Happy Easter, TFP!

[genuinegirly]

My husband knows how much I love Easter - it's my favorite holiday (though shrove "pancake" tuesday comes in a close second).

This morning I woke up early. Waiting for me in the cabinet when I went to brush my teeth was a chocolate-filled easter egg! Then as I put away our last load of dishes, there were two more! Yay!

This afternoon we're going to have some neighborhood kids over to play with our Cinnabunny: aka. the easter bunny.

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
What are your traditions for the holiday?
Do you eat any special meals on this day?
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?________________________________________________________________

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
I celebrate easter.
What are your traditions for the holiday?
Since this is our first Easter together, we're not sure what traditions we want to make. We went to Mass on Good Friday and this morning's easter egg hunt was a success. We'll be singing with the folk group at Mass today.
Do you eat any special meals on this day?
We're a bit at a loss of what to prepare for a special Easter feast, so we're just going to cook a bunch of our favorite foods.
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?
On easter morning my family would wake up before dawn and go for a hike, then stop on the trail as the sun rises and sing hymns together. This is a tradition that is sweet and pretty and all, but it's not one that I plan to embrace for my own family. I love hiking, but I'm not about to force my husband out of bed at dawn. Another tradition in my family is to have a feast where ham is the centerpiece. Since I'm a vegetarian, I'm not planning on incorporating this one.

I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has to say about traditions - maybe there will be one that I will adopt as our own!

[Xerxys]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
I celebrate the day with my family. I get it off and seeing as it's a holiday they recognize, I attend.
What are your traditions for the holiday?
Same as any other day off, lotsa grilled meat and people around y parents house.
Do you eat any special meals on this day?
Can you say cholesterol?
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?
Nope, no traditions.

Happy Easter GG. Happy Easter all.

[SSJTWIZTA]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday? nope.
What are your traditions for the holiday? beer, mostly.
Do you eat any special meals on this day? uhh, beer?
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family? not drinking beer.

[Strange Famous]

No, none, No, There's not much chane of me ever having a family so it doesnt really matter.

[ngdawg]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday? Kind of celebrate "Easter", though I call it by its proper name, "Oestre".
What are your traditions for the holiday? Baskets of candy for the kids
Do you eat any special meals on this day? Only because it's a religious holiday for the spouse and his family so we go over there for ham and the fixins
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family? No. Baskets of candy and gifts is all I got as a kid and all I do for mine.

[SecretMethod70]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?

My family celebrates Easter. I continue to attend the celebrations. Which is not to say that there's much celebrating. I don't remember there ever being a time that we consistently went to church, and by the time I was in HS we sometimes didn't even go on Christmas or Easter. For me, and I think for my family as well even if they don't realize it, the value of Easter is in gathering with family, not in celebrating one event of a morality tale.

What are your traditions for the holiday?

We have almost always gone to a restaurant for Easter. I don't know why. Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc are at homes, but Easter is at a restaurant. And always an Italian restaurant, because my family is Italian. This year will be different though. It's very expensive to go to a nice restaurant with 30+ people, and so the family is splitting up a bit. My grandparents and a number of my aunts and uncles with smaller families are gathering at an aunt and uncle's home. My own family is not joining them because we are the largest - responsible for about 15 people on our own - and so we are having Easter at my parent's house.

Do you eat any special meals on this day?

I guess I kind of covered that, but we have typically always gone to a nice Italian restaurant (none of the Olive Garden bullshit) and ordered food there. This year I'm not sure what we're having, but I know it won't be ham or lamb. I know it's red meat, probably a very nice cut, but I'm not sure what.

Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?

Nope. I'm not fond of maintaining tradition for tradition's sake, and unless I see a use in it I'm not inclined to uphold it. The tradition of gathering as a family is a useful one, but the details of that gathering are irrelevant to me.

[World's King]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday? Yes. But only because my family does.

What are your traditions for the holiday? I'm Italian so... we eat a lot. And an egg hunt for the little kids.

Do you eat any special meals on this day? We've always had ham. And some sort of pasta dish.

Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family? I don't know yet. I'm sure it will all be the same.

