Growing up, Easter was always a wonderful time in our lives on many levels.  I always got a new pair of white patent leather shoes and dress as I had outgrown these from the previous year.  I used the same Easter bonnet for many years.  It stayed nice as I was not allowed to wear it at other times and it went into the box wrapped in tissue paper until the next year. My brothers got new clothes as well as they had outgrown their clothes but like my bonnet, they could rewear or pass on their clip-on bow or neckties they sported each year.

On the Saturday night before Easter, my mother would boil eggs and then retire to the living room (egg coloring was not her thing) and my father would help us color the eggs. We each dyed an egg in our favorite color with our name written on it with the clear, waxy crayon.  We made an egg for our mother and our grandparents and of course whatever dog we currently had.  The older we got, the more colorful and sophisticated our eggs became as the dye kits got better and our skill level progressed.

Easter morning was an exciting time, second only to Christmas morning. The anticipation of what the Easter Bunny had brought and where he had hidden the eggs when he came to visit during the night while we were sleeping was thrilling.  We could always count on finding an egg in the toe of one of my dad’s slippers. We each got a large chocolate bunny, jelly beans, and some kind of age-appropriate toy and maybe some money in a plastic egg.  We loved it.

It was time to go to Easter services which were wonderful because of the beautiful, uplifting music, the Easter lilies that adorned the altar and the joyfulness we all felt as we rejoiced with the repeated words of “He is Risen” and “He is Risen Indeed”.  Even the children knew what the message meant as we had Sunday school lessons leading up to Easter Sunday for the weeks prior.  Everyone seemed elated.

This was followed by the extended family Easter meal, spending time with the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, having home-made ice cream and deviled eggs made from the excess, colored eggs and the special treat of homemade ice cream.  Even 60 years later, these traditions live on.  While I am not at home to enjoy them with the family I grew up with, I have carried on some of the same traditions in my home with my own child and my step-children and grandchildren and have added some traditions of my own.  My daughter will most likely do the same thing.

While time moves on and the people you celebrate with change, the message and the gift given to us almost 2000 years ago stays constant and unchanging.  God in his unconditional love gave His only son to die for us to save us from ourselves and our sins.  While the other traditions are fun and give us good memories, the true Easter story is the best of all and tomorrow we can once again rejoice and greet each other with the powerful promise of our loving Father and His Son.  “He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!”

Patty