Ghosts of Easter Past

A few years ago, I purchased the book "An Easter Carol" based on the Veggie Tales DVD of the same name. A few weeks ago, Maggie pulled it off the book shelf and we have read it a couple of times. It's not too long that she loses interest part way through, but not too short that we read it over and over and over in one sitting. The book is based on "A Christmas Carol," but with a focus on Easter. As I've been working on creating some Easter traditions this weekend (taking Good Friday off, coloring eggs, stuffing plastic eggs with candy), I thought I would revisit MY Easters past.

As a child, Easter was mostly about the candy. We had Easter baskets to find Easter morning and then off to church. If Easter didn't fall too early in the year, we might go to the sunrise service out at Hartford Beach. Sometimes we went to Redfield or Hitchcock for the weekend. I kind of liked going to church on Easter Sunday because the hymns were always joyful and fun to sing. Hymns are still the reason I like going to church and one of the reasons why I don't like attending the mega-church just down the road from us.

When I was out on my own and joined a big church choir, I began to understand the other parts of Holy Week and, well, not really enjoy, but understand and get something out of the other services. Easter Sunday was several large services held in an auditorium, to hold all the extra people who showed up on Easter Sunday.

Now, with a little girl, it seems Easter has come full circle and is now, once again, all about the candy. And that's okay. I know as she grows, we will teach her the true meaning of Easter and why we celebrate.

Easter 2006

Easter 2007

Easter 2008