Easter 2009 in The East Wing

Greetings to all and Happy Easter from the East Wing.

Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

As I greet this Easter Sunrise from the East Wing on this most Holy Day in the Christian Calendar, in fact, this day, Easter, is the very bedrock of Christianity itself, I wonder how that rabbit got into the big show.

It turns out Easter is kinda two things blended into one like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. The Christian side of Easter is well documented in the bible, now I’m not getting picky as to who’s bible I’m talking about, there are several different ones and they all tell the same story of the crucifixion and resurrection.

It’s important that we Christians don’t get too critical of someone using a different bible than us, a little research into the origin of bibles may both enlighten and embarrass or even resurrect deep dark questions on the back roads of your memories. Bibles are Bibles.

It’s easy to see how the word Christmas is identified with Christianity, not so with Easter.

Easter got its name from Eastre or Eostre the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and rebirth. Along time ago people celebrated the beginning of spring at the vernal equinox, when day and night are equal in length, by blessing seeds before planting them and at the same time placing colored eggs on an altar. They believed that this ceremony would bring them fertility for the upcoming year.

When the early Christian missionaries noticed that this pagan party took place around the time of the resurrection of Christ, they adopted Easter as a Christian holiday to help attract the pagans to Christianity. This may explain why some of the TV preachers are such crooks instead of Christians, such crooks may well end up in the seventh layer of hell. Now I don’t know if Jim and Tammy Baker are/were saints or sinners, but I sure wouldn’t want my final place by their side, just in case.

As Christians adopted Easter, they matched the festival of the springtime with a sermon. Following the tradition of dressing up for church, Easter Sunday became a special occasion to wear your very best clothes. In fact, many regarded Easter as the first time to wear a new dress and "Easter bonnet". In the early 1900's families would to stroll to church and home again on Easter to show off their "Sunday best." At Toto we simply called um “Church Clothes”.

The Easter basket evolved from a Catholic tradition, where families brought a basket of food to mass on Easter Sunday to have it blessed for the evening meal. Later, children would use Easter baskets to gather colored eggs and candy.

Now the Easter Bunny is a whole different deal. I don’t know a single person that didn’t at one time believe in both Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I did. Still do, just a little different view now.

Where does a rabbit handing out eggs come from? Not from Toto Indiana that’s for sure. I believe I heard when I was a kid that the Easter Bunny originated from Germany around the mid 1500’s or so and came to our country in the 1600’s thru the Pennsylvania Dutch. I knew a Dutch guy one time, I think his name was Moray.


Well that’s’ enough about the technical side of Easter, how about the fun side. Saturday afternoon me and Sophia the Cat colored Easter Eggs, her first time, not mine. I have colored Easter Eggs every year of my life and I can remember when I was three. It seemed eggs were much bigger back then.

Now coloring Easter Eggs is not rocket science but it does require attention to detail such as don’t make a mess on the table or the 1wife will yell at ya. Be sure to clean up after you are done or the 1wife will yell at ya again.

With vinegar, water, and magic pill all in a cup the only missing ingredient was the egg. We were limited to coloring one dozen eggs by you know who, but as I bent the little wire egg holder into its proper shape for egg dipping, Sophia couldn’t wait. She started adding eggs to cups with both paws. Having never seen a cat color Easter Eggs before, I chose to just set back, watch, and let Jesse rob that train.

Well I’m telling ya that cat was having more fun than may have been legal for a cat to have. She got the first 5 eggs in and soaking up color quite easy, but the first hint of future problems came when it’s time to take um out. That little wire egg dipper thing I had bent into shape didn’t work well with cat paws. It turns out that Sophia did not possess an opposing digit to control the wire.

However I must admire her resourcefulness, she just reached right in there and rolled the egg up the side of the cup onto the table. Good thing I had put down a good supply of towels prior to our starting this project. That was the safety net on getting yelled at for messing up things. Before I could say scat she had the second batch in the cups. This time she did not even try to use the wire dipper, just up to her elbow and plop um out. For the last two I blended the colors and she finished our dozen colored Easter Eggs.

As I put the colored eggs in the Easter Basket I realized that Sophia had brought a whole new height to the Calico Cat world. All Calico Cats are multicolor, but my Sophia The Cat is the first ever to have one front leg blue and the other green.

For a change of pace today I started our visit as the sun was coming up, it is now well into the night and this Easter Day of 2009 will soon slip into history where a few will remember and most will soon forget.

If you have read or seen any news at all on this Easter Day you are aware of the events which played out early this morning in the Indian Ocean where the Navy Seals demonstrated the resolve of the United States Military to protect me and you from harm.

Forever keep these brave men and women in your prayers this Easter Evening and every evening. It is just that resolve that affords me the luxury and comfort of my beloved East Wing.

Stay safe in Baghdad.

From the East Wing, as Easter 2009 silently slips away
I wish you well.
BobbyRay