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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

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 a few of them in front of that golden forsythia and that apricot tree in blossom.

Easter Question

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 mainly protestant countries, stressing that Christ did take the burden on him to die for our sins. In mainly catholic subsidiaries, the emphasis lies on Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection as the fulfillment of the scriptures. All the suffering and death 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.

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

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

Besides, 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. Now don't ask me about the "Easter Bunny (Osterhase)" hiding the eggs, which my kids would one day rename into "Granny Bunny (Omahase)" since they had observed their grandmother neatly hiding everything, really.

So much for today's history lesson, combined with an anecdote as only life itself writes them. With nearby pictures, notice the varying position of the baby's first chocolate bunny and the mysterious third hand holding the same over the shoulder in one picture. Time flies and so soon the baby learned to walk and could already find the hidden Easter eggs on its own. Soon it would require less and less assistance until being fully grown up and... well, but that will still be a while, will it? By the way, some pictures enlarge, if you click on them.

Finally, I asked my boy: "What is more important, Good Friday or Easter Sunday?" His quick reply, apparently a no-brainer for him: "Easter Sunday". Me: "Why?" Him: "Presents!" After a few moments of awe, he clarified that he was kidding me and we continued with a more serious conversation... for at least ten seconds.

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