As it turns out, there is so much that makes this holiday what it is today — religious or otherwise.
Easter Eggs
Throughout most of Christian Europe, the pagan symbols of the spring hare, the egg, and chick were quickly adopted as symbols for the Christian Easter. The colorful ritual of decorating eggs also has an intriguing origin. As part of the Lenten season leading up to Easter, early Christians abstained from eating food from animals as the Lenten fast. Yet chickens continued to lay eggs, so eggs were hard-boiled, then decorated to celebrate the Easter season but were not eaten until Easter. Easter egg decorating became a high art in Europe, especially in eastern Europe and Russia, that immigrants brought to America.
Easter Bunny
Like many
Easter traditions, the Easter Bunny evolved out of ancient fertility and spring
celebrations. Rabbits breed like, well, rabbits, and give birth in the spring.
So, in places where the fields became overrun with baby bunnies, it was natural
to incorporate the rabbit as a symbol for spring and, eventually, Easter.
Another
legend tells of a poor German woman who
loved children. She would hide brightly colored eggs in her garden as Easter
treats. One year, while the children searched for them, they noticed a hare
hopping past and believed that the animal had left the eggs.
Easter Cards
Easter
cards became very popular in the 1800s with colorful depictions of the
egg-laying and egg-painting Easter bunny, as well as the Easter chick. And some
cards combined the Easter bunny and chick in whimsical narratives to deliver
colored Easter eggs to children.
Easter Egg Rolling
Given the egg’s symbolic significance
representing the rock before the tomb, egg rolling became a popular children’s
Easter activity in America in the 1800s, recreating the rolling away of the
rock in front of Christ's tomb. According to the White House Historical
Association, some historians credit First Lady Dolley Madison (yes, her name is spelled correctly!)with first
proposing the idea of a public egg roll around 1810. There are also accounts of
informal egg rolls staged by the children of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and
Andrew Johnson on the White House lawn. The 1878 event hosted by President
Rutherford B. Hayes on the South Lawn, however, stands as the first official
White House Easter Egg Roll.
Hot Cross Buns
According to popular lore, these Easter-famous breads trace back to ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece, where they served as symbols of honor toward their goddesses. Later, these sweet breads became popular at Easter, especially in England where bakers were forbidden to sell spice breads except on special holidays, like the Friday before Easter.
Chocolate Bunnies
In 19th century Germany, chefs concocted pastry and sugar bunnies (some had hard boiled eggs inside of them!) were in production. And bunny-shaped tins, used for chocolate molds, have been traced back to Munich in the 1850s.
Around
the same time, Robert Strohecker, a business man in Pennsylvania, placed a
5-foot-tall chocolate rabbit in his drugstore's window. The rest, as they say,
is history.
Easter Outfits
How many of us remember the dressing up to the nines on Easter Sunday? Girls in frilly spring dresses with little gloves and purses? Boys in pastel suit jackets and bow ties? Purchasing a new holiday outfit may seem like a 20th century commercial invention, but even early Christians followed the practice of wearing new clothes for Easter. It was the one time of year when, if you had new clothes, you wore them. You dressed in your finest to go to church as a manner of honoring the resurrected Savior. In America, stores soon latched onto the idea that creating Easter outfits and sales during the season would help them sell fancy bonnets or suits.
Fueled
by the popularity of Irving Berlin’s song, Easter Parade, as well as the
resulting movie featuring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, city-goers went to New York's Fifth Avenue to
show off their new attire, eventually leading to the creation of the famous
Easter Parade.
Easter Egg Trees
It's only in recent years that miniature Easter trees have
become popular in North America. This Easter tradition from Germany is a
favorite. Beautifully decorated Easter eggs are hung on branches in a vase in
the home or on trees outside, adding a splash of color to spring's palette.
Until this research, I never knew I was ahead of the curve on
this tradition. From the time my children were babies, I’ve decorated a tree
outside our home. Using plastic eggs (to endure the elements, e.g. ice/snow/wind/rain…you
get the picture!), I would thread a ribbon through a hole in one end of the egg
then loop them over the bare branches. Here is this year’s masterpiece!!!
As with Christmas’s Santa Claus—who came first
from the pagan Father Winter, then morphed into the Christian St. Nicholas—the
Easter bunny and Easter chick had pagan origins that then became symbolic to
the Christian faith. But the Christian symbolism associated with all three and
the historical context behind them is, sadly, little known by most in modern
America. It is worth remembering that all three are associated with birth and
rebirth, sharing gifts and bringing joy, and peace and good will.
Happy Easter!
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