Easter morning has changed over the years, but technology hasn’t done away with the traditional egg hunts. I feel certain, though, that today’s children would not know what to do with an Easter bonnet or white gloves. Easter, as I knew it, saw a deluge of new hats, white patent leather shoes, white gloves and sometimes a duster to match our dresses. Since Easter can come in the dead of winter or in ninety-degree heat, outfits for the occasion included long-sleeved coats which went over the dress. Of course, we wore the dresses all summer, but the duster never made it out of the closet again. We wore lace trimmed socks and carried purses to match our patent leather shoes. The Saturday before Easter was spent washing and rolling our hair.
Easter Sunday, of course, is a very holy day for the Christian world. We honor Jesus Christ for dying on the Cross for our sins and being resurrected so that we can have everlasting life. He Is Risen! And mother would respond, “He Is Risen, indeed!” I’m not sure how Mother managed Easter morning with the special outfits and hairdos and also remembering to have everything ready for after church, but I very rarely saw her frustrated. She just did what she had to do, and she took care of me well.
Church attendance was at a premium
with everyone in their new attire. After
church, we would quickly change clothes, jump into the car, and head to
I had a large extended family on my
mother’s side, which included Mother, and her sibling's families: sister Reitha Jo Jones, brother Martin Frank Jones, sister Doris Marie Jones Jackson, sister Dorothy Faye Jones Lynch and all their
children, and I feel that my cousins were some of my best friends. Pappy (Joe Carroll Jones) was a layman and a
deacon in the
And then the real fun began. The men folk would hide the eggs – I never knew the Easter bunny. For several years the hunt was staged at my daddy’s terraced farm and amid the newly planted wheat crop. If not there, it would be at Pappy's farm or in Mimi and Pappy’s backyard. I know kids today still hunt for Easter eggs, but they believe that “real” Easter eggs are plastic eggs from Wal-Mart and crack apart to reveal money and candy. The eggs I searched for were individually wrapped colorful candy eggs, and THAT was the prize. A side note – I remember as a Campfire Girl, that we would dye hard boiled eggs and decorate them for the State School. Our adult leader would take them to the school so that the patients would have an egg hunt…. but I always wondered if they really ate the eggs. It was fun as a group, though, to prepare the eggs.
So… some things haven’t changed, yet I worry about our society that has become so politically correct about not offending the non-Christian religions that we are losing sight of the greater impact of Easter on our lives. Gone is the mention of this holiday in any ads or news articles, and Good Friday in the big city just seems to be a vacation from work and school. Many people work on Sundays anyway, so Easter is no different.
However, He Is Risen Indeed and Easter will always be a celebration of our eternal life.
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