a little easter history & annapolis…

Bill and I are still trying to figure out what traditions we want to do for different holidays, but we used the Resurrection Eggs this year to help William begin to understand the death and resurrection of Christ… and we were pleased with how much he got out of them.

In wanting to see if there was any connection between Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, egg hunts/rolls and Christianity, I did a lot of research online. Here’s what I found for those who are interested: The early Christians adopted the idea of Easter eggs from pagan practices and kinda made it their own. (I was a little sad to find that the early Christians couldn't think of their own traditions to make.) Anyway, the origins of the word "Easter" are not certain, but probably derive from Estre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Eggs signify new life, which is mainly used to represent the coming of spring. Early Christians adopted eggs to signify new life that is available in Jesus Christ through His resurrection. "The egg is seen as symbolic of the grave and life renewed or resurrected by breaking out of it... Traditionally, Orthodox Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ, shed on the Cross, and the hard shell of the egg symbolized the sealed Tomb of Christ—the cracking of which symbolized his resurrection from the dead." I've also found that the dyeing of the eggs can be used to tell the Easter story, with each color signifying a different part of the story (i.e. red for His blood that was shed, black for his death, etc.) (Although I don't know where you'd find black dye.)

The Easter bunny is totally pagan though. It's just used in Easter (or the coming of spring) since rabbits are a symbol of fertility. Easter egg hunts/rolls are purely related to the Easter bunny, who leaves the eggs (which makes no sense b/c rabbits don't lay eggs) to "hatch new life." And people have turned it into something fun by putting candy inside. I could not find any connection between Easter egg hunts w/Christianity. But some people wrote that the Easter egg roll can represent the stone being rolled away. I think (personally) that's a bit of a stretch.

With that being said, Bill and I decided that we wanted to focus on the fact that the eggs are used to signify new life, particularly the new life we have in Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. And the Easter egg, with whatever "treasure" is found inside, should remind us of the treasure and new life we have in Christ. It's similar to exchanging gifts during Christmas... Jesus was God's gift to us. And the dyeing of the eggs is just a fun way to make them pretty. =P (sorta like putting up a Christmas tree, although I haven’t really researched that.)

In preparing William to spend Easter w/Bill’s family this year, we talked to him about what the eggs represent, although I’m sure much of it went over his head. But we had a great time with Bill's family in Annapolis, and it was neat to watch William really get into the egg hunt and egg dyeing this year since he didn't really understand what was going on in previous years. Here are some highlights…

Playing with some sidewalk chalk and bubbles… Lori got William a cool bubble container where the wand would pop up when you squeezed it, but unfortunately, not many bubbles came of it. =( Josiah and his cousin Aidan, who I can’t believe has grown so much in the last year! Our little goofball… Josiah, his cousin Chris, and a neighbor’s dog… William has warmed up quite a bit to dogs. He used to be afraid of them and not want to touch them. The Easter egg hunt begins… Mema did a great job preparing all kinds of things for William to do. And she found these cute eggs that looked like farm animals. =) Looking for the eggs… Watching the action from the porch… Love this pic! And this one! Eating some Teddy Grahams found in one of the eggs… (Mom, thanks for finding some dairy-free treats for William!) And sharing some with Mema… Aunt Lori & Josiah… It was William’s turn to hide the eggs for Mema to find… William just tossed some of them into her garden… William helped Mema by telling her where the eggs were… =) Bill was getting some shut-eye during all the Easter egg hunting… ;) William is hiding the eggs now for Papa… tossing them into the garden. Papa is looking for the eggs… Josiah is taste-testing the bubbles. Mmmm, yummy! William is hiding the eggs now for Dada. Instead of tossing them, he resorted to the quick and efficient way of chucking them across the yard. It was pretty funny to watch. We had to wake Sleeping Beauty to go look for his eggs… Mema’s favorite place to be… Dyeing the eggs… Letting them sit for a while… Waiting is hard work! =) Ooooo… the moment of truth… Josiah was too busy wrestling with a teddy bear to dye eggs…