Friday, March 22, 2013

Reminiscing Easters Past

by Deanna


With Holy Week beginning this weekend on Palm Sunday, I am reminiscing on Easters past.  When my children were small, Easter was always centered around coloring Easter Eggs on Saturday night, waiting for them to go to bed and then trying to find unique hiding places for the following morning Easter Egg hunts in the house.  Ever since the kids were little we have lived in the Midwest, first in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, then for the last 30 plus years in the Chicago area. Neither locations are known to have warm, spring days to welcome Easter Sunday.  So the hunts were always held indoors.  Believe me you have to get pretty inventive year to year to find new hiding places for those brightly colored eggs in a small town-house.  It was not uncommon for an egg or two to have cracked before the end of the hunt.  The delight on my children’s faces upon discovering a hidden egg was always priceless and ofcourse there was always a race to see who could find the most. 


Easter was always a dress-up affair…all of us with new duds to wear, my daughter in a new dress, (usually hand-made by me) with hat & gloves, my son in an ill-fitting suit (pants and sleeves always seemed to be too long), with both usually wearing their "getting too small and dirty winter coats", my husband in probably a new shirt & tie and I always managed a new dress.  After church came the picture taking, then immediately after off went the new duds quickly replaced by comfortable clothes and shoes. Later we gathered around the dinner table for our Easter dinner. Most everything stayed the same over the years.  And then we moved to the Chicago area, the children began to grow up and sometime over those early years here we stopped coloring Easter Eggs which meant no more hunts the next morning.  The children decided there was no way they were wearing hand-made clothes on Easter, but one thing remained and that was our being together for church and spending the day together as a family.


As the years passed, and the kids grew into adults, they moved away, got married, began to have their own children and their own Easter traditions.  Many remained the same, coloring Easter eggs, the hunt in the morning, the new duds, attending church on Easter Sunday and spending time together as a family.   But now even the grand-kids are scattered and some will not even be home for Easter beginning another era of Easter traditions.  One is married and will be celebrating Easter with his wife’s family, one may have to stay at school due to commitments, another may be working.


This year Easter will be a quiet affair, no coloring of Easter Eggs, no hunt, probably no new duds.  Add a few more years and the grandkids will all be married and have children of their own, beginning the Easter traditions of the next generation all over again.  Some things change, but some remain the same. There will probably always be the coloring of Easter eggs, the hunt the next morning, the new duds, the church services and family dinners...there are some traditions that time never changes along with plenty of egg salad sandwiches for days the week after Easter.


10 comments:

Sarah Huizenga said...

It is so sad as they grow up and move away. I remember those same traditions growing up myself and when our daughter was young. I am sure they will come around again when we have grandchildren.

terriporter said...

Easter traditions were some of my favorites growing up and also as my kids were growing up. Then there was a lull until grandbabies came and we started them all over again. Love your beautiful photos! Hope you have a beautiful Easter whatever you do and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon!

AFishGirl said...

Make me a dress! I promise I'll wear it. But I want a straw hat and purse and those little white gloves and maybe patent leather mary janes.
Great post, Deanna, and Happy Easter to wonderful you.

Dotti said...

Such perfect Easter pictures! And what a wonderful reminiscence of your family Easters. Thank you for sharing them with us. I do think you should take FishGirl up on her offer. :-D

Wishing you and all of the FOL family a happy and blessed Easter!

Cathy H. said...

Beautiful memories and beautiful pictures!! When children grow up and move away, it leaves a little empty spot in your heart on Easter morning! Only one of our grandsons will be dropping by this year. Your post was timely, I was just going through a trunk and ran across several Easter dresses I made for my daugher! We were thinking alike today!

Roxi H said...

I just adore the coloring on the first photo. Our Easter's haven't been nearly the same the last several years but maybe with grandchildren now things will change a bit. :)

Maggid said...

So very nice to read about the things you treasure - I will have to think about this - maybe i can incorporate a few of these memories into my talk next week . . . I am certainly lifted by these lovely thoughts & photos.
Thank you.
love & love,
-g-

Geneva said...

Wonderful memories Deanna. Some traditions are worth passing from one generation to the next. Just think, one of your granddaughters may be writing something similar to this in a few years. The thought of that just makes me smile. Great photographs as always. xo Geneva

Buttercup said...

What beautiful memories. So glad I clicked your link!

Susan W said...

Reading this has brough back memories I had forgotton. I now remember my Mom making us new dresses and wearing them with new hats to church. The coloring of Easter eggs in our house when our kids were young was always a big tradition. Our kids are grown and have their own homes, but while shopping yesterday I bought a flat of eggs and decided that this year we would have colored eggs again at the table. I'll be doing them myself, but that will be the start of a new tradition.

Post a Comment

Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. If for any reason you are unable to leave a comment here on this post, please leave your comment on our Facebook page or in our Flickr discussion group. We love hearing from you!

 
© Focusing On Life