Crosses, Codfish and Kites
You can have your own set of wings
When I think of Easter, my heart goes straight home to Bermuda. I don’t think of big meals or formal feasts; the smaller bites stand out for me.
Two uniquely Bermudian traditions that made Easter feel special to me:
There were always Hot Cross Buns from Crow Lane Bakery – signature icing sugar crosses on top of the pillowy, slightly spiced, sweet, raisin-speckled dough. Every bite was heaven to me.
And, then, the proud Bermudian golden pan-fried Codfish Cakes – a bit of outside crunch and tons of chopped parsley, fresh thyme, and potatoes. (Lindo’s Market still does them justice – 👇 scroll down for their recipe to bring a little island joy to your kitchen.)
And every year, a fresh Easter outfit (our Easter Sunday church outfit) would arrive for me and my siblings from my amazing Pampa and Nanny, shipped from Macy’s in New York City. (We didn’t have stores like that in Bermuda!) It was always a little fancy – a little modern, and usually a hat, and absolutely perfect. Unfolding the tissue paper to find bright spring colors and pastels … it was almost better than Christmas.
But the memory that always really rises to the surface? Kites.
In Bermuda, Good Friday is called “Kite Day.” It is a Bermudian Heritage and it’s an all-island, everybody-in kite flying activity with competitions for the best looking, the biggest, and the longest flying.
It’s said that this age-old tradition began with a Sunday School teacher trying to illustrate Christ’s “ascension” to heaven.
Easter in Bermuda isn’t Easter without kites.
No store-bought kites allowed! Oh no, no. These are hand-built projects, crafted from kite sticks, the most fantastic choice of colored tissue paper, glue, and tape.
Bits of colored paper are cut and pressed into shapes, and just before flight, cloth tails made from torn sheets are tied on as stabilizers.
I never made any myself, but my brother did. There were and still are master kite makers, adept at fashioning cross kites, three stick kites, head stick kites, round kites, fish kites, and even the elaborate box kite.
We would anxiously wait for Good Friday to dawn and a bit of Bermudian breeze to begin its tease. And then – literally – thousands of kites would launch into the blue sky.
We’d gather on beaches, rooftops, and hilltops, laughing as our kites danced and tumbled. Some would crash. Some would tangle. But if we could trust the wind with our fragile gift, the kites would ascend.
Who came up with such a happy idea?
Some say the Chinese invented the kite, some say it was the Greeks, but most agree that it happened long before the time of Christ. In 1749, the Scots fastened thermometers to kites to record the temperature of the clouds. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin performed his famous, and very dangerous, experiment using a kite to prove that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, used elaborate multi-cellular kites to assist him in his design of an airplane.
During wars, kites have been used as radar reflectors, to carry cameras and people into the air for observational purposes, and as targets for aerial gunnery.
The Chinese fly kites for fun and to scare away evil spirits. The Maoris of New Zealand, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Lamays make elaborate and artistic kites for many reasons. Some of these bear whistles, which they claim scare away evil spirits.
The stabilizer
For me I wonder who thought of that cloth tail for ballast. Isn’t it funny that the heaviest part of the kite is the very same part that eases its flight? Rather than drag the kite down, it is the foundational element that allows the kite to play in the wind rather than be beaten by it.
It’s the stabilizer in each of our lives—the quiet force that grounds us when storms rage and the ballast that keeps us steady as we rise. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t boast. But oh, how it holds us—firm, faithful, and unwavering.
What’s your stabilizer? A sacred ritual? A loyal friend? A whispered prayer? A daily walk that reconnects you to something bigger?
That, my friend, is something worth honoring. Something to hold close. Something to celebrate this Good Friday.
Because when we are grounded, we are free to fly.
Love the idea of Kite Day! A wonderful tradition. And those old photos are such gems, Mary. So sweet! xoxo