The Best Easter Story You’ve Never Heard April 4, 2007

How do I know you’ve never heard this story? Because it’s a story that comes from my personal history, one I unearthed from my memory banks just now.

I always associate Easter with my birthday because when I was little, Easter did fall on my birthday a couple of times. So the over-eager, delicious, tingly feeling associated with your birthday has also stuck to Easter. I remember the first time my birthday and Easter became friends. I was probably six, and it was a very windy day in midwestern Illinois. I was wearing a navy blue collared dress with little dogs on the front, and the grass in our backyard was very green and had just been mowed. My little brother was probably four, and the two of us were running and throwing a large rubber Care Bear ball to one another.

I am ridiculously fond of that memory. That was also the year I received my first Easter basket. My parents didn’t believe in the Easter bunny, so we didn’t get baskets of candy and fake crinkly grass like my friends. But some friends of my parents had pity on us and brought over huge white Easter baskets for my brother and I, the kind that are wrapped in cellophane and are literally three feet tall. I will never, and I mean never, be able to forget how I felt when I saw that Easter basket.

That’s not a very Christian story, I guess. In fact, it doesn’t have anything to do with the resurrection. But when I say that Easter is my favorite holiday, I love the birthday-ness of it. I love the feeling. I can almost smell it. I love the little-girl Easter dresses, Easter hats with rubber bands snug under your chin. I love chocolate rabbits and I love the memory of springtime in Chicago (when it did coincide with the date). I love dying Easter eggs with the funny hooks that never held the eggs securely.

 This year, I am equally excited about Easter, even though my birthday is 10 days later. I am going to a sunrise service at the beach, something that most people don’t get to do and I am absolutely thrilled to see. In fact, there might even be some Easter-basket exchanging amongst my friends, who are all going to our friend Michelle’s house to celebrate the event.

For good measure, I should mention that Heather and Jeannie, my fellow editors, have pulled me into their scheme to have a special Seder gathering. This dinner will take place on Maundy Thursday (tomorrow) and each of us will be bringing traditional Jewish foods such as bitter herbs, red wine, lamb and Matzoh, the bread of affliction. We’ve invited a few others to join us for this meaningful time. I cannot wait!