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Easter Bunny comes fast around, trips in the curve, falls on the ground.
Osterhaeschen kommt im Lauf, haut's es in der Kurve auf.
(Easter Verse-Variation)

Easter Egg Hunt

Spring Highlight. Easter can be one event in the long list of a baby's firsts. Usually you hide eggs and lots of chocolate for the long awaited Easter Egg hunt, and the older the kids get, the faster it is all over. On a sunny day you may get the chance to take a couple family pictures, too, and here are a few of them in front of that golden forsythia and that apricot tree in blossom, a real spring highlight.

Easter Question

Sacrifice & Victory. The ultimate Easter question is no easy question to answer: What came up in conversation with colleagues from the UK and Germany is why Good Friday was no general public holiday in Austria? In fact, you only get the day off, if you can prove your protestant confession. The answer seems to lie in different accentuation among Christian confessions. Good Friday is celebrated as the biggest church holiday in protestant countries, stressing that Christ did die for our sins. In catholic subsidiaries, the emphasis lies on Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection as the fulfillment of the scriptures. All the suffering would have been in vain without the raising from and the overcoming of death. Of course, the happy ending couldn't have been achieved without the enormous sacrifice in the first place.

Diet Tradition. Spring Festivals like the Christian Easter holidays exist in many cultures, celebrating the Messiah's resurrection as well as the world awakening again after the cold period of winter. Among others, there would be its archetype, the Jewish Passover or "Pesach" festival and an Ancient Egyptian Spring Festival, as well as "Holi," the Hindu Festival of Colours, and the Chinese "Chun Jie," literally meaning spring festival. Right before, a period of fasting is one way to deal with winter weight gain and surely supports the old saying "Der Winterspeck muss weg - The winter fat must go!"


Symbolism behind the Easter Egg

Liquid Meat. Did you know that the tradition of colouring eggs and exchanging them as gifts may have emerged from the practical idea of using up the egg stock after the forty days of lent that precede the Easter festival? For eggs were regarded as "liquid meat", they were forbidden during the fasting period, which is these days often reduced to the custom not to eat meat on Good Friday.

Rebirth Symbol. The egg has traditionally been a symbol of new life and (spiritual) rebirth. Dyed eggs date back to Pharaonic times as emblems of regenerative life. Just as the rabbit found its way into the Easter tradition as an old fertility symbol for having many kids, like us. So much for today's history lesson, combined with an anecdote as only life itself writes them.

Bunny Story. The kids asked, why there were next to no songs about the Easter Bunny, compared to the numerous Christmas carols. We could only come up with one song: "Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail. Hippity-hoppity, Easter's on its way!" In our own family tradition, not the Easter Bunny (Osterhase)" is hiding the eggs, but the "Granny Bunny (Omahase)" does. This goes back to a word creation of our kids, after they watched their grandmother through the window, while she was hiding everything outside.

Long Arm of Easter. With above pictures, notice the mysterious third hand holding the baby's first chocolate bunny. Coming back to the above mentioned Easter question, I asked my older boy: "What is more important, Good Friday or Easter Sunday?" His quick reply, apparently a no-brainer: "Easter Sunday". Me: "Why?" Him: "Presents!" After a moment of awe, he clarified that he was kidding me and we continued with a more serious conversation... for at least ten seconds.

Go to the next page with pictures from a First Birthday.
And don't miss those (dull) Moments.

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