Homemade peeps and Hallelujah!
by digby
Your Easter traditions explained: they're mostly rebranded pagan rituals. Not that there's anything wrong with that:
The symbol of the egg may have origins in pagan rituals celebrating the spring season. The religious symbolism is the resurrection of Jesus.
Decorating eggs for Easter dates back to at least the 13th century, according to the History channel. Dying eggs red symbolized the blood of Christ.
One theory is the Easter bunny also comes from pagan rites of spring, brought to the U.S. by 18th-century German settlers in Pennsylvania.
These settlers prepared nests for the bunny in their gardens or barns and waited for Easter Eve for the rabbit, known as "Oschter Haws," to lay eggs, according to Christianity Today.
Not to worry though. Some things are All American, 20th century ... I don't know what:
Peeps, the marshmallow candies now synonymous with Easter have their origins in a candy company created by Russian immigrant Sam Born. Born first opened a factory in the early 20th century in Brooklyn before moving his operations to Bethlehem (yes, Bethlehem!), Penn., in 1932.
Starting in the 1950s, a marshmallow Peep was made by hand-squeezing marshmallow through pastry tubes.
You can even make your own peeps although I can't think of a good reason to do it. It's not as if homemade is more "healthy."
Anyway, for those of you observing the holiday, Happy Easter. It's the big kahuna of Christian holidays and even if you're not religious you can't help but be inspired by this:
For those who are looking forward to the special, post Lent feast, today's is very special. It's also 420 day. So enjoy those peeps!
Update: More on the pagan origins of Easter rituals here.
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