Easter Memories

Easter is a time of religious significance for most, yet it often gets overwhelmed by the seductive powers of the Easter Bunny and copious amounts of chocolate. 

My earliest memories of Easter were going down to the back lawn with a huge square tuppaware container that I would then fill with fresh grass clippings and leaves and pretty flowers from the garden, most of all the bright orange nasturtiums, to make a delightful nest for the Easter bunny to leave lots of yummy chocolate eggs in.

As I got older, the deeper meaning of Easter was instilled upon me, and the ritual of building Easter nests was gradually replaced instead by the ritual of attending an outdoor re-enactment of the crucifixion at a local catholic college each year on the night of Good Friday.  It was actually a tradition that I looked forward to each year.  I would become totally absorbed in the play, the story of Easter filled my heart with a complex mix of emotions such as outrage, grief, compassion, complete awe, love and hope.

As a young mother I was determined to create a legacy of childhood memories for my own child at Easter.  When he was three years old I decided my son was old enough to enjoy an easter egg hunt. So I bought several large sheets of carboard and lovingly drew bunny paw prints all over them in a thick niko pen, then painstakingly spent hours cutting out each and every one of them. No half measures for this apprentice bunny.  I must have made at least fifty paw prints.  Finally, I finished cutting them out close to midnight, then went through the house placing them strategically, with little pockets of easter eggs conspicuously hidden along the way, finally ending with a small easter bunny toy and a basket of eggs at the end.

I went to bed exhausted, and managed to get about four hours sleep before an overly excited little toddler woke up and discovered the bunny's paw prints. I jumped up out of bed as soon as I heard his first delighted lil squeal and dashed down to watch him do the easter egg hunt, my sleepy husband beside me.  I am not sure what I expected really, I think I thought that it would be at least half an hour of watching him follow the pawprints and gather the eggs.  It was all over in less then five minutes.  *laughs*  He saw the paw prints and started running after them, pointing to the eggs as he found them but not stopping to collect them, just totally intent on trying to catch the easter bunny.  When he got to the end he was visibly disappointed to see just a bunny toy and not a real rabbit.  He picked up the basket of eggs and then went back to gather the other eggs he'd spied along the way, leaving bunnikins mummy to collect the pawprints.

After that we resorted to other means of anticipating the arrival of the easter bunny.  Usually involving some arts and crafts activity to make our own easter baskets and nests.

Easter also seems to bring out the romantic in my husband.  Over the years he has done some amazing things for me.  Our first Easter together, he took a simple easter egg, sawed it in half with a hack saw and secreted a tiny crystal bunny figurine in it, and melted it over the heat of a gas lamp to stick it back together.  Of course, I didn't know all this until Easter day, as he just tucked himself away in the spare bedroom for over an hour and packed it all into a cardboard box and wrapped it well with masking tape. 

Another year, he gave me the most beautiful silver charm, of an easter egg that was in two halves and hinged together, when you opened it up, inside there was a tiny silver bunny.  Yet another year, he got a block of my favourite chocolate and broke it up into portions of two squares, wrapping them individually in silver foil, and sticking a label over the top of them that had typed onto each one, an inscription that began with the words "One of my favourite memories of you is .... "

How things change over the years. This year, my son and husband decided that I didn't need chocolate, that it's not good for me.  So instead, they generously gave me the dvd set of the third series of "Merlin" and a box of turkish delight.  Both of which I loved and appreciated, but it just didn't feel like Easter without my choccie eggs. 

Then I realised, I had fallen prey to the commercialism.  I had not gone to church, I had not watched any traditional Easter movies, I had not even stopped to truly consider the real meaning of Easter.

Somewhere along the way I had lost the true meaning of Easter, and I think that is why it has become more of a chore as the years wear on.. because it becomes focussed on the procurement of chocolate and eggs, and not the celebration of my religious beliefs.. it touches my wallet, but not my soul. 

Yes, I enjoy giving my son and husband their easter eggs, but its not the same.  Its simply a giving of gifts rather then a giving of self, at a time when we should be remembering the most selfless giving of all.

Next year I plan to make Easter more a celebration of life and family as well as the religious significance.  Of course.. *grins* ... there will also be chocolate.. it's just not Easter without it...  

Ain't life funny?