EASTER IS EARLY THIS YEAR

[Pumpkin_Man]

Easter is going to be on the 31st of March this year. I actualy would prefer it to be in April, but the tradition is for it to be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, and that day happens to be the 31st of March this year.

I will be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, because I am hosting a St Patrick's Party on Sunday the 17th, and then two weeks after that I am hosting Easter.

Looking forward to it, though.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, it is early, but then, it's been rather late the last two or three years, so it was time for another March Easter, I guess.

[Morticia]

Only thing I do for Easter is dye eggs, and for St. Patty's day fix corned beef and cabbage.

[Murfreesboro]

My husband and I both sing in the church choir, so we have lots of rehearsals for Holy Week. We sing not only on Easter morning, but also Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

This year I am also in charge of the soup suppers on Weds. during the first half of Lent. These are fund-raisers for the youth group, and I do the three in Feb. Someone else organizes the three in March.

Our church has an Easter breakfast between the services on Easter Sunday morning. It is a big social time.

At home, we usually dye eggs on Easter Eve. My kids are grown or nearly so now, but the two at home will insist on hiding the eggs for me in our back yard on Easter Sunday afternoon. I always hide for them first, but they are absolutely fiendish in hiding them for me!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Morticia, I wish you could sample my Corned Beef. I bet you would like it. I slow roast it in the oven.

Murf, I will be busy in church related activities, too during Holy Week. Additionaly I make it a point to attend an eccumenical service on Good Friday in addition to the Tridium that I observe which begins on Holy Thursday, Goes through Good Friday and ends with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening.

Speaking of Easter Eggs, I will never forget the year that we had one egg that was never recovered, and for some reason it didn't stink up the house. It was hidden in a very unobvious place, where no little kid would ever think of looking because it was way up high above the kitchen sink, and we couldn't reach it. Anyway, the year went on, and when we started the Christmas Cleaning, that egg was found in the that cabenet, just 2 weeks before Christmas Eve.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Interesting about the lost egg! A friend at church told me about an ancient Easter egg she had seen, something that had been decorated back in the 19th century. It had never been "blown out," so it still had some kind of dried up content rattling around inside it. It was hard for me to imagine something like that surviving, but she swore it had.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Egg shells are like bones. They last a very long time, but the yoke and the whites get rotten. I don't understand why that egg didn't stink up our kitchen, though. It sat there from April all the way through the first two weeks or so of December.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Well, today is Mardi Gras, but apparently it is raining down in New Orleans. My husband said he'd heard that the parades might have to be canceled. I wonder how the Duchess is faring?

[MauEvig]

Last year I made some decorations out of construction paper and I put out a few bunny plushies and such, and got those little hopping eggs from the movie Rise of the Guardians and a plush baby chick from the movie Hop.

I think I prefer a later Easter as well, as there's more build up to it instead of it just being there and gone.

I never did color eggs last year, we just didn't have the time. But usually Easter does consist of a dinner with family though not nearly as big of a hype as Christmas is.