Easter Traditions

Well it's Easter 2012. Easter is a strange time. I respect everyone's right to celebrate it or not as they see fit. It  brings out  a lot of haters though who choose to ridicule and demean others which is sad.

For me it makes me think a lot about my childhood and the way Easter was spent for me. I remember so little but I do know that Dad always bought orange smoked haddock which he poached. I loved it, all salty and with a white sauce I think. We didn't go to church but we also didn't ever eat meat and we ate hot cross buns but we couldn't have butter on them because it was an animal product.

Then on the Sunday we always had eggs, one of my favourites being an egg surrounded by soft centred chocolates. There was not a very large range of eggs in the 50's and 60's  but I remember thinking whatever we got was pretty special. I also loved the eggs that were made out of hard sugar candy. I received one once that had the end cut off and a small piece of perspex sealed across the hole. When you looked inside there was a little scene made all out of sugar. It was amazing. I don't know where it came from or who bought it and I sometimes wonder if it was my imagination but I dont think so.

Another Easter treat that we received sometimes was a pink marzipan pig. I am also not sure where this came from but I was delighted to actually see them in  a cake shop in St Kilda so I bought one and keep it behind glass.

Memory is a funny thing because sometimes I think I am remembering something from  my childhood but then I am not sure and I think it may be something I had imagined or something I am only remembering because I saw it in a photo. I was asked recently what my earliest childhood memory was and I really couldn't think of one. I have been this way for years and I think it may have something to do with having meningitis as a child. Maybe it played with my memory, although I can clearly recall a feeling of delirium which I think was associated with having the meningitis. Weird.

Anyway that was my childhood Easter. This is the first year that my kids have said no eggs please so it will feel a bit strange. I am also not going to the Folk Festival which I miss because I enjoyed it a lot. There are reason there but I am glad Lucy is having fun there being a volunteer at the coffee shop. With my own kids I remember staying awake on the saturday night for many many years until they were asleep and then making rabbit footprints up the hall with a template and flour and also getting all the soft toy bunnies and setting them up with the eggs. Always Turkish delight for Jack and both loving anything Lindt. They both like good quality chocolate.