Crowds brave cold for sunrise Easter service at Jones Beach

The sun appeared only briefly during the sunrise service at Jones Beach on Easter morning, but those who stood in the dark and fog were looking on the bright side.

"It’s very nice camaraderie," said Alison Rosenstein, from Hicksville, who attended Sunday's service with her mother, Faith Frasca, and her niece, Grace Frasca, from Oyster Bay.

"We like the music, as opposed to the message, but it’s just a nice way to start the day," Rosenstein said. Faith Frasca said she had attended sunrise Easter services at her Congregational church when she was growing up in Connecticut and Maine, so they came to continue that tradition.

The annual service at Jones Beach, which commemorates the biblical story of Jesus rising from his tomb after his crucifixion, is celebrated by the Long Island Council of Churches, an interfaith group that serves the needs of low-income Long Islanders.

Luz Naranjo, from New Hyde Park, was also honoring a childhood tradition. She grew up in the Philippines, where her family attended an early morning Easter service every year. For many years she and her husband, Victor Naranjo, attended another sunrise service, "rain or shine, blizzard or not," she said. They walk on the Jones Beach boardwalk every weekend, so this year they combined church and exercise routine.

The moon was still out when the service began, the sounds of tumbling surf accompanying the songs and readings. Several dozen people formed a loose semicircle, standing in clusters and sitting in beach chairs, facing the ocean.

Carmen Mejia from Carmen’s Cultural Mix performed a dance as a pink sun broke through the fog for a few minutes before getting swallowed up again in clouds. The Rev. Katie Mulligan, the pastor at United Presbyterian Church in Levittown, gave a sermon, which she promised would be brief in recognition of the chilly day.

In her sermon, Mulligan said many people experience times of emptiness in their lives — as the disciples found the tomb empty — but they may find an answer or a path forward "just around the corner."

"It’s warmer today than it was the last couple of years," Charlene Chasse said. She and her sister, Diane Luvert, both from Freeport, said they come to the beach service nearly every year. Cold or not, Luvert said, "It’s a beautiful experience."