Does anyone have any great or unusual Easter traditions?

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:55 pm

Of course, in Canada we do it bigger.

We're not quite sure why.

djm

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:08 pm

That "Mary" looks like Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, to me. Just like on the Maria-Theresa Thaler, still in use as currency, in various odd parts of the world.

Why are they resting their heads on Pizzas?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:30 pm

It's probably Jesus' mother that's being represented.

dwest · Post by **dwest** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:34 pm

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:19 pm

One year my youngest daughter, about 9 at the time, had to decorate eggs to take to school.
She used crayons and drew demons and other halloween looking stuff on hers. We thought they were funny.
The school was not pleased with her work.
I should have gotten a clue about round about then....

Our only tradition is that I defy anyone to mow the grass before Easter. How am I suppose to hide eggs in a neatly manicured lawn?

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:23 pm

I'll have less of this Mary talk

Slan,
D.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:27 pm

Which reminds me I should be practicing the Stabat Mater for Friday's service instead of here on the computer. Oh, well.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:30 pm

Well, we have hot cross buns and simnel cake of course, but in the north of England we also have Easter ledges pudding, an essential ingredient of which is the young leaves of the bistort, or snake-root, or Easter Ledges plant (Polygonum bistorta). Personally I think it's better to make the pudding into small patties and fry them in the bacon fat to go with your proper English cooked breakfast. I think I'd want black pudding too, though I'd need a brisk walk afterwards to burn off all the fat. And as a Lancashire lad missen I can't avoid mentioning that honourable Lancashire tradition known as pace-egging, which gave rise to the famous pace-egging song:

Here's one or two jolly boys, all of one mind
We've come a pace-egging, and we hope you'll prove kind
We hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer
There'll be no more pace-egging until the next year.

"Jolly boys" is another name for the pace-eggers.

Caroluna · Post by **Caroluna** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:31 pm

Church tradition: for the past few years we've done the Hallelujah chorus for Easter. Since it's so well known we extend an invitation to anyone who wants to sing to come for the 3 practices beforehand. As a result our choir is half again as large as usual. Our choir director asks us to sing for both services if possible and there's a nice array of goodies for us between services. Becomes a bit of a party

Home tradition: Polish sausage and horseradish. My Polish grandma used to grate her own horseradish. I tried that one year, whoo!! That'll clean out your sinuses.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:58 pm

SteveShaw wrote:we have hot cross buns

It's Preparation H for you, me bucko.

djm

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:21 pm

Q. What do you get if you pour boiling water down rabbit holes?

A. Hot cross buns!

HDSarah · Post by **HDSarah** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:25 pm

cowtime wrote: Our only tradition is that I defy anyone to mow the grass before Easter. How am I suppose to hide eggs in a neatly manicured lawn?

My husband hides foil-wrapped chocolate eggs in his beard.

I figure that our outdoor Easter egg hunts are probably safer (in the sense of low risk of food-spoilage) here in Alaska than many other places, because our eggs are always set out on a bed of snow at Easter time.

I do remember reading about a community Easter-egg hunt in Anchorage a decade or more ago in which small children were reduced to tears when they sunk deep in wet snow, and then were terrified by a rampaging moose. As I remember, no one was actually injured.

As a child, our strangest Easter tradition was the jello bunnies for dessert at Easter dinner. They were made in little metal molds, and each person at the table got their own little jello bunny in a dish. They were served with hot custard sauce to pour over them, and it partially melted the jello. I remember the melting red jello bunnies -- rather gruesome.

We also had a tradition of green jello Christmas trees, molded in old-fashioned cone-shaped paper water cups and decorated with spray-on whipped cream. These jello things persisted at Christmas and Easter long after most of us were still willing to actually eat them.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:48 pm

Cranberry wrote:It's probably Jesus' mother that's being represented.

See, being a religion major DOES pay off! And you were worried!

I'll speak to gonzo and get him straightened out, dear. Don't fret!

jw wren · Post by **jw wren** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:50 am

We eat gramma pie which is a sweet pumpkin pie served with lemon juice. I like it best cooked with sultanas.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:27 am

This is a true Easter story that happened when those inflatable Easter bunnies first came out. My brother-in-law has a very traditional view of religion. When he came home from college, he didn't like all those inflatable Easter bunnies that people put in their trees. So one night, he went around their entire neighborhood and took all those inflatable bunnies. He didn't tell anyone he did it. The neighborhood was of course all wound up. A long time later, my mother-in-law was cleaning house and found all these deflated bunnies under my other brother-in-law's bed. Everyone thought it was him because that's the kind of prank that he would pull. Only when he claimed his innocence did the true story come out. My brother-in-law always points out now that you don't see any inflatable bunnies around his house.