Each year, many of us begin to celebrate Easter on Good Friday; it’s a statutory holiday for most people. In Québec, the official workday observation is Easter Monday. Some would say the most important day is Easter Sunday, as Easter is the most important Christian holiday, following the lengthy period of Lent.
Many people rejoice at the coming of spring, so it’s good to know that Easter Sunday is generally the Sunday following the first full moon of the spring (Vernal) Equinox. However, when there’s a conflict of dates with Passover, the day is moved back a week. An interesting fact about Easter Sunday is that it can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25. Reasons for the variation in date have a long story behind it, but the short version is that early Church elders wanted it to coincide with, but be subsequent to, Passover. Solar and lunar cycles change year-to-year, so does Passover, and hence, Easter.
Easter is celebrated, however, in different ways. For some it comes down to the important experience of worship and reverence, while for others it’s about family activities and maybe the Easter egg hunt.
Because Good Friday is a statuary holiday most employers are not at work. There are exceptions—you might be one of those—and they can apply to anything from emergency services to stores and restaurants. While Easter Sunday isn’t a statuary holiday, it does fall on a weekend, so many of the same conditions about who is working, or what is open, apply.
One of the most popular activities at Easter time the making of Easter Eggs! To start, you’re going to want to hard boil your eggs, or hollow them out; lots of information around on how to do those things. Some people have shifted to the use of plastic eggs, but it’s more interesting to use the real ones. To decorate the eggs, try decoupage tissue paper, or another time-honoured way: dyeing them with food colouring. After decorating, hide them around the house (or office) and start the Easter Egg hunt! Did you know there are numerous games that focus on eggs besides decorating them on going on a hunt? Some families make mosaics from the coloured egg shells, others create cute little bunnies and other small creatures, and still others have found ways to make sun catchers from egg-shaped Styrofoam balls. Then of course there are Easter Egg rolling games, spoon races, and so forth.
No article on Easter weekend is complete without mentioning one more word: chocolate! Whether chocolate bunnies or chocolate eggs, chocolate is the common denominator here. We couldn’t put our hands on Canadian-specific statistics here, but you might find the following global numbers interesting; perhaps interesting enough to go out and grab a chocolate bunny. As measured in 2012:
- 120 million pounds of Easter candy is purchased
- 70 percent of the Easter candy is chocolate
- Total spending on Easter candy is over 2 billion dollars!
To everyone, however you celebrate Easter; please have a happy and safe weekend.