2017 would have been one of those years—when Tax Day collides with Easter.

This year Easter is April 16th, and the deadline for filing 2016 tax returns is April 18. Which brings up the question “Why is Tax Day April 18?” instead of the traditional deadline of April 15th?

The regular tax return filing deadline is April 15. However, due to April 15 being on a Saturday and the Washington D.C. Emancipation Day holiday being observed on April 17 instead of April 16, 2017, Tax Day is on the following Tuesday. (E-file website)

You see, for church musicians, Holy Week is the busiest and craziest time of the year. And when it coincides or is very near to Tax Day, my late husband Carl Crosier was absolutely beside himself! Look at these years and the dates of Easter:

1974 – April 14
1979 – April 15
1990 – April 15
1995 – April 16
2001 – April 15
2006 – April 16

I think those were the years that Carl went cuckoo! He used to call it “Holy H***” Week!

Many people did not know that in addition to being the Cantor of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Carl also held down a full-time job as the Chief Financial Officer of St. Andrew’s Priory School. But he also had a dozen personal tax clients, so in addition to filing our own, very complicated tax return, he did it for others. Can you imagine what his life was like during Holy Week and Tax Week?

The church schedule was:

Monday, there was a dress rehearsal with the brass or orchestra
Tuesday, there was a meeting of some kind.
Wednesday was generally the only free night. One year, however, we did a combined Tenebrae service with the choir of St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
Thursday was the Maundy Thursday service
Friday was the Good Friday service
Saturday was the Easter Vigil with a rehearsal at 5:45 pm and a dinner before the 7:30 service. There was a tradition that Carl always cooked that night for 40-45 people, which included the choir, acolytes, clergy and other participants. [HE WAS CRAZY!]
Sunday, there were three services: 8:00, 10:30 and 9:00 pm Compline.

You see, it was not only his task to choose all the repertoire for the week—he had to teach it to the choir and assign solos as necessary. He also was responsible for typing the Triduum bulletin, a booklet containing the service orders and music for the Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday), which sometimes ran to 72 pages!

The only possible repeat of choral repertoire was between the Easter Vigil and the 10:30 am Festival Eucharist. Every service had its own music. I would guess that during Holy Week, the choir sang in excess of 40 different pieces of music.

When did he have time to do his “real” job? When did he have time to do people’s taxes? He also NEVER put people on “extension,” to file their taxes much later in the year.

I’ll never forget that after Carl’s funeral, I returned the tax papers to his clients. Several of them told me that Carl had done their taxes for over thirty years and they never knew him to be anything but their tax guy, an accountant! Never heard that he was a musician! On the other hand, how many people in the music community knew that Carl had this whole other life as a money man?

As for me, I’m almost ready for my Easter brunch!