I loved Easter growing up in the 1980s. The beautiful spring dresses, the sunrise services, the special family brunches we enjoyed between sunrise service and regular church service in our church fellowship hall-I loved all of it. Tulips and white lilies were everywhere. And then, of course, that beautiful Easter service music…what could be better? Those were happy times in otherwise dark years of my life.
Perhaps my favorite childhood Easter was in 1981 or 1982 when we travelled to North Loup, Nebraska to visit my maternal grandmother at her apartment in a retirement community walking distance from downtown North Loup. That year we walked with grandma to the Methodist church in our Easter finest. I was too young to remember much about the service-except for the beautiful music and flowers. But what made this Easter so special-besides getting to spend it with my grandmother before she passed away in 1989-was the celebration held after the service for all the children in attendance.
Just before church, volunteers seeded the grounds with colored plastic eggs-and a few real ones. As soon as church was over, we were led to the back yard and the Easter egg hunt was on! Children ran and poked around, looking for the eggs to put in our baskets. When all the eggs were collected, the pastor assembled all of us to open the eggs and receive prizes.
In some of the eggs were tokens. Anyone finding a token took it to the pastor where it was traded for a quarter, fifty cents, or, for the lucky few, an entire dollar. In other eggs we found marshmallow candies, jelly beans, and other treats which were put into a little candy bag to take home.
To a ten-year-old it was better than Halloween and all the more special because it was the only Easter I can remember spending with my grandmother before she died.
In college, my history studies would inform me about the Germanic customs and some of the darker sides to Easter egg hunts that few children ever learn. Yet for all my education in world religion and world history, nothing can take away that memory of innocence and delight I experienced that year, going to church and on an Easter egg hunt with grandma. I hope we all get so lucky to have a memory like that!