It's the season of bunnies and eggs (03/03/08)

It's only a couple more weeks until Easter. That means I can start sending bunny books to my granddaughter.

The last time I went to the bookstore I found a book that was once my daughter's favorite. It's about a bunny that finds a duck egg and everything he does to try to figure out what is inside the egg. I read it so many times the cover fell off and had to be taped back together. I am looking forward to reading it again.

Bunny books are about the only things about Easter that haven't changed much over the years. I very much doubt if Emma will be shivering in new clothes that are way too lightweight for the weather. I doubt if she will get a new hat to wear. I doubt if either they or I will attend Easter services. I will mail an Easter basket or two but I think the Easter bunny will be much more generous than he was when I was a child.

It is probably good for the bunnies that the fad of giving away real rabbits for Easter is over. I received live bunnies more than once. They were cute, cuddly and soft. So we played with them and condemned them to spend their lives in cages with only short recesses of semi-freedom. Sometimes we even got in the cages with them.

I know Emma and her friends will color eggs. When my daughter was little the neighborhood children would gather at our house almost every day. One year we colored eggs for weeks after Easter because the children wanted to. It was harmless and cheap entertainment and nobody was worried about high cholesterol.

These were nothing like the elaborately dyed Ukrainian eggs made by some women during Lent. These were much simpler and usually only involved one or two colors. If the children were a little too enthusiastic the eggs ended up a muddy brown from being dipped in several colors, one after the other, again and again.

Bunnies and eggs have symbolized the coming of spring long before Christianity made Easter one of its most holy days. Eggs and rabbits both symbolize hope, new life and the end of a long, dreary winter.

It's a good thing that long-forgotten pagan goddess gave rabbits the ability to lay and distribute colored eggs in the springtime. We should also be grateful to the German baker who made the first edible Easter bunnies out of pastry and sugar some time in the early 1800's.

One year I made a bunny cake and left it on the table while I packed the car to visit my family. It must have been delicious because when I went to pack the cake it was on the floor with our puppy busily eating a frosting-covered ear.

I grumpily made another one and this time I made sure the dog didn't get it first.

I haven't made a bunny cake in years and years. Everybody is getting older and having health and weight problems so I can't bake like I used to.

It is still possible to sneak a hollow chocolate rabbit or a few Peeps now and then but it isn't the same as coming home to find the Easter rabbit had left eggs to be found and candy to be devoured.

Instead of baking I will celebrate this holy time of year by reading bunny books. Then I will help the Easter rabbit out by filling baskets for my loved ones.

The best thing about the upcoming holiday is that February is finally over and spring is just around the corner - no matter how much snow is still on the ground.[[In-content Ad]]