greetings from . . .

Faith and fine weather. Between them, they have rousted generations of Southern Californians, true believers and holiday hangers-on alike, out of bed and out to Easter sunrise services almost as old as the 20th century.

The most venerable of these is Mt. Rubidoux’s in Riverside. Since 1909--except for three years during World War II--pilgrims have hiked to Easter Sunday services at the hilltop cross.

In San Diego, the lighted cross atop Mt. Helix was raised 75 years ago by a San Diego family in memory of its mother. The cross became a navigational landmark, and a legal one, the subject of church-state lawsuits that didn’t manage to derail Easter ceremonies.

Thanks in part to its fabled secular performances, the best-known sunrise service is the Hollywood Bowl, which returns to home base this Easter after five years of exile during construction. It began here in 1921, in the amphitheater setting where Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra would later perform.