With Easter coming up this weekend and the weatherman forecasting snow for our region I realize that I have had lots of snowy Easters, but it didn't take away from it being Easter. It doesn't take away from the Holy Week. In the long run, my Palm Sunday, the Holy Week, and all, it is up to me. It is all up to me to Easter now, without my family, in whatever way works.
There was always some family fun and there was always some church. In my younger days it meant something new in clothing usually a dress but maybe a spring coat and it might have a hat to go with it, maybe a pair of sandals. The dying of boiled eggs and the hunting of them, generally throughout the house with it being too wet for an outdoors hunt. It also meant Easter candy, but not the variety now offered. This was more jelly beans, gum drops, those sugary egg shapes that were about the size of a medium egg in lots of colors and at least one chocolate item, which might be gooey on the inside, or peanut butter or marshmallow. Or it might be in the shape of a rabbit, the posed rabbit that was hollow, but had solid chocolate ears.
Easter was also a Sunrise Service at the Methodist Church, and Dad even came with the rest of us on that day. No Daylight Saving Time, and I always felt it must be so very early, the sun just coming up over the hills to the east. Now I realize it really wasn't that early. But it felt special, even if we were trudging through the snow to get to the church. The hushed feel, the reverence of that day carried over, the rays of sunlight lighting up the colored glass window scene on the eastern side of the chapel. It was different from the weekly church-goings. Easter!
I knew there would be hot-cross buns at home after the meeting. That was a part of my maternal grandmother's background being passed down. I wanted my own children to experience hot-cross buns, the making of them, the story, the currants, the smell of them baking. Not important really, just my feelings of heritage.
I loved the wearing of a hat, and still do, even though my hats are all stored away. It really isn't a Easter thing, but that is when I was first introduced to knowing that for me, a nice hat meant a 'step up.' A behaving as a lady.
I loved Easter as the mother of my own family, trying to instill the importance of remembering Jesus Christ, yet still making the weekend one of welcoming the hoped for spring. For years I endeavored to have hot-cross buns for my children, until I had so many things to do--making Easter dresses for 5 girls and surely something for our son, dinner, eggs, etc, that something had to give. And it was the buns that went after about twenty years. Having changed locations I endeavored to incorporate the culture of my new surroundings, and my husband's families Easter activities.
Easter is still a favorite time, a holiday of sorts. I still love to dye eggs, it has been a long time since I thought of a new Easter outfit for myself. My priorities have changed and hopefully matured, along with my circumstance. The Inspiration of the week, the day, has become more and more, of my own making, along with the interactions with others feeling the same. Now I have lots of reading, learning more each year of the Real Reason. We celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus, because of Easter, the Atonement and Resurrection. As it should be.
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