A Joyful Keeper

I was born European and with that comes many Easter traditions. Easter was always a highlight for us as children as we would dye eggs and Dad would hide them in the garden. I had never heard of the Easter Bunny, that came later I think. Easter to us was focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus…. and hard boiled eggs…! Oh, of course when I was little there were no chocolate eggs either! At least not in Indonesia, where I grew up. We were taught that eggs were a symbol of new life, and of course in the Northern Hemisphere it was also Spring time. I still get mixed up here in Australia when I look outside in the Autumn… and say to myself, “Oh! Isn’t it a lovely Spring day!!!”

I am passing on these Easter traditions to my children. The Easter Bunny is a bit of a joke in our household. The kids know about him (who wouldn’t these days), but they have never been taught to “believe” in him. The might do crafts or coloring pages with a bunny on it, but it doesn’t have any other meaning than the fact that it is a bunny rabbit and Spring time is the time they hop around in the garden.

The school week before Easter, we try to do Easter activities. We do worksheets on Easter, read books about Easter, and do craft things. Here the children are making two little wall hangings from icecream sticks - one with a cross and “He is Risen” and the other with a spring theme:

We decorated the house with eggs. Inside we have an Easter tree, which in Europe is often with branches that are about to blossom. Here since it is Autumn, we just used branches without any leaves:

We have special outdoor plastic eggs which we hang on a bush or tree. This year we decided to hang them on the archway as you come into our house. It looks really cute! (Matthew commented that he hoped the eggs weren’t like mistletoe - he didn’t want to risk walking under so many eggs and getting a kiss from someone! I though we should start a new tradition! LOL!)

And finally, on Easter Sunday we had the traditional Easter hunt. We had Robyn and her dh over, with their eldest son and daughter-in-law and twins. The men hid 60 eggs (30 chocolate and 30 hardboiled and decorated)! The kids had a ball running around the property finding them (I think the men enjoyed hiding them as well!).

Traditions are so important to us as a family. I love the songs that we sang at church that morning - they are hymns that I sang as a child and hold so much meaning. New songs can be nice, but there is something special about the traditional hymns. Another Easter tradition that my parents had when they were young and in the Dutch Reformed Church was this: On Easter morning they would greet each other with: “He is risen!” and the response would be “He has truly risen!” How special to greet your brothers and sisters in Christ in this way, instead of the usual “How are you?” It puts the focus on where it should be - Jesus.

Well, that is a “not so brief” description of our Easter this year. There would be much more to write about and tell you, but this is enough I’m sure! I hope to get some photos up of my veggie garden in the next few days and just update you on that and my preserving. In other news, my sister and her family are coming to visit in about three weeks time and I am preparing the house with great anticipation! I just can’t wait to see them! So time goes on… and it is already Spring Autumn!