[FuglyStick]

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

[cdwonderful]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
Spring solstice, when I was dating a wicca priestess

What are your traditions for the holiday?
reeses peanut butter eggs and making fun of Peep fans

Do you eat any special meals on this day?
What ever is in the fridge.

Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?
the dysfunctional egg throwing wars and rabbit slaughter......

[Tully Mars]

Easter's a big thing down here. Probably bigger the Christmas. Here it's called "Semana Santa" or Holy Week. Most people celebrate for two weeks and many take their vacation during these two weeks.

Info here

There's a lot of partying and a lot of church services. Most houses around me rent for the two weeks and the beach is full of people. Many places on the beach have stages set up for live bands and the music goes until dawn. The house next to me had a live band last night. This morning my coffee cup was bouncing across the end table to the beat of the bass.

For me personally it's a time to make sure my house is well stocked and I don't need to go anywhere. I stay in, driving is really an option. My sleepy little town goes from about 25k to nearly 200K for the whole two weeks.

Easter's never been anything to me, now I'm just happy when it's over.

[Willravel]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
I celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but it's really just an excuse to have copious amounts of corned beef.
What are your traditions for the holiday?
Originally I celebrated it the way most do, but it's not much of a holiday. I don't celebrate it anymore.
Do you eat any special meals on this day?
Nope.
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?
Christianity.

[Daniel_]

The eating special meals thing is not one I'd noticed, until a few years ago, when my then wife complained that she hated Easter dinner at my mother's house, as my mum always cooked baked ham with broad beans.

This was in my mid twenties, and I had never noticed - I'd not realised it was a specific tradition (rather than something my mum did), but seeing several of you mention ham, I'm assuming that this is not unusual?

[Cheater]

yes, I celebrate Easter
traditions: still go with the Easter baskets, even tho the youngest is 27 now, we even send an Easter basket to the oldest, since he can't be here for the holiday
special meal: the usual Easter dinner with lamb
old traditions that we no longer do: as a child, we used to get together with relatives after church, but the relatives are no longer around (either moved or have passed on) and we haven't been to church for quite some time (now there's another topic that could be discussed)

[CinnamonGirl]

When I was a kid, we'd do the Easter baskets, then get dressed up with fancy hats and go to church. After that was the egg hunt/family dinner at Grandma's.

We stopped going to church when I was around... 12? But the baskets have continued. Mom and I make each other a basket every year.

I usually have to work every Easter. I don't really care for the religious part of it, but I've always liked hanging out with my extended family (a couple years ago, we hid 250 eggs. The kids found 270. ) Easter, Christmas, and the 4th of July were generally the only time I'd see some of them. Kinda sad that's been reduced to just Christmas now.

As for the future... not sure if I'll have a "family" in the traditional sense, but I imagine I'll eventually have nieces and nephews. I won't do church, and I most likely won't do egg decorating... but I'll totally get into hiding the plastic eggs with prizes inside, and the big family dinner.

[lostgirl]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?
I haven't in a few years.
What are your traditions for the holiday?
When I lived with my parents, we woke up in the morning to Easter baskets and an egg hunt. Then the family got together for a big Ham dinner. Oh yea lots and lots of church.
Do you eat any special meals on this day?
Ham.
Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?
Yes, and no. I want to do somethings a lot different. Make my own traditions and give a bit of mythology and traditions from all sorts of different religions.

[Punk.of.Ages]

Do you celebrate Easter, or perhaps another spring holiday?

Yeah, I've always celebrated Easter.

What are your traditions for the holiday?

Easter egg painting the night before. I did this with my roommate's kids this year. We had a blast. Easter egg hunt. I always hide the eggs, and I always hide one under a pile of grass so somebody steps on it. I hid them last night while I was severely trashed and couldn't remember where they all were this morning! Also, just like any other holiday, I get together with the family and drink a lot of beer.

Do you eat any special meals on this day?

No. Whatever my grandma and I feel like cooking.

Are there traditions that you had as a child that you are not planning to continue with your own family?

Every year I was forced to wear really nice clothes on Easter. I don't like that tradition.