Sunday, April 24, 2011

BEDA Day 24: Childhood memories of Easter

So today is Easter Sunday. The good thing is that I'm still celebrating the holiday. The bad thing is that I still have hoomework to work on and complete by tonight.

Today got me thinking about Easter and what it was like when I was little. I miss being little. I still get Easter treats from my parents but it's more money and cards rather than treats. As I'm no longer living at home, I have to make my own Easter celebration. This year I bought myself Peeps and some Mini Cadbury eggs as Easter treats. I bought some sparkling red grape juice and some potatoes and sliced ham to make my own Easter dinner. Yesterday, I dyed some Easter eggs because I wanted to. It's little things like this that make me remember Easter as a child and makes me a bit homesick.

As a kid, I remember being very excited about Easter. I remember dying eggs with my mom and my older brother on the Eve of Easter. It was always a lot of fun. One of the things that we did every year was take a white crayon and write each family member's name on one of the eggs. Each of us had an egg. I still do that when I dye my eggs. Only now I write "Family" instead of each individual family member's name. My mom still does that too.  It was always so much fun dying Easter eggs and it still is.

Later on Easter Eve, my whole family would dress up in new Easter outfits and go to the Easter Vigil mass at church. I remember this was the mass where we would get candles. This year, I went to the mall and bought myself a new Easter top which actually turned out to be 2 tops.So I still had a new Easter outfit.

After the Easter Vigil mass, usually we would come home and I would go to bed and fall asleep waiting for the Easter bunny to come. I remember at some point, I would start leaving a carrot for the bunny as a little snack. The next morning  I would wake up early and see if the Easter bunny had come. There was always a basket of goodies waiting for me and my brother (also my nephew when he used to live here). It was usually filled with some sweets (Peeps! and a chocolate bunny) and sometimes a new outfit (when I was littler) or some toys or other goodies.  First though, I would go out in the backyard and hunt for the hidden Easter eggs. I remember having a lot of fun doing that. My mom said that I should have hidden my eggs around my apartment and then go hunting for them but I told her that it wouldn't be the same (My nephew did this at his home is AZ though. He went hunting for eggs inside) . 

After hunting eggs, I remember going to church and hunting for more Easter eggs there. There was usually a big Easter egg hunt for the kids there. My mom used to be in charge of the event. In addition to getting more regular Easter eggs, there were special plastic eggs that if you found them, you could win a big prize basket or another big prize (like a stuffed bunny). I managed to find a couple of the eggs and win a couple prizes. 

Later on Easter, my mom would cook a special Easter dinner. Sometimes we would invite my Uncle to come over and celebrate with us. Usually it was Ham that we ate and either deviled eggs (using up some of the dyed eggs) or sometimes potato salad.

It's different now having to make my own holiday magic for Easter. It makes me homesick. I don't have to celebrate it but I choose to because it makes me feel happy.   It makes me feel like my family is with me even though they aren't.

Happy Easter!

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