Neither of our families have Easter traditions (well if the Easter Egg hunt at Church counts, then yes, but that's not technically "family" lol), but FI and I plan on starting our own. Maybe doing an Easter dinner and inviting both our families over and having a family egg hunt for all his nieces and nephews and our hopeful future babies
My mom used to host a typical Greek dinner with lamb and all, and we would eat tons of whatever we have fasted from. We also used to dye our eggs red and do this Greek tradition where you hit the eggs together and say in Greek, "Christ is Risen!" "Indeed He is risen." And whoever's egg doesn't crack wins. That represents the fact that Christ has broken the gates of hell, and we are reborn through it. I also love, love, love Greek Easter bread called tsoureki... it's kind of like Jewish challah I'm told. But I think it's better. We would also go to midnight mass the night before, where the lights in the church are all turned off and we light candles and sing a special Easter hymn. It represents how Christ came into hell to save us all. Very powerful.
I haven't been home for Easter in 9 years, as it's too far coast to coast. So I've been doing a lot of these traditions with friends from church. This year I won't though, as Easter comes two weeks before finals.
We would celebrate this stuff on Orthodox Easter, so it always retained the religious significance. For Western Easter, my parents would just give us chocolate bunnies, hehe, and we would do an Easter egg hunt at my non-Greek grandma's house (who's Protestant).
When we were younger we would go to my mom's church and come home and eat dinner. This year FI went to our own church and we made dinner for my FFIL and FBIL.
Next year we plan going to our church and hosting everyone.
My family always gets together for dinner. I doubt we'll continue that tradition. We like to reflect on what Easter means and everything, but we don't see a need for a big fancy dinner.
We did Easter baskets you searched for when we were kids. You'd wake up and have to hunt the easter basket which the Easter bunny "hid" somewhere... now my mom makes lamb for dinner and that's all we do tradition wise, and she only started doing that since I've been an adult.
Ryan's famly just does church, I don't think they have any other traditions, though maybe they did as a kid. I was telling him how I had helped with easter eggs at church adn I could tell he didn't really approve. He wasn't rigid about it, but you know the whole Easter isn't about eggs and bunnies (which I totally agree with, but being raised with eggs and bunnies I still never thought that's what it was actually about. It's just fun.) But probably I'll just leave that be then. I'll still probably do hard boiled egg decorating with kids but we can decorate them with crosses and empty tombs. :-P
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"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." -Isaiah 61:10 NKJV
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We will probably do it until we have kids then we will make our own traditions.
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When we were younger we would go to my mom's church and come home and eat dinner. This year FI went to our own church and we made dinner for my FFIL and FBIL.
Next year we plan going to our church and hosting everyone.
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Ryan's famly just does church, I don't think they have any other traditions, though maybe they did as a kid. I was telling him how I had helped with easter eggs at church adn I could tell he didn't really approve. He wasn't rigid about it, but you know the whole Easter isn't about eggs and bunnies (which I totally agree with, but being raised with eggs and bunnies I still never thought that's what it was actually about. It's just fun.) But probably I'll just leave that be then. I'll still probably do hard boiled egg decorating with kids but we can decorate them with crosses and empty tombs. :-P
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." -Isaiah 61:10 NKJV