Howard’s Easter Celebrations
by Donald Williams
Easter is the time of year to go outside, spend time with your family and friends, and welcome spring or reflect on its religious meaning.
Dyeing eggs, going to cookouts, and hunting Easter eggs are all a part of Easter traditions many people do.
Howard High School has plenty of students and teachers who celebrate this holiday which is Sunday, April 17th, this year.
For Christians, Easter is a holy day celebrated by attending Easter Sunday services at their local churches and then spending time with their family afterwards.
Amber Austin, a freshman here at Howard High School, celebrates Easter by going to church with her siblings and then goes to her relative’s house where they have cookouts.
“I celebrate Easter by dressing up and going to church with my family,” Austin said. “When we get out, my family goes to my grandmother’s house where we have family gatherings like cookouts or Easter egg hunts so the family can enjoy time together.”
When asked what Easter meant to her, Austin said it is about “the resurrection of Jesus after he died on the cross for everyone’s sin.
“My favorite part of Easter is spending time with my family and going to my aunt’s house to watch egg hunts kids participated in,” according to Austin. “The food that we eat is soul food, and I usually get chicken, cabbage, cornbread, and mac n cheese to go on my plate.”
Madison Brown, also a freshman of Howard High School, celebrates Easter with her family.
“I usually celebrate Easter after 12,” Brown said, “when everyone gets out of church because I don’t go, but I celebrate Easter by going to cookouts and other family gatherings at which they explain the real reason Easter is a holiday, which is the resurrection of Jesus from his tomb.”
Like Austin, Brown enjoys watching children hunt eggs and spending time with her family members to catch up on things happening in their lives.
“I’ve done a lot of Easter Egg hunting, but I stopped Easter egg hunting at around 10 years old and started watching younger kids do it,” Brown said.
Teachers Eve Fincher and Demetria Lee, who are both the parents of older children, recalled stories about their past celebrations of Easter.
“We’d wake up early and sometimes we would go to the Easter sunrise service and watch the sunrise,” Fincher said. “Kids were eager to hunt for Easter eggs. We would go home after the egg hunt and eat ham and potato salad at the end of the day.”
Fincher said this was when her children were young and went to Northminster Presbyterian Church in Macon.
Fincher and Lee did the same sorts of activities when their children were young, they discovered, dressing them up for church service and anticipating the egg hunt after the service was over.
“We had a similar tradition,” Lee said, “where I would dress my daughter up, and up until she was 17 years old, I would make her an Easter basket that she used to put her eggs in every year.
“I would leave an Easter basket in her room in the morning and let her know that it was from the Easter bunny; I would take cotton balls and leave a trail where she woke up and smelled them saying ‘They smell just like bunny butt.’”
Fincher also connected to Lee’s story by adding that her children would eat the bottom part of a chocolate bunny first every time they got one.
“I would buy the wicker baskets and plastic eggs, filling them up with candy and would usually put little games in them like badminton,” Lee said. “Which is what they played after they hunted for eggs.”
Lee and Fincher both said it was more fun when their children were young and that they miss those days.
“Getting Easter baskets and hunting eggs…I just miss those days,” said Fincher.
Lee added, “It’s definitely a lot more fun when you’re a child or smaller. But we still go to church and have family get togethers, and that’s when we have to think about the meaning of the holiday: rebirth, and appreciation for your family.”
Their favorite Easter food? “Deviled Eggs,” they said in unison.
“I like to eat potato salad along with macaroni and cheese,” Fincher states. “I would eat fresh corn because its spring.
“I like to make cream corn or fried corn, which is corn taken off the cob and then fried,” Lee says.
Teachers and students here at Howard celebrate Easter in several various ways but all enjoy the special time of the year.
Howard wishes a Happy Easter to everyone and Happy Springtime to all.
