Bloggers

Easter: It’s a love-hate thing

Apr 16, 2017

Easter is just around the corner and Sandy reminisces on some of the reasons why she loves (and doesn’t like) Easter… What do you do for Easter?

It’s that time of the year again when everywhere you look there’s chocolate in the shape of eggs, ducks, bilbies, chickens and carrots! But how do we all feel about the Easter hype? At the risk of sounding Grinch-like, I have to say that each year I feel more and more annoyed when I see the Easter merchandise start rolling out in February. And don’t get me started about hot cross buns that have been on sale for the last three months! I love hot cross buns but refuse to buy one until at least the week before Easter. I must say I’m looking forward to a trip to the bakery this morning for my first one this year! I’m not sure how we stop the big supermarkets from this ridiculous grab for every cent they can extract from our Easter budgets but I, for one, won’t be contributing to their profits.

Whilst the commercialisation of events such as Easter seems to escalate each year, there is one thing that never changes, and that’s the magic that the Easter Bunny creates for little and big kids alike. I don’t know what Easter traditions everyone else has had over the years, but we have an Easter routine which hasn’t altered – despite all of us being way too old to believe in the Easter bunny! The night before Easter Sunday we each put out a hat (the nest) which in the morning will hopefully contain eggs of the chocolate variety! When the kids were still “believers” we’d go out and find all sorts of materials to line our “nests” with – grass, sticks, seaweed, shells, etc. The lucky delivery rabbit would find a big, fat, juicy carrot waiting for him or her with a glass of water (because delivering all those eggs was a thirsty business!). During the peak of our kids’ believing years, my hubby and I would chew the top of the carrots and leave big tooth marks in them which just added that authentic touch when the kids inspected the contents of their hats! I know a lot of people will be saying “what about the Easter egg hunt?” Well, we tried this one Easter and ended up with very squishy, melted eggs that were covered in ants, so decided to leave the hunt to those living in cooler climes than Queensland.

I remember making Easter bonnets with the kids when they were really little, ready for the Easter bonnet parades at kindy and preschool. This project would be so much easier these days with all the Easter paraphernalia available at the $2 shops. The things you can buy! We’d also sign up for the Easter story-reading session at the local library, where the kids would sit, enthralled in an Easter story and come away with small chocolate eggs and some piece of craft that they’d created. How many versions of the Easter basket have you all seen? A Google search for Easter craft now delivers an endless supply of options and should keep both kids and adults busy in the lead-up to Easter. We used to have fun dyeing hard boiled eggs all sorts of colours and putting colourful shrinking sleeves over them. The trick with these was remembering to either eat them or throw them out before they started to smell!

And how about the Easter stories? Only yesterday I was browsing through the kids’ book section at a local bookshop and was delighted by the Easter story books on the shelves. I have a favourite Easter story that we used to read each year, about an Easter bilby. The kids loved this book, and it’s now in a safe place (hope I can find it!), ready for the grandkids. I really liked the introduction of the chocolate bilby – it just seemed to give Easter a bit more of an Aussie feel. However, I get the feeling that the Chocolate bunny is still the hot favourite. Each year we say we’ll cut back on the amount of chocolate we’ll buy each other but somehow that “wascally wabbit” manages to deliver way too much sugar for us all! Let’s face it; Easter Sunday just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have at least one Easter egg to savour.

We’ve spent some very rainy Easters camping or holidaying on Stradbroke Island. In fact, I have not-so-fond memories of spending entire days at the laundromat at Point Lookout, waiting in line to use washing machines and dryers. A few years ago we headed to Mt Warning for Easter with our brand new camper van in tow. It bucketed down for the whole break, and we ended up bringing home very wet canvass – the new camper had been initiated! The weather can definitely make or break the Easter weekend if you’re camping! As a kid, I remember Easter being a great time for holidaying, with days full of blue skies and sunshine. Somewhere along the line, the weather pattern seemed to change and going away at Easter became a bit risky. Let’s hope this year it’s a “blue sky and sunshine” type of Easter.

Now I’m not an overly religious person, but for many, the meaning of Easter has nothing to do with chocolate or holidaying, so let’s not forget what this special time of year means. Personally, I’m looking forward to spending the time with my family and feel very grateful that for us, Easter still has that magical touch. I’m off to find my rather beaten up hat and, with a bit of luck, the Easter Bilby storybook. Have a safe and happy Easter, everyone!