Easter Time Celebrations 

Easter is celebrated in many of the same ways in most of the world, but the people in the United States, with myriad backgrounds both in Christianity and cultures, do celebrate the holiday in slightly different manners.  The traditions of Christian Americans remain the same, for the most part, but the blending of the celebrations show the multi-cultural and American versions of the holiday from the native lands of our ancestors.   

Easter bunnies – what Easter basket is complete without a furry, fuzzy bunny for some special child?  Easter egg hunts; they are even celebrated at the seat of the United States government, the White House, with a traditional Easter egg hunt.  In major metropolitan cities, Easter bonnets are worn in Easter parades.  Fashionable ladies and gentlemen wear their Easter outfits while they are spectators or participants in the parades.  The leader of the parade may hold a candle or cross in his or her hand. 

In American folklore, the German settlers brought over the Easter bunny and the egg tree to the new land in the 1700’s into what is referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch country.  As the years passed, Americans took up the egg tradition and expanded on it by creating carefully decorated and colored Easter eggs.  What child had not enjoyed a day of coloring these hard-boiled Easter eggs that will be hidden for the egg hunt?  The egg tree is a tree that has been decorated with these eggs. 

Down in New Orleans, the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday) is a pre-Lent celebration that is held the day before Ash Wednesday.  Colorful beads are thrown into the crowds from people leaning out of windows or on terraces in the French Quarter of the crescent city, New Orleans.  Jazz bands, parties, parade floats are decorated and have a Mardi Gras king or queen riding on them.   

The food that is served in the traditional American Easter dinner is baked ham, potatoes and vegetables – these are the foods that were the staples of the American diet and grown here since the pre-Revolutionary times. 

Americans of Jewish origin celebrate a holiday feast during the same time period as Easter – it is called Passover.  It is an eight-day holiday, which commences with the meal called a Seder on the first two nights of Passover.  The traditional eating of the matzoth, unleavened bread, is symbolic of the time when the Jewish tribes had to flee Egypt and their bread did not have the yeast to let the bread rise.  Also, at this time, a separate set of dishes is used to ensure the Kosher for Passover rules.  At the Passover Seder, a child is told to look for the matzoth that have been carefully hidden by one of the adults.  This can be compared to the hiding of the Easter eggs for the egg hunt.  The prayers are said at the start of the Seder and a plate with special foods and herbs is at the center of the table to represent the different rituals and to remember the history that surrounds this holiday.  The most interesting fact about this holiday is that the Last Supper of Christ was actually a Passover Seder.  This truly links the two religions holidays into one biblical past. 

So – here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail…. 

Have a great Easter or Passover celebration!!!