Puzzled

[Hiddenjem]

People start talking about getting a ham to cook for Easter every year around this time. Why would I care if they eat ham on Easter? They even say, "Now, I have picked up the ham..." So, they like ham and ...? What does this mean?

Why would they announce their dinner menu plans on Easter?

I have had some random strangers tell me what their family will be wearing!

Why would anyone care unless the alternative was a nudity in public day?

I wonder if it is a extended family tradition for some people to have a special meal on Easter? Maybe some people entertain company that day? Why take pictures on that day? Why does it matter what you wear verses any other day? Why would anyone other than the people coming to a meal need to know the menu?

I was born in the United States but never have been a part of doing anything that is special on Easter.

It is puzzling to me what people are talking about on this matter. Thanks for any explanations on the matter.

By the way, on Easter, I am wearing clothes as I always do and plan on eating food. No pictures will be taken of my attire nor of my meals. I don't think that anyone would find either interesting.

[Melody]

Objectively, it IS pretty weird, but I guess its become traditional polite small talk - like, Oh, what are your plans for "Turkey Day"?

Easter was nothing special for me growing up (my father was Catholic, but it was my Jewish mother that bought chocolate bunnies and called them "Passover Rats", lol). I like it now only because DH's aunt and uncle make it a lot of fun for all cousins. (Easter egg hunts for anyone under 40 and booze and great food for those over.)

The ham discussion doesn't happen so much in my (AWESOME!) neighborhood because there's a lot of international families of different cultures - some of everything including Jewish families and a few Muslim. As a matter of fact, there was a meme that went viral on FB (where I'm friends with all my neighbors who have school age children) of a Walmart deli counter (and we don't even have them around here!) displaying a ham in the cabinet with a sign saying "Perfect for Passover".

[archenemy]

LMAO...Just another boring day as usual. Actually theres special Church Services for Easter. With Passover and all that. Maybe some sort of Easter celebrations started that way? Easter is fun for kids to get an easter egg hunt and a basket of goodies! I dont even celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving, either! LOL

[jigglypuff]

I don't get it either. My family never did much on Easter. My mother did dress us up once or twice on that day and then take us to GM's house but it was nothing traditional. We do however believe in celebrating it as a religious day but we're not really devout so we never did anything special.

My Xbest friend and her broke family would spend too much money on fancy clothes and just stay home. Stood home in nice clothes to do nothing all day! I don't think her mother even cooked anything because they barely had any food in the house. Made zero sense to me but in general, people and their traditions don't normally make much sense to me.

[Melody]

We call them C&E Catholics - those who only go to church on the holy days of Christmas and Easter. (When the church is overcrowded). One of Hubby's cousins is a very well-regarded Catholic priest. I am NOT Catholic, but have actually felt comfortable talking to him since he is a "real person" and he hubby played G.I. Joes together but the way hubby (and the aunts) chats with him makes my jaw drop! Apparently, for some of these C&E Catholics oops! Easter was missed. Whatever.

[rubycrownedkinglet]

DH and I live in the US Bible Belt and Easter is a huge deal here. Not so much for me, but for most of the families that are Christian protestants in our area. The Easter celebration is second only to Christmas on the calendar and for some it is considered more holy.

Easter was a big deal with the PILs and they had the ham and fixings every year including potato salad, deviled eggs and banana pudding. With my FOO it was the only day my DM went to church with us kids and she made sure we had on lacy dresses and white patent leather shoes or new suits. She was from NC and it had been a big deal in her family too. We also had a big ham dinner every year. Why ham? I have no flippin idea, it's just what we did, like turkey at thanksgiving.

I have fond memories of sunrise services that almost always seem to get rained out and the Easter baskets of goodies. Now not so much. Other than attending church services with DHs new sister and her family, I've only been to church for weddings and some funerals.

[WatchingMyBack]

Being raised as a Southern Baptist, Easter was, as rubycrownedkinglet said, second only to Christmas for celebrating. We always had a pretty new dress with matching hat, white ankle socks, new patent leather Mary Jane shoes, white gloves, and a little white purse for wearing to church (early 1960's de rigeur). There were Easter baskets with colored boiled eggs (which sat out all night and were probably incredibly dangerous to eat!), a big hollow chocolate bunny, jelly beans, marshmallow eggs, spongy peeps and usually a really adorable stuffed bunny. If the weather permitted, my DF would take all the eggs and hide them outside so that we could have an egg hunt. It was always a good time, though I don't recall having any particular religious significance to the day as the central theme.

For Christmas and Easter, I'm pretty sure my DM would go all out to do for us what she never had and probably always wanted.

My DM never made holidays meals other than Thanksgiving. Definitely no big ham dinner or anything for Easter (or Christmas). After we moved to Washington, D.C., and my DM stopped going to church ("they're all hypocrits"), we still had our Easter baskets, but no new dressy outfits or family photos.

I converted to Judaism in the late 1970's and my DM flipped out that I no longer was celebrating "her" holidays. Talk about a hypocrit. She hadn't set foot in a church in years, showed zero interest in religion, never prayed, never took us to Sunday school or any other religious training, but I had "betrayed" her. She still doesn't get it.

Chocolate bunnies as "Passover Rats" that's a new one.

[archenemy]

People start talking about getting a ham to cook for Easter every year around this time. Why would I care if they eat ham on Easter? They even say, "Now, I have picked up the ham..." So, they like ham and ...? What does this mean?

Why would they announce their dinner menu plans on Easter?

I have had some random strangers tell me what their family will be wearing!

Why would anyone care unless the alternative was a nudity in public day?



