Easter 2013

For me holidays as Easter and Christmas are not really connected with religion, I enjoyed them cause of Tradition and all the little things that come on those days.

Today is Big Friday and we spend this day coloring eggs and preparing nest for Bunny to bring presents.

Easter Eggs

The art of decorating Easter eggs in Hungary was originally a Pagan ritual but was carried over with the acceptance of Christianity. Eggs are decorated with simple geometric shapes or ornamented with swirls of plants and flowers. The color red is often used as it symbolizes the blood of Christ. Many eggs also carry the embroidery of Hungarian designs that are a part of the traditional dress. Painted wooden eggs are also displayed in many Hungarian homes.



Easter Breakfast

The tradition food for Easter Breakfast is cooked ham, colored eggs, horseradish, young onion (I am not sure how you call that on english
Here you can check.) and bread. For the lunch the we usually eat Sunday lunch, that includes soup and meat with lot of salads.





Easter Monday Sprinkling

Sprinkling is a very popular Easter custom in Hungary, observed on Easter Monday, which is also known as “Ducking Monday“. On this day, boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls. Until some time back, young men used to pour buckets of water over young women’s heads. Now it is more common for men to spray perfume, cologne or just plain water, and then ask for a kiss and a red egg. This ritual is associated with fertility, healing, and cleansing rites.

That's cool. Thanks for sharing all those neat pictures. Easter and Christmas? Just times for the family to get together at mom's house. Growing up I don't ever remember having religion associated with either of these days. I'm sure that's true for many people.

I didn't know abut this easter monday sprinkling but I am going to get a bucket now...

Happy Easter to everybody who celebrates it.

Athena wrote:... but I am going to get a bucket now...

Ready...

Ladies, play nice now.

Those eggs are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing your tradition!

I hated ham as a kid, and it was our Easter tradition for dinner Sunday. As an adult, I like it fine, but still think I hate it. If that makes sense.

This year, for the first time, B and I are on our own for Easter. Her family has done an Easter egg hunt for the kids (nieces and nephews), but I guess they've all gotten too old. Sigh. All her siblings are going to their in-laws, instead of the whole clan getting together this year.

We'll have chicken instead of ham (B still hates ham, plus can't eat it with her celiac disease). She wants a turkey, but that's too much work for a weekend. (The soup from our Thanksgiving turkey lasted until February.)

Lily thanks for the info on traditions your family observed, obviously I have none to share, but I truly enjoyed learning of yours . Im also going to enjoy hearing about your dousing on Easter Monday by Athena.

Since Lee and I have been together these holidays have been about her family get togethers, and good food. I m more than happy to partake in the good food. 8)

Great traditions, Lily. I think the memories of those times are the most special.

Easter was always a weekend of food and family for us. Since my dad was the eldest, his family usually came to our house...at least 20 people. The Good Friday dinner was always my favorite...a feast of 7 fishes...7 types of fish--pasta with clam sauce, calamari, shrimp, smelts, haddock, lobster, eel...all cooked specially for the occasion. The Easter dinner was always lamb...and lasagna, and a soup we called holiday soup because that's the only time we got it, and pizza rustica, and salads, and rice and cheese pies for dessert. All the aunts helped cook and the meals took hours with little walks between courses.

Those times are all gone. The aunts and uncles gone, the cousins scattered all over the country, but every year we remember and reminisce, so it's still special

At some point I convinced my mother to switch from ham to lamb. Yum! It's my favorite and what I'd request for my birthday.

Proof, how are the thumbs?

Doing okay, E. The right one was operated on last Friday, stitches come out Monday. It hasn't hurt for 2 days now, but even right after the operation, it was manageable pain. The bandage on it, however, is a PITA! It's a partial cast on the thumb side, wrapped with an inch thick of padding and gauze and topped off with an ACE bandage. It feels like a sledge hammer at the end of my arm...annoying. The left thumb is killing me because it's doing all the work. I just keep telling it to watch out or it'll be next sooner than expected.

Proof - what kind of surgery did you have on your thumbs? I broke my thumb last year (playing softball, of course. My first ever (!) season-ending injury!) and it was a definite PITA!
You NEED your thumbs. I'm always taunting the cats with the fact that they have no thumbs.
Wifey gets mad at me when I do that.

I have basal joint arthritis in both thumbs, BGG. Supposedly rather common in "mature" women. If you let it go, eventually the thumb sticks out at a right angle to the hand and you lose all the advantages of an opposing thumb. As my doc says, "kind of like a panda."

To fix it, they smooth down the two sides of the disintegrating joint, then peel down a strip of tendon from the forearm [rather disgusting to think of], loop it around the joint nearest the thumb tip and bring it back down to provide a cushion between those smoothed ends of the basal joint. I should regain all of the movement and most of the strength in my thumb.

I'm rather looking forward to the physical therapy. How hard can it be?