Easter Redux

Sorry, Easter. Sorry I never managed to come up with a firm, reliable tradition for you. Besides the baskets-full-of-candy-dyed-egg-thing, I mean. And that is almost good enough for the entire day. But we've never quite figured it all out. Is Easter a BIG holiday? Do we invite all the family over for a BIG dinner? We have a few times, either here or at another house (apparently we all all similarly inclined towards confusion about the nature of celebrating Easter...) but the traditon never took hold for any of us. I am thinking a few things here.

1. Easter is just too religious for our family. Christmas is nice as it is at base, simply a celebration of a birth. Easter flat out celebrates one of the miracles of Christianity and none of us are actual believers. So greeting someone with a "Happy Easter!" seems almost hypocritical, particularly if you are not handing them jelly beans or Hershey eggs.

2. The weather is so unreliable here. Today we have light fluffy snow falling. Pretty! It is quite the Currier and Ives scene. And listen! Is that the sound of snowplows grinding down the streets? Pretty far removed from spring grasses and tulips and little girls in pastel-colored dresses collecting flowers from the garden. (Although I do have a memory of lilies of the valley in bloom once during my childhood. Must have been an extremely late Easter that year.) And Easter egg hunts? A foreign concept here due to winter condition prevailing the majority of the time.

3. The date is so terribly changeable. My understanding is that we have t least a four week span here--I decline to go consult a perpetual calendar (though I do love those things)-- but I am certain Easter has been held as late as April 19. And today of course is March 23. This gigantic gap messes with the holiday spirit in a dangerous way for some of us. We need more predictibility!

4. Never figured out what to eat for Easter dinner. There was a long span of vegetarianism around here and the idea of a ham or a lamb roast was just too meaty to contemplate. Turkey (although not a vegetable, yes, I do undestand that) was an alternative but...nah. How about piles of candy instead? Got to get to work on those chocolate rabbits sometime. Make it today, around six PM!

Sorry, Easter. But thanks for all the candy anyway.