It was the Spring of ’63 or ’64 at my Grandma K’s house in Avon Lake, Ohio. Not sure why, but if I recall correctly, my brother and I were staying with her for a few days. Perhaps it was 1963, and mom had reached the midpoint in her pregnancy with my little sister and the breaking point with three boys—so grandma took the older two off mom’s hands.
Sitting at her kitchen table—I see it all as if it were yesterday— from her tabletop radio Bing Crosby crooned a song that betrayed the season.
In your Easter bonnet
– Lyrics by Irving Berlin
With all the frills upon it
You’ll be the grandest lady
In the Easter parade…
Grandma left the back door open on that sunny afternoon, welcoming the birdsong, carried aloft by the gentle, cool Spring breeze. The day felt like the song. Light and airy and happy
“In your Easter bonnet…in the Easter parade…” captured my imagination—or rather triggered memories—and fueled anticipation. Easter was coming next Sunday.
The song reminded me of church.
Now, this was the era when everyone dressed up for church every week: coats and ties for men and even some of the boys (especially the older ones)…dresses for ladies and girls…and hats on the ladies. Bonnets, as Bing sang.
But Easter was different. Special even.
I wouldn’t call it a parade, exactly, but everyone came to church that day decked out in new garb. Bright, spring colors on the ladies—pinks and yellows and ivory and pastel greens and blues. And the bonnets—accessorized with flowers and feathers and frills.
Men and boys, of course, dressed less elaborately, but still sported something new: suit, shirt and tie, shoes—all or a combination.
Everyone seemed quite interested in what everyone else was wearing that day!
Naturally, Mom and Dad made sure their three sons set the proper example for the other kids in church. After all, we were the Preacher’s Kids! So, every year we got a new outfit of some kind for Easter.
Just mentioning Easter, the song also got me anticipating what Peter Cottontail would put in my Easter basket this year. I could count on the obligatory chocolate bunny—hopefully solid, but probably not—some jelly beans, and colored eggs. I knew the eggs would show up, but not sure how Peter knew to get them from the fridge after we colored them.
We also normally got some kind of little extra gift. The only one that comes to mind, though, was a G.I. Joe figure. It’s probably etched in my brain because it was such a shock! “G.I. Joes are dolls,” Dad said, “and boys don’t play with dolls!” Guess he decided soldier Joe wasn’t the same as Ken and Barbie.
Whatever was in the basket, there wasn’t much time to savor it. The Easter Sunrise Service at church started early. Interestingly, I remember very little about those services—just that they were early, and we went!
The morning at church, of course, emphasized the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In Sunday School, the teacher taught the story. In the services, the message emphasized something related to it. And the hymns were all resurrection hymns.
- Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!
- Christ Arose
- The Strife Is O’er
- The Day of Resurrection
As a young child, I didn’t notice the disconnect. What do bonnets and bunnies and baskets have to do with Jesus’s resurrection? That question came later.
“Well, um, really, um….nothing, actually,” I was told.
Which begs a follow-up question, right?
“So…why do we do all these things, then?”
I don’t remember having a specific conversation with either of my parents about this, but the general sense I got was that Easter is a really special time. We celebrate the holiday in different ways to emphasize how special it is.
But what makes Easter so special?
The resurrection. Jesus, who literally died on the cross, literally rose from the dead and left behind an empty tomb.
And this is special because…?
Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15. He looks at this most significant event from two vantage points. As if it hadn’t occurred…and because it has.
If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead—as all the apostles and a host of eyewitnesses testified—then the witnesses are all liars, all the messages preached are worthless, faith in God and His word is empty, there is no deliverance from the penalty of sin, death simply ends everything, and Christians are a pitiable lot. In other words, the Christian faith completely crumbles (vv. 13-19).
But, he declares authoritatively, “Christ IS risen from the dead!”
And because He has risen and is alive, all who are in Christ shall live. He will return and reign and destroy all enemies of God and man—most significantly utterly destroying death (vv. 20-26)
Beyond that, His resurrection ensures that those who trust in Him will likewise experience resurrection, which will entail a re-creation of the body that died and decayed. A corruptible body that will put on incorruption…a mortal body that will put on immortality (vv. 35-53).
Paul concludes,
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ (v. 54)
In other words, Easter is significant because Jesus’s resurrection means life and transformation and hope to all who trust in Him.
I know it’s a stretch, but if you look hard enough, you can see glimpses of all this in the bonnets, bunnies, and baskets.
Bunnies (because they procreate prolifically!) and eggs in the baskets speak of life.
Bonnets, representative of the new spring garb donned on Resurrection Sunday, speak of the eternal transformation when this mortal body puts on immortality.
Taken together, the bonnets, bunnies, and baskets offer a glimmer of hope.
Granted, hardly anyone even bothers to try making these connections. Does anyone get new outfits for Easter anymore? That picture’s long gone! But kids do have pictures taken with the Easter Bunny, go on egg hunts, and get loaded up with candy and gifts. How many do so without any regard for the message of the empty tomb? How many know nothing of that message?
Yet here’s the thing. Were the body of Jesus still lying in that garden tomb outside of Jerusalem, there would be no bonnets, bunnies, and baskets holiday.
We celebrate with the hope of life immortal and transformation eternal because Christ arose!
