easter

I wish to take this opportunity to welcome you all to a wonderful and innocent holiday. Easter and Christmas are the two times of the year you get to witness the innocence in the face of kids. Everything is viewed with great amazement. A time for family, a time for friendship, a time for sharing with your loved ones.

This beautiful faberge egg was created by Stacey (Whispering Wings).

History of the Egg & Rabbits
During Easter Celebration

The origin of the rabbit icon, or Easter Bunny, comes from the fact that rabbits are notable for their capacity of abundant production of young especially at this time of year. The use of Easter eggs, has its roots in the characteristic of eggs laid in great numbers in the spring being colored like rays of the returning sun and the northern lights or aurora borealis. There is also a long tradition of decorating Easter eggs and giving them at Easter.

In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox (they have always been symbols of creation, fertility and new-life) the beginning of the new year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people of ancient times. Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition, and the Easter egg became a religious symbol. It represented the tomb from which Jesus broke forth. They were often colored red to represent the blood of Christ by which all believers were given a share in this new life of Christ. In medieval times eggs were traditionally given at Easter to all servants, and to the children (it was one of the foods forbidden during Lent), along with other gifts. It seems that the custom of hiding the eggs is a universal one

Early Christians customarily celebrated Easter Week as days of joy and laughter. They would tell jokes, play pranks, feast on lamb, dance, sing and express humor and joy over this "final joke" on the devil, death and evil. They would add fragrant oil or perfume to the Easter water they had brought home with them from church, as a reminder of the sacred chrism. This water was used to sprinkle and bless food, pets, gardens, homes and more. In some countries you could get soaked this week. Baptism was recalled with the custom of "dousing". On Easter Monday men wake women with a spritz of the perfumed Easter water while they whisper "May you never wither." On Easter Tuesday women wake men with a bucketful of the scented water.

Prayers for the blessing of lambs, a significant symbol of Christ, dates back to the 7th century. From the 9th century, the main feature of the Pope's Easter dinner was roast lamb. The ancient tradition of the Paschal lamb inspired the use of lamb as a popular Easter food among all the faithful. in Europe, small figures of a lamb made from butter, pastry, and sugar are popular.

The Cross is the symbol of the Crucifixion, as opposed to the Resurrection. However, at the Council of Nicaea, in A.D. 325, Constantine decreed that the Cross was the official symbol of Christianity. The Cross is not only a symbol of Easter, but it is more widely used, especially by the Catholic Church, as a year-round symbol of their faith.

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