Happy Eostre and Easter from Belgium!

Easter last year was dinner with (full-grown) family then a midnight flight to Nicaragua. This year is a little different, in one very large (and very small) way.

A small smile keeps coming back as I remember my own childhood Easters. Putting hard-boiled eggs in copper wire holders, and lowering them into dye that will forever come to mind when I smell vinegar. Then hunting for those eggs in my grandparents’ backyard (there was always one hidden by the frog fountain) before a big British brunch where we consumed far more cholesterol than would be permitted nowadays.

In Belgium the eggs are chocolate, and finding them was a no-nonsense pursuit for the day’s red-cheeked focal point, who went about the task with meticulous care and stalwart enthusiasm. (Suddenly I suspect she is an old soul who still holds pagan fertility symbols to be serious business.)

We also, appropriately enough, are taking care of the neighbors’ pet for a week while they go skiing. The pet? A rabbit. Delivered the day before Easter. “Kijk! Een konijntje!”

A very happy Easter and/or Eostre Day to all of you.

 

PS. Oestre is the pagan fertility goddess whose name and symbols were, shall we say, acquired by the Christian Church, since rabbits and eggs have far more to do with fertility than resurrection.
PPS. Is religion inherently war? A subject for another day. In the meantime, eat some pagan chocolate eggs and love your family!