Easter Sunday.   The unofficial first day of  Spring.  Christians all over the world dress up in their newest and brightest outfits to join their friends and family at their favorite places of worship.  Those that don’t normally attend church on Sundays, make an additional effort to be there on Easter.

When I was a kid, everyone dressed in their “Sunday go-to-meeting clothes”.  The Ladies, in newly purchased outfits of long flowing pastel and lace dresses.  Heads adorned with a new matching hat, with veil, of course.  High heeled, buttoned shoes of the same color.  Some of the older ladies would even carry a parasol to match.  The Gentlemen in light colored suits, white dress shirt, brightly colored tie, highly shined shoes, and either wearing, or carrying a hat.  Their children were dressed to the “nines”.

I think Irving Berlin said it best in the song “Easter Parade”.

“In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
I’ll be all in clover and when they look you over,
I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade.
On the avenue, fifth avenue, the photographers will snap us,
And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure.
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet,
And of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade.”

It was quite a sight to see, as they paraded along the sidewalks, or across the parking lots.  They would stand outside the church for a few minutes, so that every passerby could see how “dandy” they looked.  Smiling faces, bright attitudes, well mannered, and hoping the Sermon wouldn’t last too long.  Need to get home, and get back into “normal” clothes. Hypocritical …Yes.  Superficial …Yes.  But beautiful, just the same.

For the Kids.  Easter Sunday is a day of candy and hunting eggs.  In the days leading up to Easter. Mom and the kids go to the market to buy dozens of eggs.  Bring ’em home.  Hardboil ’em.  Let ’em cool.  Now they are ready for color.  What fun that was.  Remember all the different colors?  Mostly pastels.  And every child (and adults) tried to make the fanciest one.  You could write on them with that little grease pencil, that never did work quite right.  You were supposed to use that funny looking wire egg holder to dip the eggs in color.  That never worked any better than the grease pencil did.  If you spilled the coloring on the table, or countertop, Mom wouldn’t get angry.  She’d just say “that’s OK, it’ll wash right off” (and it didn’t).   And the next day at school all the kids would have stained hands and fingernails.  Those colored hands were worn with pride, as if they were a trophy, or a medal.

On Easter morning it was brightly colored baskets filled with giant chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps, jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, and a couple of colored hardboiled eggs with your name on them.  If you were lucky, and Peter Cottontail remembered, you might even find my favorite…….Popcorn Balls.  Popcorn shaped into balls with a sweet sugary substance to hold them together, and then wrapped in colorful cellophane.  Remember?  The bottom of the basket had that same colored cellophane shredded, and they called it “grass”.   All the jelly beans would fall thru the “grass”, and end up in the very bottom of the basket.  You retrieve the jelly beans by carefully removing the “grass” from the basket and replacing.  Much to Mothers dismay, she finds the “grass” all over the house for the next six months.  Not unlike the Christmas tree “icicles” that are found nearly everywhere for months. Just how does it do that?

The Easter Egg Hunt.  In the afternoon, shortly after church, the hunt for Easter eggs commences.  Mom and Dad have hidden colored eggs under the bushes out front, or behind the car tire in the driveway, or placed in the fork of the young trees in the backyard.  You and your siblings, and maybe a few neighborhood kids, have to find them.  Laughter, and giggling, and squealing abounds.  The kid who gathers the most eggs wins a prize.  (I sure hope it’s that hollow chocolate rabbit that I saw in the kitchen pantry).

Maybe your local community is sponsoring an Easter egg hunt.  Dozens of kids start at the same time to find the little morsels hidden all over the local park.  If you’re lucky enough, you may find an egg with a number, or letter on it.  Thereby winning a shiny new Silver Dollar, or a coupon for a free milkshake, or sundae, at the local Soda Fountain.

Wow!  Those were the days, my friends.

As adults, we all know that this isn’t the real reason for Easter Sunday.  If it weren’t for Jesus Christ, and his resurrection, we, as the human race may not have survived

For GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John 3:16 …

GOD bless all of you.

Til we meet again.

FB  04/08/12