Brief History of Easter
Easter which is celebrated on the First Sunday following the full moon after the vernal Equinox of March 21st is a widely popular secular holiday in the US and marks the onset of the spring season. Easter is not just about one single day but an entire season. According to mythology, the first Easter Celebrations date back to before the second century when it was a celebration of spring and fertility.
Since rabbits are a symbol of fertility and new life, it began to be associated with Easter and the idea of Easter Bunny was thus brought to the US by the Germans in the 18th century. The custom of the eggs goes back to the Mesopotamian period, from where it is believed to have spread to Russia, through Europe and then to America. It is believed that the Easter Bunny lays coloured eggs for well-behaved kids. In several European countries it is common to make Porcelain eggs for the ladies. Beginning in March the world goes gaga on a festive Easter Spree as Nature to gets ready to don a new look.
Fun Things to do on Easter 2019
Easter is a fun filled holiday which brings a galore of fun activities for the kids thanks to its association with Easter Bunny, colourfully decorated eggs and all the candy. Here are some of them with tips on how you can incorporate them into your holiday.
How to paint Easter Eggs 2019
Decorating eggs is one of the oldest Easter Customs which started in the 19th century when royalty and other members of high society in Russia began gifting each other jewel encrusted eggs. Let us see how we can decorate some Easter eggs of our own.
Method 1: Boil the eggs and set them aside. Fill a cup halfway with hot water, add a teaspoon of vinegar and one of your desired food coloring. Ready as many cups, as the number of colours you want. This will be the dye for the eggs. Place the eggs in the cups and leave them for 5 minutes. Lift them out with a tong and your eggs are ready.
If you want to create patterns, draw a design on the egg or write a message using a white wax crayon before you dip it. You can also create stripes by placing rubber bands or tape around the eggs. For more shapes and patterns you can also paste stickers on the eggs before you dip it. When you remove the eggs from the dye cups, they will have the pattern you created.
Method 2: You will love this one! Find a 100% silk tie which has a design you like, because you are going to imprint that design on the egg. Make sure you get a bright colour, so you get a really good looking egg. Cut the seam and cut out a section large enough to wrap the egg with an extra couple of inches to spare. Wrap the egg in the tie with the exterior of the tie in contact with the eggshell. Then wrap it with another lightweight layer of fabric. Heat ¼ a cup of vinegar in a pot and boil the eggs with the lid closed for 20 minutes. Give them time to cool down. Open when they are only a little warm and you will have created a masterpiece.
Hide them away for a treasure hunt or eat them, if you’re hungry.
How to draw an Easter Bunny 2019
Easter isn’t complete without the Easter Bunny. Another fun way to engage your kids is to teach them how to draw an Easter Bunny. Here are some easy to follow instructions:
- For the head, draw a big circle on in the centre of the upper part of the page
- For the cheeks, draw a smaller circle on each side of the big circle towards the bottom
- For the ears, draw two overlapping ovals on each side of the big circle towards the top
- For the upper paws, draw two long tear drop shapes which are curved in the middle and start from under the head
- Draw a big oval over both the arms to make a basket
- Starting from the left and the right sides of the basket draw a flat semi-circle to form the lower body.
- For the lower paws, draw two half ovals starting at the semi-circle and placed just under the lower body.
Outline the outer shape of the bunny and add features like tufts of fur, and a few eggs in the basket. Erase the sketch lines and add colour.
Let’s look at another very easy way to draw a realistic Easter Bunny:
-
- For the head, draw a big slightly rounded vertically inclined oval in the middle of the page.
- Now make the ears by drawing two long thin ovals starting from the sides of the top of the head.
- Draw another big horizontally inclined oval which slightly overlaps the head and the right year. This will form the body.
- For the paws, draw a semicircle on the lower right side of the body. Below it, draw half a thin long slightly flat horizontal oval starting from around the semicircle.
- Draw another small oval just behind the semicircle to make the bushy tail.
- On the left side of the body, in front of the back paws, draw two overlapping sets of ovals.
- Draw a flat oval a little on front of the front paws for the basket.
- Add details by drawing a big eye, the little nose, paws and some hair tufts and color it the way you like.
- Draw a few eggs on top of the basket and use multiple colors for them.
Your Easter bunny is all ready!
Create an Easter Basket 2019
One of the joys of Easter is to craft a good old-fashioned basket by hand. Here are a few ways to do it:
- Farmer’s Market Easter Basket
-
- Use a berry box from the grocery to create an Easter basket for a good start to the festival
- Apply all-in-one glue to the top edges of the box and sprinkle glitter on top.
- Remove excess glitter by shaking and let it dry.
- Attach a ribbon to make a handle and transform the berry boxes into cute little baskets
- Colourful Button Easter Basket
- Pick a readymade basket or a small bucket
- Grab an assortment of buttons of all sizes and colours
- Hot glue the buttons onto the basket
- Tie a pretty ribbon around the handle and your Easter Basket is ready
- Popsicle Stick Easter Basket
- Start with a small plastic bin
- Use hot glue to paste the popsicle sticks around the perimeter of the bin
- Tie a pretty ribbon around the middle of the to hold them in position
These are 3 very easy ways to teach your kids how to make Easter Baskets. Fill them up with treats and goodies and you have yourself a lovely Easter Basket.
