Tarot By Cyndee: April 2015

Easter Egg Hunt 2015

Today we celebrated Easter. For many people across the United States- Easter has become a celebration colorful eggs, baskets and chocolate bunnies but did you ever stop to ask, " Where did this all come from?" As many of you know, I grew up in the Catholic Church and I was taught that Easter was a religious holiday, it marks the day of Jesus resurrection. As I've gotten older and I started to form my own thoughts and beliefs, I no longer held on to this idea that Easter is a religious holiday, especially after I had kids.
I personally LOVE Easter! Why? I have no idea! I have always enjoyed this wonderful holiday. When I was growing up, every Easter Sunday our Church held Easter hunts. They would hide eggs across a small part of the lawn and would have about 4-5 winning tickets hidden in one of the eggs where you could win a Gift basket. I of course never won a basket, but I still enjoyed the hunting none the less. It was fun! Back in those days the eggs hunts were very simple and nothing crazy like it is today, I'll talk about my recent visit to the World's Largest Easter Hunt later.

Eostera also known as Ostara
The Goddess of Spring

Upon my own research, I have discovered that Easter actually originated in Germany and it started out as a Pagan Tradition! NOT CHRISTIAN – isn't that fascinating? The first German Immigrants brought over their tradition of "Osterhase" when then came here. According to history – German parents would hide Easter eggs and tell their children if they were good they would get a visit from the Easter bunny. So how did we come to call Easter, Easter? Well, I'll tell you that also… The German Goddess Eostre, also known by Ostara; is the goddess of the spring! The hare was used as a symbol for this goddess because the hare represented fertility – as many of you know- hares and rabbits are VERY FERTILE. In Chinese tradition the rabbit is a symbol of good luck. It is from the Goddess name Eostera that we got the name "Easter."

I made these cute little bunnies for last years easter egg hunt.
Instead of finding the winning ticket, they had to find the bunny.

Why the use of Eggs???

Eggs symbolize new life and symbolically – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The more research I look into the more fascinating it gets, so why do we color hard boiled eggs??? During Lent, eggs were forbidden to be eater because they were considered sacred symbols of life – During lent – eggs were hard boiled so they could last longer and families would color and decorate them. At the end of lent, the eggs would be eaten to celebrate Easter. What is lent? I have no idea- I was taught we were to give up something during this period and we went to church on Wednesday night which was called "Ash Wednesday" I had to actually look this up – ( I grew up in the catholic church and I have no idea what it is – can you tell I paid a lot of attention during mass? ;) ) So lent starts on Ash Wednesday and 6 weeks later we celebrate Easter, during lent I was taught we were to sacrifice something – give up something we love because God sacrificed his only son for us. I remember during my middle school years I gave up bread and my cousin Monique gave up fireball candies and my brother gave up soda.

My Spin on Easter: You know for me it's not a religious holiday – I JUST LOVE EASTER. I LOVE THE RABBITS, THE COLOR EGGS, THE FUN SHADES OF PASTEL. As I said earlier, Easter Egg hunts we're a fond memory for me. One that I maintain still today for my kids. I usually host Easter, I put together festivities and hide eggs, but this year…. Being such a busy year for me, I decided to attend what they call the "World Largest Easter Egg Hunt" at the Sacramento State Capital. Long story short – NEVER WILL I EVER ATTEND THIS EVENT. It was way too large, too many people and it was just insane! But you know… It was all for a good cause. The event was held to raise money for victims of Human Trafficking.