at a seafood restaurant.

Here it is Easter Monday, and there's more than half a ham left in my refrigerator.The rest of it disappeared yesterday, along with a lot of the energy that arrives this time of the year.This April gust of sprightliness is entirely different from experiences called the Christmas spirit. For one, the springtime rendering is a lot less stressful.For starters, our days are much brighter and longer than anything in December. The air seems cleaner, lighter and more inviting.This spring has been cool and fairly dry. The color has been extended on our forsythia, flowering cherry and pear trees.

RESURRECTION OF Our Lord Roman Catholic parish comes into its own this Easter season as the church celebrates its namesake and the resurrection.In keeping with that joyous occasion, the church announces young members who have made their first Communion: Mary Bugg, Cathy Conte, Jonathan Gomez, Tia Jackson, Ashley Kundin, Katie Lachut, Emanuelle Lima, Tatiana Ovalle, Gabrielle Pintos, Brittany Rouiller, Charles Utley, Vinnie Burke, Francisco Figueroa, Sami...