What Easter Time Was Like When I Was A Child

Easter Time When I Was A Child

Does it seem to everyone that Easter is not celebrated with the same reverence as it once was? Now it seems to be all about the Easter Bunny and stores are getting out their Easter displays before Valentines Day is over. I recall what Easter time meant when I was a child.

My earliest Easter recollection is probably when I was about 5 years old. We were practicing in the children’s choir for Easter and I was so excited about getting to wear the short white robes with the stiffened collar. I remember my mother took them all home and laundered them, starched them and ironed them. When Easter day came my Easter basket wasn’t nearly as important to me as wearing that robe and singing. That was the year I learned the words to “Christ The Lord Has Risen Today”.

It was the “thing” then to have a new outfit for Easter Sunday. Living in northern Iowa Easter Sunday was often snowy or icy but we wore our spring outfit regardless. My mother told us we had to look our best for the risen savior. For the ladies a hat and white gloves were the order of the day. If we had our summer shoes by then we would wear them. Several times I got snow in the open toes, but I had to wear the entire outfit.

Some of the more memorable Easter outfits that I had were a navy blue taffeta dress with a rosebud print sleeve, a pale yellow dotted Swiss dress with a peplum, an aqua moire taffeta skirt and white eyelet blouse, and a pink and gray hounds tooth suit with a short jacket and pleated skirt. I had a white Dutch style hat and white bag and gloves with the suit. My shoes were usually white for summer and varied from closed toe Mary Janes to open toed sandals.

Clothes, choirs and such did not rule out the usual Easter baskets and dyed eggs, however. We always looked forward to searching for our hidden baskets and getting the candy. On the day before Easter we dyed our Easter Eggs. Mother would boil water and add food coloring and a little vinegar and we could chose our colors. We would use white crayons to put out names on them before we dipped them into the colored water. Sometimes we drew other designs. I remember how excited we were when she bought an egg dying kit that had designs and a little paper ring that you could decorate to stand the egg on.

We always attended church on Easter and I can remember the Easter lilies. In those days it was a wonderful thing to have a couple up on the altar. My mother didn’t like them as she said they always reminded her of funerals. It was a common flower at funeral services way back when. I always felt they were a sign of a new beginning. Strange that I had no allergy to them then and now if the stamens are left in I can’t be around them. We have 20 or more lilies on the altar at Easter and I get so I can’t breathe if the stamens are left in. It doesn’t deter from the lilies beauty to remove them and someone is usually good enough to do that before I get there.

Easter Time is no longer a time when people dress in their finery to honor the Risen Christ. Since I am always in a choir robe there is no need for me to have a new dress. But I still love the hope that Easter brings to us.