Easter Egg Hunt
The festivities of Easter are incomplete without the most looked forward to fun activity of Easter Egg Hunt. The easiest way to do this is to hide some special gifts in a piñata, blindfold the children and let them try to burst it. Better yet, make cute little tracks out of paper and leave them around your place to guide the kids in the direction of the Easter eggs. What’s better than the kids waking up to see that the Easter Bunny himself left tracks for them to find the eggs.
Another way to do this is let the kids hide the eggs and you go about finding them. Put your kid in charge of hiding the eggs while you make an attempt to locate them. Any Eggs that aren’t found within, say 10 minutes, the kid gets to keep. Kids love to treasure hunt themselves. A good way to do this would be to leave clues in empty eggs around the house or the yard. Let the clues point them in the direction of a large basket full of Easter treats. You could up this a notch, by adding little tasks in the clues like asking them to recite a poem or do a few bunny hops or dance like a chicken. The kids are going to have a lot of fun finding eggs this way.
Easter 2019 Recipes
Delicious treats are the hallmark of Easter. Here are a few super easy recipes for a sumptous Easter treat.
Dessert – Peep Smores
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients
- Heavy Whipping cream, warmed – ½ Cup
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips – 2 cups
- Peeps, pick colors of your choice – 3-5 packages
- Graham Crackers – to serve
Process
Pre-heat the oven 450 F. Heat the whipping cream in a pot over medium heat until warm. Spread the chocolate chips in a medium skillet. Pour the whipped cream over the chocolate chips and on top of it, arrange the peeps in a colourful pattern. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Serve with Graham Crackers.
Appetiser – Smoked Salmon Bites
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- Shallot – 1, sliced
- Red wine vinegar – 2 tablespoons
- Sugar – ¼ teaspoon
- Plain Potato chips – 24
- Cooked Salmon – 4oz, Cold
- Sour Cream – 1/3 cup
- Fresh Tarragon Leaves
Process
Combine the shallots, vinegar, sugar, sugar and salt with 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Drain on a sieve and let the shallots cool. You can also make this one day ahead and keep them refrigerated. Layout the potato chips on a serving tray and on each one, place a piece of salmon, a dollop of sour cream and 2 rings of shallots. Place a leaf of tarragon on top and serve.
Main Course – Spice Rubbed Lamb Chops with Green Beans
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- Fresh Green beans – 1 lb
- Shallot – 1, sliced
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 2 Tablespoons, extra for drizzling
- Juice of ½ a Lemon
- Toasted Pine nuts – 2 tablespoons
- Kosher Salt – 2 tablespoons, extra for seasoning
- Freshly ground black pepper – 1 teaspoon
- Freshly ground cloves – 1 teaspoon
- Freshly ground nutmeg – 1 teaspoon
- Freshly ground Cinnamon – ½ teaspoon
- Lamb chops – 8
Process
Preheat the oven to 325F. In a saucepan, bring water to boil and add a generous amount of salt. Add the green beans and cook for 4-5 minutes until crisp and tender. Add the shallot just before the beans are about to be done. Drain and transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, pine nuts, and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
Mix 2 teaspoons of salt with the ground spices. Brush the chops with olive oil and season with the spice mixture. Heat a non-stick skillet and cook the chops over medium-high heat until they are brown and crisp on both sides. Finish the chops in the oven until they reach desired doneness and transfer to the serving platter.
Enjoy your meal!
Easter Fun Facts
Easter is one of the most loved holidays in the US. Here are some fun facts that you can tell your kids about Easter:
- There are various different names for Easter around the world – English – Easter, Italian – Pasqua, Albanian – Pashke, French – Paques, Spanish – Pascua, and more.
- 76% of the people eat the ears on the chocolate first, 5% start with the feet and 4% with the tail.
- The Easter egg represents joy, celebration and new life
- President Rutherford B. Hayes started the White House Tradition of the Easter Egg in 1978
- According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Tallest Easter Egg was made in Italy in 2011 and stood 10.39m tall and weighed 7,200 kilos.
- The first chocolate eggs were made in Germany in the 19th century
- The act of painting eggs is called Pysanka.
- The custom of giving eggs at Easter goes back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Gauls.
- European monks started the tradition of hot cross buns which they distributed among the poor just before Easter.
- The first Easter Baskets were designed to resemble a bird’s nest with eggs.
- In the olden days, Pretzels were associated with Easter because its twists resembled the crossing of arms in prayer
- In the mid-twentieth century it used to take 27 hours to make a marshmallow peep. Today it takes only 6 minutes.
- The red jelly bean or the cherry flavoured jelly bean is the most popular one among kids.
- The Easter Bunny isn’t the only animal associated with Easter. In Switzerland, it is believed that a cuckoo delivers the Easter Eggs. In different parts of Germany Easter is associated with the Fox, the Chick, the Rooster or the Stork which are believed to bring the Easter eggs.
- The First person to make decorated eggs for Easter was an artist and Goldsmith by the name Peter Carl Faberge, who decorated the eggs following the orders of Czar Alexander III who wanted to gift them to his wife, the Empress Marie.
- In US alone 90 million chocolate bunnies and 16 million Easter Jelly Beans are produced for each year
Last Updated on by Icy Tales Team