Easter Gift Baskets

Easter Gift Baskets

A basket full of goodies and treats in shades of pink, yellow, green, mauve, and blue make up what we usually envision for Easter Colors. When the sun starts to shine a little longer and we see the Robins scouring the ground for food we know that spring is here and Easter is just around the corner. We look forward to the pastel colored eggs, fuzzy little bunnies and ducks and a family meal that includes all your traditional favorites for this holiday.

As a child you remember all the cute decorations that would fill the house and the basket you used to get full of goodies. You'd use the basket as well to take on your brother or sister in the hunt to see who could round up more little eggs! You have to admit however, that while some of the eggs were decorated beautifully what kid really got excited about a hard boiled egg? It's the chocolate ones we're after! The yummy treats with creamy centers or crispy bits all buried inside and chocolate exterior. Tucked into Easter gift basket would be a plush soft duck or bunny making it all appeal to us visually, to our touch but most important of all to our taste buds.

Easter Traditions

As children we woke on Easter Sunday to our colored wicker baskets packed with plastic straw in green, pink or purple was my favorite. Nestled in the straw were decorated hard boiled eggs, chocolate shaped bunnies, small chocolate eggs and other treats like bright jelly beans that became a standard over time with our family. These Easter gift baskets represented all things bright and beautiful and signaled the nice weather approaching. Baseball, soccer and riding your bike through the neighborhood playing tag or hide and seek with the other kids until your mom would call you for dinner.

I often wonder why these symbols were used to represent what we have come to know as Easter. In reading I have discovered that the Egg was, and still is, the symbol of fertility and new life. Makes sense right? In Medieval Europe eggs were forbidden during lent with the other fasting during this time. Pancake Tuesday, the day prior to starting lent evolved as a way to use up the eggs before lent began. To preserve any eggs not used they would be picked or, yes you guessed it  hard boiled!

The eggs were decorated to represent the symbols of spring. Using the bright colors of blooming flowers, sunshine and all things of spring that make it so beautiful. The decorating of eggs has become a real art form over the years. With fine precision detail artists use these tiny canvases and recreate portraits, gorgeous still life art with flowers, or even landscapes. These pieces of art were exchanged as gifts during this time, given to servants as a thank you, given to a romantic partner or given to children.

The Easter Bunny was also derived from the idea of birth as this friendly fluffy little animal has also been a sign of fertility. It certainly has made a name for the most fertile animal known. The history seem to indicate that the bunny was used as a symbol of Easter dating back to the 1500 in writings from Germany and introduced by the Germans to the Pennsylvania Dutch during the 1700's. In the 1800's someone in Germany got the idea to create an edible version of the bunny using pastry and sugar. Coming from a German background and a great grandfather, grandfather and uncle who have all shared in running a family bakeshop I can attest to the fact that it all seems to get down to pasty and sugar! This translated to cakes being made in the shape or Bunnies, and this German influence was likely what translated into the chocolate Easter Bunny.

Some interesting little tidbits to explain why you get what you do inside that Easter Gift Basket year after year. While taking a big bite and ripping the ears off your chocolate bunny, you may have the Germans to thank for that. When you look down at a bright colored Easter egg, carefully decorated and presented as a gift, think of the folks from Medieval Europe. By the way, hope you have a Happy Easter!