‘Hop’ into Spring with Easter Traditions

Dani England ’19, Circulation Manager

When people hear ‘Easter’, the majority will think right away of bunnies, baskets and easter egg hunts. However, Easter is really a Catholic holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified. But why are those things associated with Easter? Well, when you think of ‘eggs’, you either think of a delicious breakfast on a Sunday morning, or you think of new life. The reason that eggs are associated with Easter Sunday is because they represent that so-called ‘new life’. Since Easter is all about how Jesus has resurrected, which means to come back from the dead, or ‘new beginning’; hence why the egg is associated with Easter.

So then why the bunny? It is mostly associated with spring, but it is also shown as an animal that nurtures their young, and is welcoming to new beings, once again, being associated with rebirth.

Like many people around the world, students at South Lyon High School have family traditions that they do annually on this holiday. “Every Easter, especially when I was a kid, my family and I would wake up and hunt for our easter egg baskets that were filled with candy,” senior Bree Koski said. “Then after that, we would have our extended family gathering and get together and have a lunch or dinner depending on the year and what people had going on.”

This is typically what families tend to do, a morning Easter hunt, a brunch, and then they carry on with their day. Sophomore Trevor Mitchell said his family does the same thing. “We haven’t done it recently because of my hockey schedule, but in the past my family and I used to do this big easter egg hunt inside and outside of our house, and then we would go to church with the rest of my extended family and then have lunch.”

Easter is either an important holiday in your family in which you celebrate each other and life, or it is just another day that means nothing. But no matter what your tradition is, Easter isn’t just all about ‘baskets and candy’, and no matter how unappealing it is, each year we should actually consider its history, and not going in with the mindset to just eat treats.

Photo courtesy of IMPACT Branding and Design