Our Easter Celebration

Christ is risen from the dead and by His death he has conquered death!

Here are the traditions we incorporated in our celebration this year.

EASTER EGGS:

This year we colored Easter eggs. We color them because eggs have always been a traditional Easter food. One reason for this is that the Church used to have a fast that eliminated dairy and eggs as well as red meat, so eggs were a special treat. In addition eggs were served on the Sabbath at the time of Jesus because they could be made ahead, so when Mary Magdalen was going to the tomb of Jesus, she carried eggs to share. The traditional story goes that when she found that Jesus had risen, she told a man on the way. The man replied that Jesus could rise from the dead no more than the eggs she carried could turn scarlet. As he finished saying this, the eggs turned bright red. This traditional story was told to me by the pastor of St. George's Melkite church which we attended from time to time in Milwaukee and I have found it retold in other sources for Traditional Catholic Customs. It is rather difficult to get eggs to turn red so we were content with the somewhat unnatural pastels from the supermarket.



THE PASCHAL CANDLE:

My oldest daughter helped with the paschal candle this year and it turned out lovely. We used cloves for incense and carved a cross which we painted red and gold. We placed the candle on the dinner table.

EASTER BASKETS:

The girls woke to Easter baskets that were a combination of gifts from us and their Nana. I tried to keep the baskets beautiful and not too over the top. Grandma got the lamb purses and I made little treat bags with mini decorated cookies and just a few small candies in delicate foil wrappers. They also each got a lollipop and a book about God. I think that it is important to give children beautiful things of good quality, as the budget allows (and things don't need to be exspensive to be beautiful).

MASS:

As usual we went to the Tridentine mass, which I know was beautiful, although I didn't get to see most of it. Unfortunately I spent the majority of the mass in the bathroom washing my five month old daughters new easter dress and trying to keep a little naked baby warm. I don't know why I didn't pack two outfits because a messy diaper was inevitable with that much white.

EGG HUNT:

After mass we had an Easter egg hunt with the eggs we colored the day before. My girls loved it. Our hunts don't have anything to do with the bunny, its just a fun easter game to play.

DINNER:
Before we ate dinner, we adults played a traditional Easter egg game. The winner got extra prayers that day from everyone else. This site, Fish Eaters, has a great explanation of the game and all the other traditions we observed this year.
The dinner was olive stuffed leg of lamb (thank you food network), roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes, spring mix salad, and crusty bread. For dessert we had cheesecake with a choice of either strawberries or chocolate hazelnut sauce. Yummy! The lamb recipe, which was mediterranean in flavor, was very good, especially since we splurged on free-range organic lamb (thank you Nana).
TREATS:

After dinner everyone got a goodie bag that I put together the night before. I put miniature sugar cookies decorated with white frosting, mints, and jordan almonds inside a plain white bag that I stamped a gold cross on. Then I just punched holes in the top and tied the bags with some beautiful green ribbon I found in the dollar section of the craft store.



In all it was a lovely celebration that was full of meaning and beauty.