Can You Share Your Easter Traditions?

[Simona19]

What traditions do you have for Easter?

What do you do on Good Friday, or Easter Sunday?

What kind of food you will have, had?

I have few:

- on Good Friday nobody is allowed to eat meat, except fish (thousand ways).

- on Saturday we will cook all day long and afternoon we will go to church to bless samples from our food. When we come home we will eat it.

- on Easter Sunday we will go to church again and we will eat the food morning, lunch, dinner for 3 days.

- on Easter Monday (only in my country) we have one special tradition. Every man, boy will take glass, or bucket of water and

[ravenwoodglass]

What a nice idea. Your holiday activities sound like a lot of fun. Don't know if I would like the cold water if it was more than a sprinkle though. I'd be the one there in a raincoat all day. Where are you from?

Easter was the only holiday that we had as just us. We didn't have much money so most holidays we shared with our cousins at their house which was nice but there was just something special about it being just Mom, my brothers and me. Mom would always sew me an new Easter outfit. One year she made me a blue wool cape with red lining. It was itchy but I was sad when I outgrew it. I was the only one who would go to church as my Mom was too sick all the time (undiagnosed celiac) and my brothers were not religious. I usually sat in the back and loved looking at the stained glass and listening to the Mass.

We always had a ham studded with cloves and covered in pineapple and sweet potatos with marshmellows. Mom loved Lesuer (sp?) peas so we would usually have those. We never had an egg hunt but we had Easter baskets with a chocolate bunny, Peeps and jelly beans. I like the black beans the best and my brothers would always let me have theirs. My basket was the one my Mom had as a child in the 1920's and it is still one of my treasures.

When I grew up I followed the same traditions with my children but we did have an egg hunt or two.

[IrishHeart]

No matter how poor we were, my parents made sure we had new Easter outfits. My Mom said it was "bad luck" not to wear something NEW that day. Raised a Catholic, the days before: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil on Saturday were somber days for a little kid. We had been saving up our pennies, nickels and dimes in Lenten Boxes to give to the poor. Giving up candy for Lent was traditional ( and seemed like a penance) and looking forward to the candy in our Easter Baskets was all we focused on!

The Easter Bunny hid our baskets somewhere in the house and we had to find them. But no eating anything just yet! We went to Mass and had to be very good so we could have a few of our treats when we came back home.

We always went to see my maternal grandparents and show off our clothes, but dinner was at my paternal Grandmother's house. I adored these holidays because I loved my Gramma, my cousins and aunts and uncles and I always had so much fun! I always had to wear white gloves, shiny patent leather shoes and a silly, flowery straw hat (ridiculous for a child--my gloves got dirty in the first ten minutes and I was scolded)

Dinner included Roasted lamb (traditional for Armenians) rice pilaf, greens beans and tomatoes, cherag (a sweet roll),stuffed grape leaves, and many desserts: a cake in the shape of a lamb, coconut cream pies, custard pies, mini cheesecakes, cookies and my beloved Baklava. (oh, how I miss phyllo dough) My relatives were first class bakers and cooks. We got little toys as treats from my favorite Auntie who lived with Grams. We sang around the piano, too--as we did on every holiday.

We played the "Crack the egg" game. Grams made colored eggs and we tapped the top of another's egg to try and crack it. The last one with at least one egg end without a crack was the champion!

It was always a fun day. She lived in a big old Victorian house that my immigrant Grandfather worked so hard to buy for his young bride. I loved playing in her big backyard, something we did not have in the city.

Now that our family has lost so many loved ones--and my cousins are scattered throughout the country--it's just hubs, his sweet Auntie and me today. My Mom and sibs and their kiddos live several hours away. No Easter basket anymore; instead, dear hubs brought me white roses to enjoy.

But we will play the "Egg game"

Thanks for posting this topic--you evoked a sweet memory for me.

[love2travel]

My parents hid Easter egg treats all over the house for us to find. But when I was about 10 I requested that they hide a cooking magazine for me instead of candy! Funny. I also made eggs nearly identical to Cadbury cream eggs each Easter when I was a kid. They took a bit of time but fun and worth it. We also made homemade marshmallows.

We went to sunrise church services which were incredible. One even had 3 crosses at the top of a hill!

Now that I am married I hide a chocolate bunny for my husband each year. As I am not a big fan of chocolate I get tulips or colourful asiatic lilies instead.

In ways I am a traditional cook (i.e. ham with brown sugar bourbon glaze) but in ways I am not. One year I may roast duck; the next maybe make porchetta; the next grill lamb. Never turkey as we prefer other proteins. My husband requested traditional this year so it IS ham with a bourbon apricot glaze, scalloped potatoes and leeks and roasted (or grilled if the weather is above freezing) corn and a couple of other sides. I am actually not making dessert this year - last year was profiteroles. Wait - maybe I'll make a crisp as I have some plump blackberries. Or maybe a clafoutis. No - I've got it. Pavlova with lemon curd, buttercream and blackberries. Either that or Eton Mess. Sigh...

We do not get together with our families for Easter since they all live several hours from us but it is also my husband's busiest time at work so he is working 16-hour days, 7 days a week. He and I will go to our church service tomorrow then he must go to work. I will be glazing my local ham from a farmer from England who raises very happy Berkshire pigs.

Sretan Uskrs!

