What are your Easter traditions?

[Kitty 34]

Does the Bunny hide the baskets? Do you have Easter egg hunts? Special dinner?

The bunny hides the boys' baskets. We used to have an Easter egg hunt for all the neighborhood kids before they got too old.

My Mom still puts $$ in plastic eggs and all of us get to pick two!! That's my favorite part!!!

 

[Keli]

The saturday before easter all of my brothers and sisters and their families (and me and my family too!) meet at my parents home for a big family dinner and an easter egg hunt for anyone who's kids are still young enough to participate (most are, Ashli is the oldest grandchild and there is only one other teenager in the family).
On easter sunday we go to church (usually wearing a new 'easter outfit', lol) and then out to eat.
I buy Ashli (dd) and David (dh) candy and small gifts and put them in baskets for them on easter morning too.
I LOVE getting together with family and I can't wait until Saturday!

 

[cgcw]

Many years ago, my MIL would have an Easter egg hunt. It was always a lot of fun, regardless of how old the kids were. My MIL is not the nicest person at time, but I will give her credit that she did a nice egg hunt and always found someway to include everyone. When I was pregnant with our oldest, I found an egg with a picture she had drawn on it of a baby with a rattle.

We now have our own egg hunt in our yard. It's like a mini-Christmas. DH hates that I go overboard but I feel the kids are little only once. We leave the eggs and a treat (carrots or celery) for the Bunny on the kitchen table. During the night, when he visits, baskets get left on the kitchen table. The eggs get hidden in the yard (rain or shine) along with gifts from the Bunny (wrapped in garbage bags if it's raining). The kids love to find the eggs. And, when all are found, we have fun hiding and finding them many times over and over.

Then we get dressed and go out for Easter brunch.

I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Saffron]

Easter is my favorite holiday of all!

I go hunting for the biggest, bestest, solid chocolate Easter bunny every year. We have fresh flowers in the house that smell soooooooooo good! Dye eggs. That's about it. LOL

 

[Talking Hands]

Go to church with family and then we go out to eat together. No baskets, bunny rabbits or secular stuff. We don't believe in that.

 

[BarbN.]

This is sort of an Easter Tradition... my Mom always serves stewed prunes and noodles on Good Friday. I don't, but I tell my DH every year that I am making that for supper.

 

[BethR]

Easter is the most WONDERFUL Holy Day!!!

It all starts on Good Friday when we go to church in the evening to commemorate the burial of Jesus. The priest and the people process with candles around the church. The priest is carrying a cloth with an icon of Christ in the tomb. After the procession the the "shroud" is placed in a "tomb" in the front of the church which is surrounded by flowers.

Saturday is usually about food preparation. We will dye our Easter eggs. I will bake a ham. Sometimes I will bake the Easter Bread - Pascha - if I have not already baked it earlier. In the evening we get ready to go to church. We pack a basket of traditional foods - the Pascha, butter, eggs, ham, kolbassi, horseradish, and we put in it any foods that we have fasted from during Lent. We go to church to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. We process around the darkened church once again - this time when we reach the door of the church the priest declares "Chist is Risen from the Dead! By Death He Conquered Death! And to those in the graves, He granted Life!" Then the priest opens to doors to the fully lit church where the "grave" stands empty. It is SOOOO joyous!!!

After the Liturgy, we all go to the hall of the church where we have left our baskets of food. There the priest blesses all of the food in it. Then we gather to "break the fast" by partaking of some of the wonderful foods in our baskets.

On Easter morning, our 4 DDs still look for their Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny has left. They is usually chocolate, marshmallow peeps, and an item or 2 of spring clothing in the baskets. We then have a nice breakfast and afterward we get ready to go to Bill's parent's where there will be an Easter egg hunt, some MORE great food, and the company of the whole family.

I am so looking forward to this weekend.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

For the past years Ive taken DS to the Easter candy/apple hunt at Berlin Orchards. We just went this past Sunday.
This year the 3 of us are going for Easter Brunch at Lashaway Inn in the Brookfields. Hopefully it will start a tradition for us.

 

[believe]

We will begin on Saturday with coloring of the eggs and making Easter Cookies that tell the story of Easter.
On Sunday we rise bright and early, the girls will find eggs throughout the house...always 2 together (1 for each of them) and their baskets by the fireplace. After taking pictures in their Easter outfits we are off to 8am 'sunrise' service, then breakfast at 9am, Sunday school at 10am, regular church service at 11am and then the church Easter egg hunt. Then off to my Mom's to spend a little time with them. Next is off to MIL's for another Easter egg hunt and Easter dinner.

I still have a lot to do to get ready.....

 

[Joyce DC]

I'm curious: what's the story behind the stewed prunes and noodles on Good Friday?

 

[CEDmom]

We started last year having an Easter egg hunt for DD (now 3 1/2 yo) and some of her friends and it's now a tradition. It got snowed/rained out last Friday so we'll be doing that this Friday. On Saturday we'll decorate eggs and do some cooking. Sunday she'll have a few eggs to find along with some quiet things to take to church. We'll be off to church and then dinner at our house. DH is 100% Polish and insists on having kielbasa and sauerkraut.

Does anyone have a fun activity for a preschooler to help explain the Easter story? For Christmas we make a birthday cake for baby Jesus to explain the significance of the holiday but I can't think of anything for Easter.

 

[MerryPoppins]

We usually end up going to lots of services during Holy Week. It seems like someone always has a part in each of the services.

Our Boy Scout troop always does creek cleanup for our church sponsor on Saturday morning. So the guys will be there until lunch time.

I'll be home boiling eggs so we can decorate them, making potato salad, etc. I'll also have to make my contribution for the reception after church Saturday night. When the guys get home we'll decorate eggs. Either Saturday night or sometime Sunday we'll have an Easter dinner at home from the foods I mostly prepared on Saturday.

Saturday evening we go to church. The service starts in darkness. As it progresses we begin to ring bells that everyone brings with them. We also have candles and the light of Christ is passed through the congregation until it lights the whole church. It is a very moving service and my kids love it. After church we have a huge reception with loads of good food.

We used to go to church again on Easter morning and take part in the egg hunt following the service. This year both our kids are too old, so I think we may start a new tradition of a hunt at home. The Easter Bunny always leaves a basket of goodies for each of our kids. I know it is secular, but it is also fun.

Sometime during the weekend we have to make time to visit both sets of grandparents, too. Whew. It's a busy time for us.

 

[Boots]

Not a one anymore. We always hid eggs when the children were little. My mother died eggs up until the year she died. She just thought they looked so pretty all colored up. Now all I do is go to church. I am going this year on Thursday, Friday, and on Sunday. I used to have a big dinner but DH has to work most of the time on Easter Sunday so..............

 

[BarbN.]

I have no idea the tradition behind the stewed prunes and noodles on Good Friday, I will have to ask my Mom, I think her Mom made the same meal..

 

[Joyce DC]

BarbN: please do ask. What a unique combination of foods!

Joyce