More Than Colored Eggs

Jesus is THE reason for the season!

Happy Easter!

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, who upon this day did conquer death and rise from the dead, and who lives forever more, help us never to forget Your presence is forever with us.

Help us to remember,

That you are with us in times of perplexity to guide and direct,
That you are with us in times of sorrow to comfort and console,
That you are with us in times of temptation to strengthen and inspire,
That you are with us in times of loneliness to cheer and befriend,
That you are with us even in death to bring us to the glory of Your side.

Lord in your mercy, please hear our prayer. Amen.



Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!

Easy Egg Decorating

Use rubber bands to decorate Easter eggs. After hard-boiling the eggs, wrap rubber bands around them in any pattern, then dip in a container of dye. When the eggs dry, remove the bands. For additional colors, rewrap and repeat.

Happy Easter

All About Easter

History of Easter

According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection.

In time, a serious difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the 14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year). By their reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the week.

Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method, Easter occurred on the same day of the week, but from year to year it fell on different dates. An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the date of Easter was that the Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of Greco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday.

Early Dating Methods

The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the principal astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem involved was the discrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the Julian calendar then in use.

Later Dating Methods

Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted a system of calculation proposed by the astronomer Victorinus (fl. 5th cent.), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius (r. 461–68) to reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method are still in use. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the 7th century.
Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year; since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West. Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865 and 1963.

Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In 1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no canonical objection to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a movable feast.

Christian Origins

Easter is the annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the principal feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on a Sunday on varying dates between March 22 and April 25 and is therefore called a movable feast. The dates of several other ecclesiastical festivals, extending over a period between Septuagesima Sunday (the ninth Sunday before Easter) and the first Sunday of Advent, are fixed in relation to the date of Easter.

Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday; Holy Week, commencing on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and terminating with Holy Saturday; and the Octave of Easter, extending from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday. During the Octave of Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white garments, white being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying light, purity, and joy.

The Christian festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, a commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets.

Easter Symbols


Eastre (or "Ostara"), the Anglo-Saxon Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility was often accompanied by a hare when represented. The fertile nature of rabbits and hares is another symbol of new life and the rebirth that occurs during the spring season.
Also, German settlers in America are said to have brought over the tradition of a bunny named "Oschter Haws" who would visit houses on Easter eve, leaving colored eggs for children. Easter eggs were painted different colors to represent the sunlight of spring. Christians later used eggs to symbolize the rebirth of Christ.
Another Easter tradition is the eating of Hot Cross Buns. These cakes were marked by the Saxons to honor Eastre, the fertility goddess. The crosses on the buns are said to represent the moon's quarters, while Christians see the cross as a reference to the crucifixion.

Modified from the Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.

Dyeing Eggs Naturally

It is more work but very fun.

Deep Gold
Boil eggs in turmeric solution, 30 minutes.

Sienna
Boil eggs in onion-skin solution, 30 minutes.

Dark, Rich Brown
Boil eggs in black coffee, 30 minutes.

Pale Yellow
Soak eggs in room-temperature turmeric solution, 30 minutes.

Orange
Soak eggs in room-temperature onion-skin solution, 30 minutes.

Light Brown
Soak eggs in room-temperature black coffee, 30 minutes.

Light Pink
Soak eggs in room-temperature beet solution, 30 minutes.

Light Blue
Soak eggs in room-temperature cabbage solution, 30 minutes.

Royal Blue
Soak eggs in room-temperature cabbage solution overnight.

Lavender
Soak eggs in room-temperature beet solution, 30 minutes. Follow with room-temperature cabbage solution, 30 seconds.

Chartreuse: Soak eggs in room-temperature turmeric solution, 30 minutes. Follow with room-temperature cabbage solution, 5 seconds.

http://www.marthastewart.com/dyeing-eggs-naturally

Easter Creating and Crafting

Let's have fun creating with the kids. Create any one of these fun Easter crafts and share the link to your photos in the comments section. Everyone who enters will have their name put into a drawing to win a small prize from my personal prize cupboard.

Styrofoam Bunny Egg
http://www.bfranklincrafts.com/CraftIdeas/CraftIdea-styrofoamBunny.html

Angelic Bunny Pin
http://www.thuntek.net/~rhardy/paint/bnypin.html

Bead Bunny
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10838&campaign=NLC-NL_Wkdr&link=Section1Link1

Cool Crayon Eggs
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11716&campaign=NLC-NL_Wkdr&link=Section2Link1

Jelly Bean Carrots
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50360&campaign=NLC-NL_Wkdr&link=Section3Link1

Rainbow Easter Egg Cookies
http://www.cookingvillage.com/cv/recipe/art/0,1684,sLang=us&iObj=11016,00.html

Clothespin Easter Bunny
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/easter/clothespin-easter-bunny.shtml

Carrot Tree
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11194

Bunny Pin
http://crafts.kaboose.com/bunny-pin.html

Bunny Ears
http://crafts.kaboose.com/bunnyears.html

Brown Bag Bunny
http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/PamsPlace4/1brownbagbunny.html

Easter Bunny Cake
http://www.dailysoutherner.com/features/local_story_094103638.html

Jelly Bean Pots
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/bhg/story/data/15182.xml

Easter Egg House
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/easter/house.shtml

Have fun!

Easter Trees

A colorful basket filled with dyed, hard-boiled eggs nestled in a bed of glistening grass says Easter like nothing else.

But when you combine Easter eggs, baskets, bunnies and spring flowers with the spindly branches of a budding forsythia bush or a cherry tree, you have all the makings of a fun way to celebrate the holiday with the creation of an Easter tree.

Decorating evergreen or leafless trees with eggs at Easter have long been the tradition in Germany and the Ukraine. When German settlers immigrated to the states, many brought with them their Easter tradition of decorating trees with eggs, which symbolize rebirth, renewal, and resurrection.

The tradition slowly caught in America with its origin dating back to just after the Civil War. It has gained momentum with the rising popularity of Katherine Milhous' children's book, "The Egg Tree."

Milhous tells the story of a little girl who discovers her grandmothers old hand-painted Easter eggs in the attic and inspires the renewal of the Easter egg tree tradition in her family.

It is a tradition that has become, for many, part of the annual spring holiday decorating frenzy.

"I think it's a sign of springtime," said Brenda Sink, activities director at The Summit Place of North Myrtle Beach in Little River, S.C.

An Easter egg tree was a fixture in Wayne Graffius' home when he was growing up in Pennsylvania. The family tree featured handpainted eggs, their insides blown out through tiny holes on either end, with ribbon attached for hanging. The whole family was in on the decorating.

"We always had one, and we used actual branches of a forsythia or cherry tree, and we'd force them to open," Graffius said.

Graffius, a design consultant, has continued his family tradition this year by creating an Easter egg tree using branches he cut from behind his Myrtle Beach, S.C., home. His mother, Elizabeth, helped with the decorations, cutting ribbon for the plastic eggs and attaching flowers to miniature straw hats.

"We always made it the week before, and we'd put our Easter baskets under the tree for the Easter bunny to fill," Graffius said.

Egg trees are widely available for purchase on the Internet or in retail stores, where you can find miniature, leafless wire trees and accompanying ornaments. But Graffius said he prefers to use live branches to create a dramatic centerpiece that can be displayed on a buffet or dining room table.

"You want it to be the centerpiece of the room," he said.

Resources for Easter tree crafts
http://crafts.kaboose.com/easter-tree.html
http://www.babyzone.com/Crafts/Craft.asp?CraftID=43
http://www.homemakingcottage.com/holidays/ea/eatree.htm
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/eastercrafts/l/bleatree.htm