Does anyone have any great or unusual Easter traditions?

[mutepointe]

For 10 years, we had a dog that was part corgi and he hunted by smell. We'd have an Easter Egg Hunt just for him. We'd hide bits of the ham and pieces of hard boiled egg. He loved Easter.

Our current dog hunts by ear and just doesn't get the whole concept. There could be a whole ham sitting right by her and she'd be clueless. If we go into the fridge and open the meat drawer, she is there right beside us.

[Jack]

Aww! That's cute!

I have a tradition of telling all my friends NOT to buy bunnies aroudn Easter time. About two or three weeks after Easter, animal shelters in these parts are over-run with rabbits that people buy their children or themselves, then tire of and throw away.

[mukade]

This is not a personal tradition, but it is(was?) found all over the North of England.

We made paste (pace) eggs by boiling eggs in coloured water.
The eggs were wrapped with string or cloth to make patterns, and we used a natural, red-coloured dye such as red cabbage.

They were used for egg-jarping and rolling.
Jarping is a competiton where two people smash the tips of paste eggs together until one breaks.
At school some sly sods tried to cheat by coating their eggs with clear nail varnish.
None escaped the headmaster's eagle-eyed judging.
A week's detention for jarping cheats.



More info: http://www.seaham.i12.com/sos/paceeggs.html

Mukade

[emmline]

When our children were small, we had an egg hunt for them, along with their cousin Tom who was about 5 at the time. My husband Jeff, inclined to mischief as always, put a chunk of broccoli in one of the eggs instead of the usual candy and/or whatever other junk we were putting in them.
Tom found that egg, opened it, and was quite surprised and seemingly thrilled to have discovered such a bounty as broccoli inside an Easter egg.
That was cool.

[FJohnSharp]

My family's half Jewish but I hide eggs anyway--outdoors if the weather is ok, indoors if not. I learned quickly not to hide them down low or the dogs would find them first.

No one in my family but me likes ham so we never have ham. Someone needs to invite me over for ham sometime. I miss ham.

If Easter falls during Passover the kids have to wait until after Passover to eat their candy.

[Innocent Bystander]

I don't do so myself, but I know someone who colours eggs in the style Mukade mentions. His favourite method was to wrap them in onion-skins, and boil them. He got some lovely swirly brown and yellow patterns that way.

[Jack]

My family's half Jewish but I hide eggs anyway--outdoors if the weather is ok, indoors if not. I learned quickly not to hide them down low or the dogs would find them first.

No one in my family but me likes ham so we never have ham. Someone needs to invite me over for ham sometime. I miss ham.

If Easter falls during Passover the kids have to wait until after Passover to eat their candy.

Easter isn't a really a fully Christian holiday anyway. It started out pagan, was incompletely turned Christian and is mostly secular nowadays, at least in North America.

[gonzo914]

Look what I found -- chocolate jesuses.



I feel a new tradition emerging -- biting the heads off chocolate jesus instead of biting the ears off chocolate bunnies.

One year, the boys wanted camouflaged plastic eggs. It took us an hour to find them, and we finally had to resort to a grid search.

[Jack]

Look what I found -- chocolate jesuses.



I feel a new tradition emerging -- biting the heads off chocolate jesus instead of biting the ears off chocolate bunnies.

One year, the boys wanted camouflaged plastic eggs. It took us an hour to find them, and we finally had to resort to a grid search.

One of those is a portrayal of Mary.

I didn't know you had children.

[dwest]

[Feadan]

When there is time I find it fun to make these.

These are all goose eggs and each takes about 8hrs to complete.
Chicken eggs average a bit more like 3hrs per. Sadly, not enough free time this year.

Cheers,
Feadan

[gonzo914]

One of those is a portrayal of Mary.

I'll take "The Bloody Obvious" for $2000, Alex.

Of course, it's Mary. But which Mary? Virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene, or Mary Salome, mother of James and John, or Mary, the sister of Lazarus, or Mary, the mother of Johnny Mark, or any of several other New Testament Marys.

Or is she merely cross-dressing Jesus?

[fearfaoin]

Or is she merely cross-dressing Jesus?

Hard to get the sleeves over his hands when they're nailed to the wood like that...
Mmmm, sacrilicious!

[fyffer]

One of those is a portrayal of Mary.

I'll take "The Bloody Obvious" for $2000, Alex.

Of course, it's Mary. But which Mary? Virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene, or Mary Salome, mother of James and John, or Mary, the sister of Lazarus, or Mary, the mother of Johnny Mark, or any of several other New Testament Marys.

Or is she merely cross-dressing Jesus?

Or, taking the DaVinci code twist ...
Is it John "The Disciple whom Jesus loved ..."

[emmline]

Or, taking the DaVinci code twist ...
Is it John "The Disciple whom Jesus loved ..."

You mean...there's a baby girl chocolate not quite yet on display between those two?? (available in France, peut-être, from La Chocolaterie Albigeoise.)