My Family's Easter Traditions and Celebrations - Essay Sample

Introduction

Easter is full of surprises and traditions when it comes to my family and the whole society. Easter holidays usually come on Sunday during the special times of the year, which is spring accompanied by beautiful colors such as yellow, pink, green, and lavender. Also, Easter day mostly tends to fall on a Sunday for most of the Christians living in the United States, where they tend to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it's mostly accompanied y traditional meals and drinks. Moreover, Easter holidays are not mainly associated with the meal celebrations, but they also tend to be accompanied by family gatherings of the relatives, and they tend to attend mass or church services together as a sign of unity and love that Jesus Christ died for us on the cross (De Solier, 2013). The family members have to wake up early in the morning to prepare breakfast so that they attend the church service, then later come back and prepare lunch; then after that, they both head for the Easter egg hunt, which is popularly known to the American society. This paper will highlight some of the ritual meals prepared by the Christians during the Easter holidays and their significance to the community.

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Meal

Since Easter is viewed as holly, most of the foods are associated with righteousness, and that is why boiled eggs are usually served as breakfast. There is also roast lamb, which is a traditional dish for the Jewish Passover and acts as the traditional main dish during Easter day. Roast lamb is taken during lunch hour or dinner depending on the family preferences and then followed by simnel cake, which is specially baked to act as tea accompaniment. All of the meals can be taken from the home unless communicated otherwise by the community members or church elders.

Food and Ingredients

Boiling of the eggs that are used for breakfast in the morning takes only 10 minutes, and this is done while the rest of the family members are preparing other ingredients necessary for the lunch preparation. Roasting of lamb as the main dish takes a more extended period after church service and is approximately 11/2 hours so that its tender and soft when being consumed by the family members. Simnel cake and lamb are prepared according to the traditional American style with less spice and making it look ritual according to the American oxford companion food.

Meaning and Participants

With breakfast, eggs are the main symbol of Easter, and it is upon every individual to understand its significance to the ritual. Eggs are mostly in plastic and hidden in the bush for the hunt, whereas there are others coked in a traditional style by covering them with foil and chocolate. Eggs always symbolize the spring and rebirth, which is a Christian connection that is showing the revival of human beings through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Lamb is also widely consumed in our family during the Easter traditions, but its popularity does not outdo the eggs. Lamb is mostly eaten by both pagans and Christians, and the only reason why pagans prepare it is that they used to celebrate it during the spring equinox (Wilk, 2010). However, in Christianity way and according to the family customs roast, lamb is used as a special meal to signify the Jesus self-sacrifice for humankind popularly known as the "lamb of God." Eating of lamb during Easter celebration dates its history back in early Passover observances even before the actual birth of Christianity (De Solier, 2013). According to some of the biblical account, some of the Jews who were in Egypt were forced to apply the red blood painting of the lamb to prevent their firstborns from being slaughtered by the angel. Therefore, the Jewish who had converted to Christians decided to carry on with the lamb eating symbol during the Easter festivals since they are considered to be the fresh animals after a long winter season. Ham is one of the meals that most of the American Christian families prefer to replace lamb because acquiring lamb has become a difficult task in today's society.

Simnel cake is one of the meals that is associated with Easter since it acts as dessert after the main meal. However, the simnel cake is a fruit cake that has a flat layer of marzipan on top, which is also decorated with 11 sugar almond paste balls, which symbolizes the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ minus one Judas who is known as the traitor. The eating of the cross buns and fruit cakes as been in practice in Greek, and history has been reoccurring among many Christians in the world and especially with the Christians in America (Wilk, 2010). The family members mostly consume hot cross buns because they have a cross on them, which is frosting, and this signifies that Jesus died on that cross for the Christians. Family members prefer sharing these cross buns with outsiders and friends because they tend to cement or increase the bond of friendship

Participants

There is a lot of love when it comes to bunnies, eggs, and chocolates during the Easter festival, and there are a lot of participants, each with a specific role to play throughout the period. Most of our family members involve themselves in different activities to make it enjoyable and thriving ritually (De Solier, 2013). Most of the cooking is done by women, whereas men are involved in slaughtering of lamb, and roasting is their responsibility. Women take part in baking of cakes and bunnies and other meal accompaniments that are required for this day. The washing of utensils is done by the children who are more than ten years of age and above since they cannot break any type of equipment used on Easter.

Family members usually come together during the Easter time to strengthen the relationship and to increase their spirituality belief in Jesus Christ. Also, during Easter, most of the community members show love to fewer income persons and take part in charity activities to share the love of Jesus Christ. Easter still acts as a reminder among the family members and throughout the entire society that we should continue showing gratitude to God by showing compassion to others as Jesus did and also committing to regular prayers and reading the bible daily.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Easter holiday is one of the family traditions that we participate in because it has a lot of essential meanings. Easter does not only have strong spiritual desires, but it also tends to play a significant role by bringing peace in society to avoid some evil activities such as gun violence. Also, there is the showcasing of different abilities and skills applied to prepare the meals to be consumed.

References

De Solier, I. (2013). Food and the Self: Consumption, production and material culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWWr1nP3CY

Wilk, R. (2010). Power at the table: Food fights and happy meals. Cultural Studies? Critical Methodologies, 10(6), 428-436.