Lent is the period of fasting and penitence that precedes Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday the fortieth weekday prior to Easter. Holy Week is the week before Easter. It marks the memory of Jesus’ passion and death. The chief days are Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Lent ends at noon the day before Easter. Easter is the anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We would not celebrate this holiday, if Christ hadn’t died on the cross for our sins and rose again.

Easter falls between March 22 and April 25. It is believed that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday so Easter should fall on Sunday. First council of Nicaea (325) decreed that Easter be the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Since my brother and I both have April birthdays, Easter would occasionally fall on his in early April or mine in mid April. That made the Christian holiday even more special. One year mother spent hours making an Easter egg out of sugar for me to take to school for show and tell. Father fixed Easter sacks for his children and grandchildren for many years.

Memories and traditions are often linked. I recall family times of cooking, coloring and decorating eggs. I remember a friend’s grandmother coloring her eggs purple by soaking them in beet juice. Do you remember the wax pencils so you could wax creative?  Maybe you posed for family pictures in your Easter finery. Perhaps you visited relatives or friends on this special day.

My informal survey of Easter memories include: attending Good Friday services, Mom hiding chocolate treats with flavored filling and Dad tackling for the maple filled ones, Dad asking to see my chocolate bunny and biting off the ears, choosing the material for the new outfit Mom was making, finding candy in hats on the kitchen table, filling plastic eggs with candy and toys, and hiding them for nieces and nephews, coloring and decorating eggs, eating candy for breakfast, having a big Easter dinner, visiting with grandparents, family time, hearing the Easter story at Sunday School and church, attending sunrise service and breakfast at church, watching the Easter story on television, and the fragrance of Easter lilies filling the sanctuary.

Have you ever made Resurrection Cookies? The recipe involves Scripture reading to coincide with the ingredients and directions. They are baked in a slow oven over night and end up hollow in the center just like the tomb was empty on Easter Sunday. He is risen! He is risen, indeed!          

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