This time was not only a celebration of reawakening in the church, but for us it was a time when we would visit family or new places.
These trips were always times of great joy for me; first because the weather was always warmer than back home, and second because we always stayed in a hotel. I loved hotels as a kid. There was a pool at each hotel, and I remember staying in the water until my skin would wrinkle and my fingers turn blue!
No matter where we traveled each year, Mom always had an Easter basket waiting for me in the morning – yellow PEEPS, spiced jelly beans, Reese's eggs, and a small gift.
In retrospect I have no idea how she hid everything from me the entire trip, and am astounded that she made it all so special every year.
When I was in college I would get an Easter care package, but by then it included practical items such as cans of tuna fish, peanut butter crackers those things you couldn't live without while living in the dorms.
Do you have holiday memories around Easter or Passover that remind you of your childhood? Anything that makes you smile when you think back, or traditions you have continued with your children?
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We all got our own basket of candy. (Mom and Dad shared a double size basket, and we could all eat from it as long as Mom got all of the black jelly beans. Frequently, their basket ended up with chocolates that had finger holes in them or corners broken off so we could make sure it didn't have some awful filling like that strawberry cream.) My brothers and I would trade each other until we all got candy we liked best. Usually, on Saturday night, Dad and I would stay up late watching a good old movie like King of Kings or Barrabas or something like that. Occasionally, the whole family would do that big midnight Mass, which was sooooo long but we got to hold a lit candle and play with the flame and the melted wax, so it wasn't so bad that Mass was long.
We always ate ham on Easter, and my mom has a recipe for pineapple casserole that is amazing. Too sweet to eat alone but perfect when eaten with ham.
I remember the egg hunts with my siblings and cousins. My uncles would always find the most creative places to hide eggs - which even included an empty bird nest on top of our porch! The one tradition would be to have a "golden egg" that would be filled up with whatever dollars and change my grandpa had in his pocket that morning. These are such happy memories that we get to carry on with my nieces and nephew now.
My fondest Easter memories are from the egg hunt after church. Our church went ALL OUT to make the egg hunt special for the kids. I remember not being able to sit still in church because I was so excited for the egg hunt!
My parents would hide plastic Easter eggs filled with goodies every year, but they would always forget where they hid one or two each time. It was a nice surprise when my brother or I would find an egg months later! They continued the egg hunt tradition until we moved out of their house (in our early 20's)HAHA
I'm Greek so Easter always fell on a different day than "regular Easter" as we called it as kids. We still got a visit from the Easter Bunny, of course. The Easter eggs are dyed a deep, deep red. Before sitting down to Easter dinner we each take an egg and starting with the youngest family member, tap the egg of the next oldest. The person left with the intact egg after going around the table will have good luck for the year. The cracking of the egg signifies the opening of the tomb, and as you tap the egg of the person next to you, you say in Greek, "Christ has risen", and the response is "He has truly risen". This is a tradition that my father loved, and we still carry it on today in his memory.
When we were young, my mom would sew matching Easter dresses for me and my two sisters (and she also worked part-time!). At church, there were pink, white and red begonias on the altar, for everyone to take home as a reminder of the gift of Life. My sisters and I would help arramge the altar the day before Easter; my parents were fostering our volunteerism early on... By the way, that was fascinating to read, Stephanie Hand. And I think Amy's photo is darling. Thank you, all, for sharing these fond memories.
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