By the way, on Easter, I am wearing clothes as I always do and plan on eating food. No pictures will be taken of my attire nor of my meals. I don't think that anyone would find either interesting.

So how WAS your Easter dinner hiddenjem? And did u wear clothes? LOL. I hope so, cuz u might get burnt on those stupid hot pans! LOL

[Melody]

Easter Bunny/Passover Rat - whatever - my mom had a goofy sense of humor. Thank you WTTBT. (Us kids didn't care WHAT the chocolate was called! ).

On a little different topic, (and growing up in a household that didn't "do Easter" for the most part), I do find the local Easter Egg hunts curious/weird/violent. There's a bunch of supposedly "Christian" parents that are over-the-top competitive about their kids finding the most eggs - to the point that young kids are being knocked over and some kids are getting close to 20 eggs or more then others some maybe 1 or 2 then end up crying. What is THAT all about? We've refused to partake in that nonsense for years.

DH's aunt and uncle do a great little one in her backyard that is actually FUN and TELLS the kids how many eggs to find. (And NOT in an "every kid gets a trophy" way). There's nice candy or money in each egg. This year there were two 19 year olds involved (who didn't argue just went with the grove) and had the younger siblings help them find the rest of their "quota" before taking the mandatory group photo then a great dinner and catching up. To me, that's a true matriarch/patriarch relationship. Fil/Stepmonster went over the top too - they were bumps on a log (except for stepmonster's incessant yapping about herself), but managed to show up lol!

[Hiddenjem]

Archenemy,

We spend Easter weekend rving at a campground! On the bright side, the weather was nice and the trip came to a end!

The weekend included false advertising about the campground, aggressive red and black headed Hawks stalking us intending to eat our dogs, injuries to two out of five of us that used up the contents of the entire first aid kit, freezer / fridge in rv not working because the site wasn't level! We tossed a lot of our food! We had pizza from a pizza place for Easter verses the veggie burgers, salad and baked potatoes like we had planned.

One of the hawks actually sat beside our rv watching our small white dog through one of the windows! She started freaking out and I was shocked to see the hawk flying toward the window trying to get her!

Every time we took her out to potty, while on a leash, at least three large Hawks circled above us and her! They may of noticed our small black dog but they were obsessed with the 10 pound white one for sure! We would even carry her out and back into the rv and hunch over to block the view of her. One hawk sat on the ground waiting! It watched the rv main door!

If someone was tent camping with small dogs, it could be a nightmare situation! Also, if someone left a small dog attached to a tie off stake to potty unattended and unprotected! Horrible!

We kept our pet rabbit in the rv. At other campgrounds, we would bring the bunny out in her cage for views of nature while sitting at the picnic table when we ate. At this place, it wouldn't be wise! We sat her cage by a window when the sun wasn't shining right in instead of her being outside at all at this one. She could be a picnic lunch for a hawk in her soft sided carrier type "travel cage!"

We have stayed in nice campgrounds, average ones, but this one was a "bad" one. Now, we know! The big clue in hind site was the main online picture was taken at night!

Oh, yes, and I wore clothes for Easter as I normally do everyday!

------

Melody,

My boys have always looked older for their age. Plus, they are tall. We had a bad experience at a Easter egg hunt. Another mom dumped out the contents of one of my boys finds and she told him that he was too old to be hunting for eggs!

He wasn't! He was the right age! He cried. It was horrible.

He refused to do any more egg hunts and his siblings agreed to do the same.

I am still ticked off at that mom! My children didn't ever even want us to a do our own egg hunt either after that experience!

[archenemy]

Thank goodness all of your pets are safe. Where i live, small dogs MUST be supervised outdoors (and near any screened areas) cuz there are coyotes all over. Yep, hawks are brutal, too.

[Hiddenjem]

Thanks! We were worried about our dogs every time we went outside with them! The Hawks with red in them were aggressive with their small dog stalking!

We have hawkss here as well. They fly over our property and land in our trees. We can't just let them out to potty without supervising them.

The coyote factor would be terrifying as well! A portion of our 1 acre is fenced in that we let our pets out in (and the pool of course) and most of is not fenced in. The back of our property is woods. The Hawks sit up in the trees. I have shiny pinwheels, giant colorful pinwheels, and shiny wind chimes to keep birds of prey away from the fenced in part. Plus, it keeps small birds, crows, and pigeons from going poo in and around the pool!

I read online today that if you welcome crows that they keep Hawks away. Yet, if you attract and feed crows, you attract other animals that draw in snakes right? I don't see how that option helps Much.

We have giant wolf spiders that love our pool and backyard, They swim laps upside down, hang out in the filter basket area as a lounge and can be on the underside of the pool latter.
They don't scare me like they did at first. I use a stick to knock them on a skimmer and fling them toward the woods or butterfly net while wearing gloves

We have put our rabbit in the soft sided cage in the all season room and slid the windows to the screen option on top. We stay out there with her to be safe. Now, you have me thinking that a hawk could fly through the screen and carry off our rabbit in her soft sided cage! The next time, I have to run in the house to get one thing or a glass of water, rabbit comes in with me. Or I will close th Storm doors out there first just to be safe! Thank you!

[archenemy]

Yeah, who knows what the hawks are capable of doing, if theyre starving? Coyotes will break thru a screen to grab a small dog. That crap is heart-breaking! I love rabbits, too. Yep, i dont think i would trust the hawks! And they eat rabbits in the wild, right? They have those sharp, brutal talons, dont they? I bet they could tear up wire with them, easily! We have coyotes just walk thru our property, all the time. I would read more about hawks, online. I know that theyre prey animals. And they stalk their prey. that gave me the creeps, your story about the hawks at campground; watching your little doggies!