When I was a little girl, four things were very important about Easter.
- Going to church
- New clothes
- Eggs
- Easter dinner
Not much to say about going to church except all the Easter hymns, Easter lilies, and ladies in new hats.
As for new clothes, Mother made sure that everything I had on was brand new from panties to socks. She often made my dress. I had a hat and gloves.
As for the eggs, Mother and I carefully hard-boiled exactly one dozen and dyed them a few days before Easter and put them in the same basket I used year after year. Then, before I got up on Easter morning, my personal Easter Bunny hid those eggs around the yard and left the empty basket sitting by the door. They were really hard to find. I was an only child then so I had my very own hunt. I loved it.
And that was it. No plastic, no candy, no chocolate. No wild, crazy kids running through a field grabbing for eggs that are just lying everywhere, not even hidden.
Then off to church all decked out and back home for Easter dinner. Our holiday meals were always right after church, never in the evening. I never thought about how the women in the family pulled that off. The menu was always ham, deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes, and coconut meringue pie.
Easter was different then. Simple. Better. It will be different this year too. Simple. Not better.