[Adalaide]

Growing up I always had a new dress for Easter. I was actually thinking about that today when I was out of the house and almost went to the store for a new dress I don't really need. My mom always had Easter baskets for my brother and me that we both got into before church. Not sure why but we also always got a present, one year it was gameboys. My parents divorced when I was 9 and I rarely spent the whole day with my mom. My paternal grandmother (Grammy) always made Easter dinner and I was there for it nearly every year. We always had ham, mashed potatoes, 2 or three vegetables, enough gravy to swim in (we ate a lot of gravy in my family), fresh white and brown bread and I'm sure I'm missing a lot of other things. Then we always had a spice cake, a mincemeat pie and at least 2 or 3 other pies and a fruit salad for dessert. Huge family, my dad was one of 5 kids and everyone was married with 2 kids of their own. With my Grammy's stretch table we all sat together and it was amazing.

I also always spent the week leading up to Easter getting ready. I made homemade peanut butter and coconut eggs with my mom. We also colored dozens of eggs. I'm not sure why a family of 4 needed dozens of eggs, but that's what we did. We also decorated by doing things like hanging plastic eggs in the trees.

Now? Nothing. Two thousand miles from my family I have no desire to cook for 2-4 people and it's frankly depressing not to have 2 dozen people at the table. Tomorrow other than church I'll probably spend the day in pajamas, although I do have plans for a blackberry apple coffee cake. (I made the "pie filling" today.)

[alex11602]

Every Friday from Ash Wednesday to Easter my grandmother will not eat meat, of course that never worked for me because I don't eat fish.

Saturday we dye Easter eggs for my family to eat on Sunday at dinner.

My girls get a new Easter dress in Spring colors just like my sister and I did when we were little. This year they also picked out a matching dress for a doll that they will bring with us when we go to my mother's house for dinner. They also go see the Easter bunny for pictures sometime in the week or so before.

We start of the morning with Easter baskets for the girls which always have books in them and then usually a few other small things. My husband started a new tradition of getting me a Precious Moments for every holiday so I received the Footprints in the Sand one this morning. While the girls are going through their baskets I hide plastic eggs around the house that I have filled with stickers and then they hunt for them. Next it's time to get their dresses on and get all prettied up for going to see family. Today the girls also went to our cousins for an egg hunt and to trade baskets while I did some baking.

This afternoon we will go to my moms and the girls will have another small egg hunt and get the baskets that my mom made for them. Then we have dinner which is ham, kielbasa from the Polish butcher, asparagus, green beans, potatoes, hardboiled eggs and we used to always have potato pierogis and babka too. For dessert there was always strudel which we can't eat, but this year we will have carrot cake with cream cheese icing from the Namaste spice cake mix to celebrate my husband's birthday and I also made jellybean cookies for dessert.

[krystynycole]

My family was always simple and traditional. However, my husband's family had a cool tradition at their church. Being Protestant we celebrate Easter Sunday. Well his church would save the tree from Christmas, trim off the branches and put it in the shape of a cross with mesh wiring around it. Everyone would bring flowers and place it on the cross through the mesh wiring. So the cross goes from being a somber reminder of Jesus' death on Good Friday and becomes a beautiful flowered cross symbolizing his resurrection and life on Sunday.

[love2travel]

My family was always simple and traditional. However, my husband's family had a cool tradition at their church. Being Protestant we celebrate Easter Sunday. Well his church would save the tree from Christmas, trim off the branches and put it in the shape of a cross with mesh wiring around it. Everyone would bring flowers and place it on the cross through the mesh wiring. So the cross goes from being a somber reminder of Jesus' death on Good Friday and becomes a beautiful flowered cross symbolizing his resurrection and life on Sunday.

That is lovely and meaningful. What an awesome idea!

[Simona19]

What a nice idea. Your holiday activities sound like a lot of fun. Don't know if I would like the cold water if it was more than a sprinkle though. I'd be the one there in a raincoat all day. Where are you from?

Sorry for delay. I'm originally from Slovakia, or Czechoslovakia (Prague) before. I'm in the USA 10 years already, but I'm keeping all traditions from my country live.

Raincoats are not permitted. You just need to have ready many outfits and underwear for the Easter Monday. They are some exceptions: who is too young, too old, sick, or came to your house just for visit and don't have other clothes to wear. Boys or men will use perfumes instead of water. Sometimes they will use water and perfumes. By the end of the day you will smell like you spilled a gallon of some strange perfume all over yourself. You will have strong headache and provably cold from cold water that you have had "sprinkled" on, but you will have a lot of fun all day long.

This Easter wasn't different. My mom was leaving early Monday morning. Nobody from guys wanted to wake up so early. What they did was so funny and spiteful. When my mom went to the bathroom before she was ready for bed, my son, husband and nephew got ready for her. Each stood up with huge glasses full of water in one bedroom and when she opened doors, she was showered with water from every side. She sad that she totally forgot about it and at one point wasn't able even breath. She thought that some water pipe broke, or we had flooding in our area. It was funny. We were laughing for 30 minutes.

I got splashed in the morning by my husband in my night gown in the bathtub with cold water right after I woke up. I woke up sleepy and tired, but after cold "shower" I was bright as you can be. My nephew was next. Two hours later with l cup of water in the kitchen. It wasn't so bad. I didn't have to change. My son got me a half hour later. I was "sprinkled" with 2,5 cup of water. I was all wet, but he saved my hair. I gave them chocolate bunnies and eggs.

In the evening my husband and nephew made trap for my son's girlfriend. She got it just little be because she run away, upstairs. I stopped them because I didn't want to have carpet wet. Last year it was her first year in my family. Nobody splash her with water, but we were talking about it. She was very interested in this tradition. This year I told my husband to go easy on her and splash her with very little amount, but next year, if she will be my son's girlfriend still, she will get the "mother load"(2-3 cups at once).