Easter, the greatest part of spring. The Colorado winter is beginning to withdraw its cold, clammy hands from our frostbitten toes and the warmer rays of spring sunshine are beginning to warm our bodies. The sun peeps its head earlier and disappears later. The grass begins to turn green, trees begin to bud, flowers begin to sprout, and butterflies spread their wings. People of all ages break out the Sperry’s, sun dresses, pastel colored shorts, and bright t-shirts. The perfect setting for Easter.

Historically, Easter has been celebrated as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was crucified on the cross, and three days later resurrected to forgive the sins of those around us. This is still the central belief of Easter; however, there are some fun, non-religious traditions that come with Easter, too.

The Easter Bunny, one of the childhood characters we all loved (along with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy), never seemed to scare us in any way. A giant, fuzzy bunny with a big grin hopping into your house from some magical source, what could we fear about that? On top of this, he would have a basket full of goodies, colorful eggs, candy, and pretty grass. A rabbit with eggs totally makes a ton of sense. Of course, the Easter bunny would put another twist on this: He would hide the eggs and the basket. Now I’m going to pause, who is already cherishing these times? I know this was what made Easter fun for me.

This activity is used by religious preschools to get children excited about Easter. We can see how religion would adopt certain aspects to gain a better public opinion. For instance, the Christmas tree was brought over to the United States by the Germans. And on St. Patrick’s day, wearing green to represent the clover made for parades, such as the famous one in New York, for a widespread celebration.

Anyway, back to Easter. There are many things we can be thankful for this year. Family; always, always be thankful for those crazy siblings and parents you have. There is no one else who will accept you as much as them. Second, food. This isn’t your normal Fall or Winter feast, this is a barrage of hors d’oeuvres that are to die for. The most notable of which are deviled eggs.

As for activities, the old fashioned dying of eggs is always the go to family activity. I would recommend you buy about two dozen eggs or more (we are all clumsy and will of course drop one, two, or heck even ten eggs. Be prepared with a few extras). Buying some of your favorite colorful dyes, a white crayon or pastel, and paint brushes will help bring more creativity to your eggs. Next, hard boil the eggs and stir up your dyes or paint and begin coloring. Leave the eggs in the dye for a long time in order to get a more distinguished color. When you draw a design on the eggs with the crayon or pastel, it will make for the white color of the egg to still show. Lastly, get a nice little stand and set the eggs out for decoration, or dig right in and eat them in any way you wish.

Finally, finish your Easter off with a nice Easter-themed movie. There aren’t many good ones out there but, my personal recommendation would be Charlie Brown and The Easter Beagle.