The Easter Egg Hunt

Did you know that the shell of the Easter egg in Christianity, symbolizes the womb? And the baby chick inside, represents Jesus? I attended Sunday School as a kid. How did I not know that?

Did you know that Cadbury manufactured their first revered chocolate Easter egg in 1875?  I didn’t know that either.

And did you know that Easter egg hunts across the world, are generally held in backyards?  I thought that everyone celebrating Easter worldwide, hid chocolate eggs for their kids in sofas and on window sills!  It was only as an adult that I realized that that was only because we still had snow in our backyards on the East Coast!

The Easter Egg Hunt in Germany

In the many years that Joe and I have been together, I’ve not yet visited his homeland of Germany at Easter time.  But by all accounts, it’s something to behold.

In Germany, Easter is so largely celebrated, that kids typically get 2 weeks off from school as part of Germany’s vacation policy in recognition of the holiday. Parents take vacation time from work as well, and family trips are planned.

Big family gatherings and traditional Easter egg hunts on Easter Sunday are planned for in the backyards of parents, and Oma and Opa’s.  Families organize and celebrate with both sides of family on alternate days of the long Easter weekend in the celebration.

Not to say that Easter isn’t highly regarded in Canada. But Easter in Germany and the rest of Europe, is a really big deal!  Almost as big as Christmas. And really, I’m not surprised to know that.  Christmas is a magical time in Germany and pretty far-removed from the commercialism that we know here in Canada.  Customs and traditions are staunchly honored and upheld throughout generations in Germany – past, present and future. That’s part of the reason that I so love it there.

My Easters As A Canadian Kid

What Easter WAS for me as a kid in Canada tho, and our family did have our own traditions, was attending church on Easter Sunday morning, in a new colorful spring dress and a family dinner consisting of glazed ham. Always glazed ham!  Easter, for us here in northern NB, also symbolized the anticipated signs of spring being not too far off on the horizon after a long hard winter.

We weren’t allowed to eat meat on Good Friday so that was often homemade clam chowder day for us.  We had 2 holidays then – Good Friday and Easter Monday. Some employers now tho, no longer even recognize Easter Monday as a holiday.  

The Easter Bunny Is From Where??

Like Joe tho, I was also raised on the myth of the Easter Bunny, who always delivered a basket of chocolate eggs and bunnies. Left under our beds to wake up to on Easter Sunday mornings, you could also find a small gift. 

I wasn’t aware of the origins of the Easter Bunny story then tho, nor had I really questioned it.

But did you know that the tale of the Easter Bunny originated in Germany?  How could I have not learned that either – as to how he/she came to be?  You can read about one version of that tale, over here.

And hunting eggs – I didn’t hunt eggs.  Well, not real eggs. Nor did I color eggs.  I painted eggs for the first time ever with my first-born. I can’t be sure that we even ate them tho. And we certainly didn’t hide them as part of the Easter egg hunt.  I simply hid chocolate eggs around the living room for him to hunt because it was a fun activity and he loved all of that chocolate, but understand the symbolism of it all? Admittedly, I didn’t.

Easter With A New Meaning

Since Joe being in my life tho, and him carrying deep-seeded traditions and customs from his homeland in his heart, Easter has become a bit of a bigger deal in our home.  I’ve learned a lot since – about what the Easter holiday means to Europe, steeped in tradition. It was well beyond what I had learned in Sunday School or the anticipation of a long weekend or signs of spring.

So Joe and I decided to combine our individually practiced traditions from our childhoods and upbringings, to create our own for Eliza at Easter. And one, for me, that held even greater meaning.

Canada Meets Germany In Our Own Tradition

Since having her, every year, without fail from the time she was little, Joe carves out the time to boil eggs and paint them with her on Easter weekend.  It’s just always been their Easter activity together. 

I have a basket that I keep in my craft room, still with the colorful Easter straw in it. And every year, it comes out.  It’s the same basket I’ve used every year since Craig was little, finding him waking to the same under his bed from the Easter Bunny. Only now, with Eliza, she’s hunting chocolate eggs AND a few of their painted eggs.  The Easter Bunny still delivers a basket of chocolate for her to wake to on Easter morning, along with a small gift in it. And it’s the same basket that she places her hunted eggs into.

Then we sit down to our Easter breakfast – German style with sliced meats, cheeses, a variety of breads, jams, Quark when we’re lucky enough to find it here in NB, coffee and of course, the hard-boiled painted Easter eggs!

And then she eats what remains of her chocolate!

Eliza’s Easter Egg hunts over the years, haven’t all been like this tho.

An Easter Egg Hunt – with Cheerios??

Too young yet for chocolate, her first egg hunt was not the traditional of colored or chocolate eggs. Rather, we had found plastic eggs that could be opened, and we filled them with Cheerios! I was a health-conscious mom and Eliza, too young to know the difference! Total success! Joe, in true German fashion, LOVES his chocolate however, he did support me in the Cheerios that year.

The following year, she experienced the taste of chocolate for the first time ever in her Easter Egg hunt.  This pic is from that very moment!  I could only hope that in her childhood, she would continue to find it as strange a texture and taste as she did in that moment. But Joe was her dad and with his sweet tooth, that simply wasn’t going to happen.

The many Easter Sunday mornings that followed in years to come would find her still in pyjamas with the trusty Easter basket in hand, collecting chocolate eggs from the sofa cushions, atop furniture, window sills and anywhere else we could think to hide them.  It only took one wayward chocolate egg, discovered melted under the sofa cushion weeks later, to tell us that we should probably start keeping track of how many eggs we hid in the years to follow.

The Easter Egg Hunt Tradition Continues

She’s 14 now and no longer a little girl.  But I so know that that won’t stop us from boiling eggs and painting them with her.

And she will still find that the Easter Bunny has visited her in the night. If Joe has any say in it, she’ll be painting and hunting Easter eggs until she leaves for university! 

As for Joe and I, no doubt our kitchen will still see the painting of Easter eggs even long after Eliza has left home as an adult. In enjoying their color and all we’ve come to learn and love of each other’s traditions – once a whole ocean apart.  

May the blessings and true spirit of Easter, be yours this year – filled with love for all and with so much hope and light ahead.

Happy Easter!  Frohe Ostern!