Easter is always a lovely time of year. It brings with the promise of new life and I thought that it might be nice to bring a bit of history to the site as well as some ideas for what to do over the holidays.

It can be a difficult time to entertain the children, the weather can be unpredictable and wet and being able to get out in the garden can be limited.

I looked into the origins of Easter and found out some interesting things.

Did you know that Easter is one of the oldest and most important Christian festivals. Like many of our special events they are steaped in history. For instance, Easter eggs do not owe their origins to Christianity, but the festival of both Easter and Easter eggs reveals a much easlier association with pagan ritual.

The Egg, is a symbol of fertility and re-birth, and has been associated with celebrating the Spring Equinox since the earliest of times.

The festival of Easter is an example of the early Christian church adapting an existing pagan ritual to suit their own purposes. The Saxon festival of Eastre, when they came to Britain in 5th Century AD, they celebrated re-birth and fertility involving eggs, chicks and rabbits. When they converted to Christianity it coincided with Eostre, so the early Church called the celebration, Eastre or Easter in modern English.

The actual date of Easter differs from year to year and is calculated by a fairly complex calculation in relation to the Spring Equinox.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs were adopted to represent fertility and re-birth and this was adopted by the Christian faith and it came to represent "resurrection" or re-birth of Christ after the crucifixion.

In Europe the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated, hen, duck or goose eggs were used. As time went by artifical eggs were made and by the end of the 17th Century, eggs were being manufactured for purchase and giving us Easter gifts and presents.

As we moved into the 18th and 19th Century eggs went from hollow cardboard eggs filled with Easter gifts and beautifully decorated, culminating in the fabulous Faberge Eggs. These were covered in jewels and were made for the Czar of Russia, by Carl Faberge. I think these would have been the ultimate of gifts, but even the smallest one now would cost millions of pounds!

Thank goodness in the early 1800's the first chocolate Easter egg arrived in Germany and France. They soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond. The eggs were solid to begin with (oh joy!) but soon became hollow. By the turn of the 19th Century modern process meant that the eggs could be made hollow enabling a gift to be enclosed and by the 1960's it was a well established gift worldwide

The Easter Bunny

As with the egg, the Easter bunny finds it origins with the pagan festival. The Goddess of Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo_Saxons through the earthly symbol, the rabbit.

But did you know that it should be the hare and not the rabbit as the true symbol of Easter, as the hare and eggs are both regarded as emblems of fertility. But perhaps over time the rabbit has taken over because they are more prolific in reproducing

Easter Activities

The Easter break is a lovely time for spending time with your family and friends, doing egg hunts in the garden and eating lot's of yummy chocolate

We have put together some ideas of what you can do, if the weather is a bit cold and wet or you just want something for the children to do

Colouring

I know my children love colouring so we have got together some fabulous pictures for you to print off. If you would like to scan your children's pictures and send them through to me we could start a gallery for everyone to see. Colouring Pages

Cooking

If you like cooking, we have a fabulous recipe for you to do with the children, from Let's Do Lunch. Easter Recipe

Easter Egg Hunt

As I mention above doing an easter egg hunt is such good fun and all children, from walking age love taking part in them. I have put together some tips of what you need and how to run an egg hunt. Easter Egg Hunt

Magic Wanda

If you are looking for an activity to keep you busy for a week, visit our Magic Wanda Activity Week page on how to build Nimbi Island. Magic Wanda - Nimbi Island

Easter Food

Hot Cross Buns - oooh goody! I love these and they always seems so good at this time of the year when it is still quite cool! Hot with lot's of butter. However, did you know that they originate from the pagan times as well. If you fancy cooking why not make some Let's Do Lunch biscuits Organic Biscuits

What ForParentsByParents staff are doing at Easter

Do you want to know what the staff will be doing? What we are doing at Easter