SCV Reader March 2016

Easter Traditions
Meet Easter Fun in the SCV
From Eggstravaganza to Easter Brunch, enjoy a colorful and tasty holiday.
by Michele E. Buttelman • features and entertainment editor
This year, Easter is on Sunday,
March 27. Is your inner Easter
Bunny dyeing to fill a plethora of
Easter baskets with hip-hoppity
fun?
Easter celebrates the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, and the date
of Easter changes each year. The
date is calculated as the first
Sunday after the first full moon
following the vernal equinox (the
first day of spring).
As Easter approaches it is now
time to “hop” to it!
Fill your Easter baskets with a variety of goodies, and don’t
forget the simple joy of munching on a chocolate bunny
this season.
In addition, I’ve always enjoyed filling Easter baskets for my family. I love creating a
nest with fake Easter grass and placing jelly beans, candy eggs and chocolate bunnies
into the basket with a few other treats, as well, (movie tickets, gift cards and small
trinkets).
Is there any better way to start Easter morning than a backyard egg hunt? Or chomping
the ears of the chocolate Easter bunny nestled in your Easter basket?
Some traditions are just too much fun to ever give up, no matter what your age! In
our neighborhood we hold a multi-family egg hunt where everyone participates,
young and old.
It’s a great chance to share Easter with
neighbors whose children have outgrown
Easter Egg hunts, and don’t yet have grandchildren.
Dyeing Easter eggs is a fun tradition in my family. We usually buy several different
egg dyeing kits from traditional, pastel colored eggs to glitter eggs. This year I’ve
spied a “golden egg” kit that I think will be different and fun.
Create special Easter memories by dyeing your own
eggs and hiding them in the backyard.
Fun Easter Facts:
The tradition of decorating eggs dates back to the
ancient Persians, known as Zoroastrians, who
painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year’s celebration
during the spring. On the first day of spring,
they would give each other an egg dyed red.
Thirteenth-century Macedonians were the first
Christians known to use colored eggs in their Easter
celebrations. Crusaders
returning
from the Middle
East spread the
Decorate blown eggs and hang them
on branches arranged in a vase for a
special Easter Egg Tree.
Children will love to make “stained
glass window” art.
custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans then began
to use colored eggs to celebrate Easter and other
holidays.
The ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans
all used colored eggs to celebrate spring. Among
the Chinese, parents of newborn children still present
gifts of colored eggs to their friends as a sign
of new life.
Easter Egg hunts and egg rolling are also longstanding
traditions. The first White House Easter
Egg Roll occurred in 1878 and the tradition continues on the Monday after Easter.
Easter Crafts:
A fun family craft project is to create an “Easter Egg Tree.”
First “blow out” your eggs. This can be accomplished in many ways.
You can find dozens of YouTube videos demonstrating tricks and
techniques for egg blowing.
As a child I remember using a hobby knife and piercing a small hole in the large end
of the egg. This was followed by inserting the end of a large paper clip that had been
straightened to make the hole a little larger. Next, I did the same procedure at the
small end of the egg. Then, I would put my mouth to the egg and actually blow the
contents out into a bowl.
Today, I just use one of those blue, bulbous baby aspirators to push the egg contents
out of the egg. I placed the aspirator over one hole and squeezed repeatedly until
the egg emptied into the bowl.
After you have collected your empty eggs, dye the shells a variety of festive colors.
You can also add decals, ribbon and sparkles, too.
Next, you need to affix something that will allow the egg to hang from your tree.
I’ve seen videos and online suggestions using needle and thread (making use of a
magnet to get the needle out the bottom of the egg), as well as fancy and expensive
“hangers.” I just glue some ribbon or string on top of the egg, cover it with a decorative
decal and I’m done.
Next, find a clear vase and fill it with sturdy dead branches. Make sure there are
enough branches to hang plenty of eggs. I like to spray paint my branches white, gold
or silver, depending on the color scheme I am using. One year I painted each branch
a different pastel color.
Fill the vase with colored glass pebbles (sometimes called glass jems, or glass
“blobs”), washed pebbles or small river rocks to hold the branches in place.
Hang your eggs.
Viola! You now have a beautiful and colorful Easter table centerpiece.
Another fun Easter craft project for children is to construct tissue paper “stained
glass windows.”