As a secular homeschooling mom, Easter doesn’t have much resonance with me. I have thought about forgetting the holiday altogether, except that most of the rest of my family is Christian and thus are interested in celebrating, and it is the BIG holiday in Honduras (like Christmas is here). I know I kind of come up flat in celebrating with my husband, but I make a late effort this year by baking fish for him even though it was ten o’clock at night. I was also in charge of purchasing Easter basket gifts to be distributed at my father’s this year because my sister who usually does it went on vacation. As well, Elizabeth was very excited about the prospect of Easter candy and egg hunts.
Colored with markers.
Since I was in charge of baskets, I was also in charge of egg dying, which my sister has also traditionally done with Elizabeth. We had a great time of it Friday, and I even got into decorating as well. To make them beautiful we began by painting some with tempera paint, moved to markers, crayons, and then dipped some of the crayon-colored ones in food coloring dye, as well as some uncolored ones. I personally love the batik effect of the crayon-colored eggs dipped in food coloring dye, it makes the crayon design pop right out in an almost electrical manner.
Crayon-colored and food coloring-dipped batik eggs.
As we were designing our eggs, I broke into conversation about Easter symbols. We touched briefly on the story of Jesus, as well as pagan symbols of nature and the renewal of life, but mostly just discussed the basics of the symbols: rabbits, eggs and flowers. My girl got it right when I asked her why these were specifically Easter symbols: because babies are born in the spring and the flowers begin to pop up. That’s it. For a 5-year-old to whom I have not explained the ins and outs of how babies are made, that is enough for me.
I’m beginning to think that maybe with Ostara, the spring-time pagan celebration around this time of the year, I might be able to find more that resonances with me if I come towards it with a child’s excitement, and that maybe I can find meaning it in enough to include it in our own celebrations, especially as I love spring so much.
I hope you all have a very Happy Easter.
A Place for Little Sprouts to Grow 