Easter generally happens in April, (although sometimes it has fallen in March instead). There have been piles of Easter chocolates, candies, and toys in the grocery stores for a few weeks already, reminding us all that Easter is coming soon. It may make you think about your family’s Easter traditions.
Many families have a long standing tradition of visiting the Easter Bunny. I’m not sure where this tradition started, and in many ways, it seems quite strange to me. Parents take their children to sit on the lap of a person who is wearing a rabbit costume, for the purpose of having the child’s photo taken. In a lot of ways, this mimics the tradition of taking children to visit Santa Claus, and have their photo taken, in the weeks before Christmas.
There will always be some kids who are a bit intimidated by Santa Claus. There are a lot of small children and infants who find the sight of a gigantic rabbit-like humanoid to be disturbing. The result, of course, is a plenty of photos of screaming, crying, toddlers, who are trying to escape from the Easter Bunny. Having said this, I should make it clear that I come from a family that did participate in this bizarre Easter tradition. If your family did, too, then there may be a whole lot of photos of you, and your siblings, visiting the Easter Bunny when you were little.
Another popular Easter tradition involves coloring and decorating eggs. Children tend to find this activity to be their favorite part of Easter. This is a unique opportunity to use one’s creativity on something that you, or someone in your family, will get to eat, later on. There are few other times when a child can play with his or her food like this, and be encouraged to do so!
My family tends to use the store bought egg coloring kits that you find in the grocery store. This tradition comes with the acrid smell of vinegar, and the sulfuric smell of hard boiled eggs. The coolest thing we could think to do to decorate these eggs was to do a simplified form of a wax resist. Use a crayon to draw on the eggshell before you dip the egg into the dye, and it makes a nice contrast. I hear that there are special kinds of stickers that you can attach to Easter eggs now. Today, some families have started using more natural dyes instead.
These are just a few of many Easter traditions that some families take part in. I selected two that my family has participated in. What are your family’s Easter traditions?
Image by Robert Thivierge on Flickr