Easter Traditions

Easter is a beautiful season filled with many traditions. One tradition that started many years ago is wearing your Easter Sunday best clothes, including a bonnet and gloves. I’m trying to imagine wearing dress clothes here in Northeastern PA back in the day of horse and carriage. I’m freezing in my fully enclosed car on the way to the Church for Easter now. I know the exact spot in the road where I can turn my heat on high because it’s no longer blowing out cold air, and I’m still cold. Those poor people years ago had no windshield on these blustery, snowy winter days, and it took a half a day longer to get to the church than it does nowadays. My Sunday best back then would have included every blanket I owned. “Kids get inside my blanket cocoon if you want to survive the trip. Oh you want to help Dad drive the team of horses? Ok I’ll be frozen to the back seat here if you need me.” They’d only be able to see the whites of my eyes. At least if the horses saw a snake on the way and reared up and tipped over the carriage we wouldn’t get hurt because we’d be so bundled, we’d just gently roll out of it unscathed. Another Easter tradition is the Easter baskets for the kids. It’s always a good time getting that fake green grass all over your house from one end to the other. How does that happen? All of the loose jellybeans in the basket melt, and the kids have to peal the fake grass off of them to eat them, but it’s worth it. Why does the Easter Bunny get credit for all of the time and effort we put into those baskets anyways? Where was this elusive bunny when I checked out of Target with multiple $5 a piece Reese’s eggs and $40 solid chocolate bunnies? Does he have a tab started there that I’m not aware of? Where is the bunny when we have to go to the dentist after Easter candy season? He hops in and out of our lives so fast it’s not even funny, taking all the credit and dealing with none of the repercussions. Yet another fun tradition is the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt, when the aggressive older kids pretend they didn’t hear the “only take 7 eggs” rule as they load up their basket with 100 eggs, leaving the smaller children in the middle of the field crying because they have no eggs. You’d see a small child bend down to pick up an egg, only to have an older child come from out of nowhere at a high rate of speed swipe it and run with it. Then when their parents force them to share, everyone starts crying. Good times! But once the kids pop open their eggs and see some chocolate, all is right with the world again. That’s how it is for adults too, once the chocolate is popped out, all is right with the world again for a brief moment in time. Then there’s the photo op with the Easter Bunny, which kids either loved with every fiber of their being, or they felt like it was the end of the world. My one son absolutely loved characters. I have a picture of him with the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, every Disney World character under the sun, and I think that if an alien landed, he would be the first to welcome him and take a selfie with him. My other two…terrified. They could walk the whole length of the mall without making eye contact with the whole bunny photo op scene going in the center. But at least my kids were decisive one way or the other. I felt bad for the parents whose kids were all in, got dressed up, waited in line for two hours to sit on the bunny’s lap, and then panic set in when it came time to plop them on his lap. I’m sure the kids in front of them crying on his lap didn’t help matters…they must’ve been thinking what is happening here? Suddenly sitting on a man-sized bunny’s lap wasn’t such a good idea after all. So whatever tradition your family celebrates this Easter season, I hope you all have a Happy Easter!! Be thankful for your warm, enclosed car to get you where you need to go for Easter!