We all know that Easter 2021 will not be your typical celebration.
But don’t worry, we have found a few ways to celebrate Easter within your household. Who knows, maybe you’ll find new traditions that you’ll want to keep for years to come!
Why do we celebrate Easter?
You wouldn’t be alone in wondering why do we all get together, give each other chocolate eggs and have a big roast dinner? Well, what we know now as Easter originated as the most important Christian celebration in the calendar to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
According to the Bible, Jesus was crucified on the cross on a day known as Good Friday. But the Bible writes that Jesus was resurrected and came back to life on Easter Sunday which is why it begun to be celebrated. Many religious people make a visit to church, pray but lots of non-practicing and non-religious people celebrate Easter with a family meal.
Why does Easter move date?
It’s confusing isn’t it? We’ve found out it’s because it depends when there’s a full moon in Spring. The celebrations are set to fall on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. This is important because it’s the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Because the cycles of the moon differ that’s why we have different dates!
When are the schools off Easter 2021?
Well, that’s a difficult question to answer because it will change between local councils and also due to the coronavirus pandemic, we might be in lockdown in certain areas…or everywhere! So, it’s best to check your local council website to double check for sure which dates to keep the kids off. This handy link should help to check your post code area- here.
And what about the Easter Bunny, where did that come from?
Just like any tradition it had to have started somewhere right? The story goes that Easter Bunny originated from pagan celebrations of spring, fertility and light. This was represented by the Pagan goddess “Eostre” which if you ask me sounds a bit like Easter! Eostre was often represented by a hare (because they give birth to lots of offspring) and eggs because they represent new birth. As Christianity spread the two celebrations combined and merged to bring together believers of Paganism and Christianity to form what we know now as Easter!
But that doesn’t really explain the chocolate…
The modern Easter bunny dates back to the 1600s in Germany. They wrote of an Easter hare which was believed to lay brightly coloured eggs for well-behaved kids. But it wasn’t until the 1800s that they began to make pastries of the story.
How do we celebrate Easter 2021?
Enough of the history lesson. What about this year you ask? We’ve come up with some fun ways to spend this Easter weekend (despite any restrictions). Best thing is- a lot of it involves chocolate!
Egg rolling
I remember boiling eggs on Easter Sunday with my family and sitting around the dinner table with pens and stickers decorating my eggs. Then we would carefully wrap them in kitchen roll and jump in the car to our nearest hill. We’d march up the hill, right to the top and then release the eggs down the hill and chase after them to see whose egg lasted the furthest without breaking. I can recommend this as a brilliant way to tire out the children. Although, you’ll need to remember to bring some spare sandwiches or something because those eggs will likely not be fit to eat by the end!
Easter Bonnet competition
This is another Easter tradition that we observed every few years. We would all make Easter bonnets and have a competition to see who has the best one. This would be a fun activity to do with the family then you can jump onto Zoom to show family and friends and to get them to vote. Or to even judge their bonnets to see which household has the best!
Everyone wearing their bonnets make a really great family photo to frame to always remember the fun of Easter 2021. And even better, when the kids are older they are great to pull out to embarrass them on front of their friends!
Decorate with mini chicks, ribbons, the possibilities are endless! My personal favourite when I was little was to make tissue paper flowers to stick on my bonnet like this
Stack several layers of tissue paper. Starting at the short end, accordion fold 1 inch sections of the tissue paper until the whole length of the tissue paper is folded together.
Secure the centre using a stapler. Be sure the staple goes through all layers of the tissue paper. Use scissors to shape both ends of the tissue paper for the petals. A love heart shape looks nice.
Fan out the folds and begin separating each layer. Fluff and shape the flower until it looks pretty.
If you Google tissue paper flowers you’ll find lots of different styles to try!
Share the best Easter 2021 gifts
We know that many of us won’t be spending Easter with all the loved ones we’d like to so why not treat them to something special this Easter? Of course, you can stick with the classic Easter Egg but why not something to keep? These first Easter bunnies are adorable and make a great keepsake for a child’s first Easter. Or for older siblings this great personalised Easter Bunny story makes an excellent gift to show them you care despite not being together this year.
Make the Best of Easter Baking
I am absolutely certain that Cadburys Crème eggs are much smaller than they used to be. Therefore, why not make your own! We’ve found this homemade cream egg recipe for you to try. It might be a bit fiddly but if you have time it looks like they would definitely be worth the effort. It was made on This Morning and they seemed to really enjoy it!
Homemade not Cadburys Creme Eggs
Ingredients:
800g milk chocolate of your choice
100g sugar
100g water
500g white fondant icing
Yellow and orange food colouring
Vanilla extract
Silicone Easter Egg Mould
Method:
Take 800g of Cadbury (or any other brand of your choice) chocolate and melt two thirds of it in a bain marie (glass bowl sat over saucepan of boiling water) to 45C. Don’t microwave.
Then mix in the remaining third of chocolate to cool the mixture down, tempering the chocolate. Mix well until evenly smooth.
Pour the whole lot into your egg mould and tap to release any air bubbles. Leave it for two to three minutes. Pour out the excess.
Put the shells in the fridge for 20 minutes. Put 100g sugar and 100ml water into a pan and dissolve to make sugar syrup.
Take 500g of white fondant icing, grate one third into a bowl and and mix with yellow food colouring and some of the sugar syrup (to make the yolk).
Take the remaining two-thirds of grated fondant, pour in some sugar syrup and some vanilla essence (to make the egg white). Add sugar syrup as required to get the consistency of buttercream icing.
Then fill each chocolate shell half with white fondant and a dollop of yellow for the yolk. Stick the two halves together with a little melted chocolate. Eat however you eat yours.
Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding
If you’re not a fan of a cream egg or think that sounds like too much hard work then we’ve found this delicious hot cross bun bread and butter pudding to use up those old hot cross buns!
The best bit of this is that you can use up some leftover Easter eggs too if you wanted.
There are lots of variations of this recipe if you wanted to replace the easter egg shards with some marmalade it’s really delicious. If you are watching the calories you could switch to skimmed milk, low fat spread instead of butter and leave out any chocolate for example. It really is up to you! Or if you were making this for the adults only you could add in some Cointreau or Baileys if you wanted.
Ingredients:
6 hot cross buns, halved
butter, for spreading
600ml/20fl oz milk
400ml/14fl oz double cream
1 cinnamon stick
4 free-range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g/5½oz caster sugar
200g/7oz leftover milk chocolate egg, broken into pieces
vanilla ice cream, to serve
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Spread butter on each half of hot cross bun and arrange the buns in a large ovenproof dish.
Gently heat the milk and cream together in a saucepan with the cinnamon stick. Remove from the heat to cool slightly.
Whisk the eggs together with the vanilla and sugar until pale, then gradually pour in the milk and cream mixture, whisking constantly. Remove the cinnamon stick, then pour the mixture over the hot cross buns and allow to soak in for 15 minutes.
Place the ovenproof dish in a large baking tray filled halfway up with water. Sprinkle the chocolate pieces over the top and bake for 45 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream on the side.
Easter films to watch with the family
Peter Rabbit, Hop, Rise of the Guardians, Joseph: King of Dreams, Curious George Egg Hunting to name but a few are all excellent films to watch with the family.
We hope that with a bit of creativity Easter 2021 will not be a wash out but one to remember. And if you have any suggestions of your own why not share them below in our comments section?