Easter was always a special holiday for me. I loved all of the ceremonies - opening the Easter basket, having an Easter egg hunt and Easter church services.
The night before Easter, the family colored Easter eggs. First, mom boiled the eggs for a few minutes. While the eggs were boiling, she mixed some bowls of colored water, which she made from a set of Easter egg dies that she’d bought the week before.
When the eggs were finished boiling, she took them out of the water and put them into a large bowl. Then it was our turn. Belinda and I used the colored water to dye the eggs many difference colors. We’d make blue and red eggs, purple eggs with yellow dots, green eggs, and eggs of every other color we could think of.
When we were finished, we had a bowl full of maybe two dozen eggs of various colors and hues.
We’d always get to bed late on Easter, because this egg coloring took quite a bit of time. I remember being nervous, anxious for the morning to arrive. This always made it difficult to get to sleep, and the night seemed to take forever.
When the morning came, I woke well before anyone else. I snuck into the living room, and lo and behold, there were some Easter baskets in the middle of the floor. Like magic, the Easter bunny had left gifts for us children again.
I rushed over to the basket and examined it from all directions, thrilled at all of the candy and other goodies it contained. After tiring of this, I ran into mom and dad’s room, and woke them up. A few minutes later, mom and dad sleepily came into the living room. Belinda must have heard all the noise, because she joined us, looking very tired but happy and excited.
Mom had to find her camera, of course, before we could begin. Once she had that, Belinda and I ripped open our baskets and munched on candy for a while. We had hard boiled eggs for breakfast.
After breakfast, it was time for the Easter Egg hunt. Belinda and I ran around the back yard, looking everywhere for Easter eggs. We looked under rocks, in the branches of trees, in a hallow in the ground and behind logs. My parents usually hid about two dozen eggs, and Belinda and I had a great time looking throughout the yard for them all. Mom took pictures of everything, of course.
After about fifteen minutes, Belinda and I found all of the eggs and returned to the house. We were very excited and happy by then, a warm glow filling us. It was a special moment that I’ll always remember.
Then it was time to get ready for church. Everybody put on their best Sunday clothes, and we went to the church for the Easter sermon. We sung hymns (I always hated singing the hymns), and he talked some more. It seemed to take forever, but finally he finished talking and we all went home. The Easter ceremonies were over (except for eating all of the candy and eggs) until next year.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.