Early one Easter Sunday, a long time back when my youngest sister was the tender age of two months old, my middle sister and I raced outside in dressing gown and slippers. We were on a search for the tell-tale sparkle of tinsel in the frosty yard, like looking for jewels in a garden of ice diamonds. Mum and Dad slept through the magic.
When we’d filled our ice-cream containers with the Bunny’s bounty, we thought we’d share with our baby sibling, who was also awake, but stuck in her cot. We knew our little sister didn’t eat like we did, but she was great at sucking. We broke off bits of chocolate egg, got them soft and sticky between our fingertips, reached through the cot bars and let her slurp the chocolate off.
A couple of eggs later, we woke our parents: ‘Mum, Mum, do you know — Natalie likes chocolate!’
I think my Mum gave us an explanation that chocolate was for big kids only. I suspect my little sister gave Mum some interesting nappies to change. No permanent harm done — we all still like chocolate, and I still love Easter morning.
This Scroll brings you a virtual Easter that’s sugar, cocoa and dairy free. If you hunt below you’ll find:
highlights of Easter in the Victorian era
how chocolate eggs were made pre-Cadbury’s
an Easter poem
Easter in the Victorian Era
Novel-wise, I am still in an 1888 time-warp, and will be for a while. So I did some research on what Easter was like in the Victorian age. Yes, they had bunny cards, and decorated eggs. The ones below are not the famous Faberge. They are part of the National Trust UK collection. I’ve included them because the two on the outside are not chocolate, but Australian emu-eggs. Highly blinged up.
Holiday transport queues and delays bugged Easter travellers back in colonial days too. This 1883 family are struggling through the crowds at a Melbourne train station. A little bit of chocolate might have helped the wailing baby…
Weirdly, Victorian newspapers make several mentions of a march by Druids through Melbourne on Easter weekend. The Druids ‘afforded much amusement’ and even raffled a new house. That’s one tradition we don’t see here now.
Marbled Egg Recipe
In my online Easter hunt, I also found this video, showing how people put together their own chocolate eggs, before supermarkets made it unnecessary. They look delicious, but fiddly.
A Poem from Me
A poet friend of mine recently put out a challenge to write an Easter poem. No eggs or bunnies in this one. It’s more intense:
Easter Dawn
‘Very early in the morning, the women visited the grave.’ Luke 24:1
A broken dawn –
Grief-laden grey.
With lead for bones
I push on stupidly
To stone-blocked tomb;
Why do this
When rock has crushed
Our future and
Our innocence?
‘Violence always wins,’
Said the soldier,
Grin twisting his soul.
I feel death press;
Who can roll away this stone?
But — see — it’s moved…
A margin of hope opens
Wider and wider
The sky recolours
— I look inside —
Death has cracked.
Life Himself
Breaks out into the day.
Happy Easter everyone!