IN MY LIFE- EASTER MEMORIES

Reflections on Easter Sunday..

- My dear mom was born on Easter Sunday, which was April 11 in 1920. So, Easter is special to me. It truly is a day of renewal and hope. Spring is here. The weather will be getting warmer. it stays light later in the evenings. Baseball has begun. Plans are being made for spring and summer. Kids are on spring break from school. The air is fresh and clean. The flowers are coming out soon. The dogwood trees will be blooming in white and pink blossoms.  My favorite time of the year!

Now that mom is gone, Easter is also a time for prayer, for reflection and memories, and flowers for her grave, never to be forgotten.

- Love Easter candy!~ Jelly beans are unique to Easter. Like the red, orange and purple ones the best. I'll pass on the black ones.

 Chocolate bunnies are great. I go for the ears first. Funny, when I was a kid I never liked white chocolate. Now I love it! It's sweeter than milk, but who cares> dark chocolate is better for you. It can be bitter but it's good. Milk is silky smooth, and my new favorite is Lindors. The inside of the chocolate is cream and melts in your mouth.

Marsh mellow peeps are great, either pink or yellow. Peanut butter anything is good. Malted milk chocolate eggs are outstanding. But hold the coconut! Can't stand it. Unlike white chocolate I never acquired a taste for coconut and probably never will.

First time this spring season I noticed candy corn for Easter. Not the yellow and orange kind, but colored pastel colors. Candy corn is just OK to me, even around Halloween. I don't think it will catch on around Easter. Just doesn't seem right.

- Church, of course, is the reason for Easter. Easter Sunday services are always a favorite. Sunrise services are blessed, despite a chill in the air. Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday services are always the longest. And Good Friday is the most solemn. Today, Lent is officially over. Time to rejoice- Jesus is alive!!

- I like when Easter is in mid April. Warmer weather, flowers are out, fun to dress up in your spring finery. But April 1st is much better than Easter in March, which just doesn't feel right. Too soon. I do remember Easters when it was boiling hot outside. The screens were already in doors and windows. People wore shorts and t-shirts in the afternoon.

Tomorrow they are predicting a little snow, which won't last long due to the warm weather and high April sun angle. More snow next weekend, an "onion snow' as my mom used to call it. Hold off on planting your Easter flowers!

- -This year I colored Easter eggs again, like I did as a kid. It was a family tradition, dying eggs then carefully inscribing names on each egg. Back in the old days it was basic egg dye which you dip eggs into, allow to dry, then use a wax crayon or felt-tip marker to decorate. Now, you can get dye in tie-dye colors, fluorescent, glaze, golden, with all kinds of decorations and stickers for the finished eggs.  Coloring Easter eggs is a big deal now.  Great to peel them later, sprinkle a little salt and enjoy the hard-boiled goodies ( but not the yolk).

- This year there is no Phillies game on Easter, which is strange, not only to miss a baseball game on Easter but not have a Phillies game on a Sunday. Quirk in the schedule. but with the way the Phils are playing maybe it's better there is no game today. let it be a blessed and peaceful holiday. We can bitch about our baseball team tomorrow.

- Easter food  means ham to me for dinner. Ham with pineapple rings. Ham with potatoes, mashed, potato salad, or boiled. Maybe a glass of wine with Easter dinner. My mom used to make her traditional Slovak Easter food- filled cabbage, her Easter desserts like nutroll and poppy seed cookies, Italian pizzels to munch on.

Mom used to always order a loaf of Easter bread called Paska- sweet bread filled with raisins .Easter also meant cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar and filled with fruit, like cherry-filling and blueberries.

- Easter  remains special to my heart. It's the start of all the joys which spring holds, the gateway to summer, with so much goodness to look forward to...

.- Easter movies always were a big part of Easter week. Ben-Hur was my favorite, and usually played on Easter Sunday. The Ten Commandments ( both films with Charlton Heston) was also a long, dramatic tradition. Minor but significant flicks, like Barabbas, were also found.  So were Easter Parade starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. But the gigantic, religious blockbuster was the norm for Easter. They don't make them anymore, nor are they around. Hard to find, if only on the cable channels.

- Music around Easter is also limited. Unlike Christmas, which has countless songs and carols, Easter mainly consisted of Here Comes Peter Cottontale and Easter Parade. Someone could make a fortune if they were Irving Berlin ( who wrote Easter Parade as well as White Christmas) and penned a catchy song about Easter. Otherwise, religious hymns and songs dominate, as it should be.

Easter is my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas and all it stands for, but there's still something innocent and pure about Eastertime. I hope it always stays that way.