My Memories of Easter as a Child

Easter also called the Pasch is the celebration of Jesus Christ rising from the dead as described in the New Testament. Religions everywhere celebrate Easter in different ways. The Jewish have Passover and Lent. Easter usually falls on the Sunday after the full moon.

Easter customs vary across the Christian world starting with a sunrise service, Easter egg dying and having a feast.

As Easter has changed to nothing more then a pagan holiday we forget the real reason for the season.

When I was a child we would always get fancy dresses, paten leather shoes and hats and a purse to go to church on Easter Sunday. It was a time of happiness when we woke up in the morning and the Easter Bunny had left a mountain of candy on the dining room table.

We never left anything for the bunny like we left cookies and milk for Santa, which is probably why he stopped coming to our house anyway. He hopped so much with no food he probably keeled over by the last house in the morning.

It was a time of dying eggs, which I could never understand, because we did not like hard boiled eggs then so did my mother throw them out? Who knows.

Easter candy then was good. How soon I missed those very large and very pretty chocolate covered Easter eggs and jelly beans. Oh how I loved peeps when they came out. The harder the better.

Now they are making Easter candy in flavors that should never be. Water melon peeps, sour apple peeps come on now don't take children to another level of candy. Red velvet Russell Stover eggs that are horrible. Red velvet is cake and only cake.

We hunted for eggs at church and it was a good time each and every year. Now children barely get to experience what I did as a child. It was a wonderful time in my life.

Our minister gave a great service while showing a crown of thorns he had made and explaining how his hands bled while he was making it. Making us realize what Christ went through to save us from our sins.

I am originally from NJ and Damask in Swedesboro makes some of the most tantalizing eggs and Easter candy that you could imagine. They have been in business forever and to this day whenever I go home, I visit this store and buy my treasures.

My favorite candy is the hallow chocolate rabbits, jelly beans and peeps. On Easter in my small hometown, it was a time of celebration, to understand that Easter was not about the Easter bunny but the life and death and rising of Jesus.

The story was told year after year and it never got old. Singing Up From the Grave He Arose was one of the most sung Easter songs each year. Funny how we can remember so many holiday songs but can't remember the real reason we use them to celebrate.

It doesn't matter what your belief is, we all believe in something. You have to use your faith and know in your heart that Easter is never about how much candy you give your child.

Its about how a young man, was tortured, abused and killed to save us from our sins.

Children today will never have the same childhood as I did. Parents rarely make their children go to church and make them believe it is always about the Easter bunny.

I am not one to throw religion or politics down peoples throat but this is the meaning of Easter for me.

I went to a play when I was a teenager and it was about the hanging of Jesus. It made a lasting impression in my mind for the rest of my life. A real man, who went through so much torture and a father who let him for us.

You may not be religious or even be atheist. I always asked my mother how do we know this is all true. There is no proof except what the bible says. She told me we had to believe by faith as I have done for my whole life.

Whatever your belief is I by no means want to change that, but we all live the way we grew up. Yes I had Easter bunnies, jelly beans, malted milk eggs and peeps. It still does not sway in my mind what is really happening on this day. As the world grows dark and more violent, I have to believe that one day, God will get sick of this mess and end it.

Happy Easter everyone.