LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - APRIL 21, 2019 by Lynne Belluscio It’s time to get out the Eas- ter baskets and buy some Easter candy. As a kid, my family had a lot of baskets up in the attic, which were brought down and filled with green and yellow grass – not the plastic stuff but I think it was cellophane. We dyed a couple of dozen hard boiled eggs with the little color tablets and a tablespoon of vinegar. Nothing fancy. Maybe we’d use a crayon to write a name or do a little design. I remember when the “marbled eggs” came out, we tried them, but they weren’t too popular. There were always a couple of chocolate bunnies and plenty of jelly beans and foil wrapped chocolate eggs. I also remember little fluffy chickens in pastel colors. My dad really had a good time hiding those baskets and we would play the “you’re getting hotter - - now you’re get- ting colder” game. One year, in deference to too much chocolate and candy, my baskets were also filled with rocks and minerals – a geode and some agate eggs. But I don’t ever remember wondering why there were eggs and bunnies and baskets on Easter. So, when I decided to do an exhibit about baskets, I thought I should include Easter baskets. Unfortunately, when cleaning out the closet a few years ago, most of the family Easter baskets had gone to the burn pile, but I thought a few of them were still the barn for the barn sale. So, I went down to the barn to find a couple of the faded baskets and take them to LeRoy House for the exhibit. The question came up, what do I write on the labels for the exhibit? I started doing a lit- tle research, and found a lot of different stories. The tradition of Easter baskets can be traced to Europe before Christianity when people would carry food and offerings to ceremonies to celebrate the coming of spring and the equinox. These tradi- tions were adopted by the early Christians with the celebration of Easter. Eggs were part of the story of rebirth and fertility. And some of the Christian traditions mentioned that eggs were often not allowed during lent, so with the celebration of Easter Sunday, came eggs. I also read that col- oring the eggs - - particularly red - - was associated with the blood that Jesus shed when he was cru- cified. The story of the Easter Bun- ny apparently is part of a German Lutheran tradition and came to America with German immi- grants in the 1700s. Originally it wasn’t an Easter Bunny, it was a hare. The Germans told their children about “Oschter Haws,” the Easter hare who laid eggs. Part of this story has to do with the fact that rabbits were known for having lots of “kittens” – baby bunnies, and this again symbol- izes rebirth. Another story men- tioned that a bird laid some eggs, but it was so cold that the rabbit laid on the eggs to keep them warm, so people told of a rabbit who laid eggs. German children would hide their hats so the Eas- ter bunny would think they were nests. If the children were good, “Oschter Haws” would fill their hats with treats. Eventually the hats were replaced with baskets. Filling baskets with candy and chocolate was the celebra- tion of the end of Lent and fast- ing. From what I can find on the internet, chocolate eggs were first made by Cadbury in En- gland about 1875. And the Cad- bury Creme Egg wasn’t available until 1923. The process of mak- ing pourable chocolate that could be molded into shapes wasn’t de- veloped until late in the 1800s. As for jelly beans – made in the shape of eggs – there is a story that in 1861, William Schrafft, a candymaker in Boston, suggest- ed that people send jelly beans to soldiers in the Civil War, but that story might be a stretch of the imagination. In July 1905, bulk jelly beans, sold by the pound, were advertised in the Chicago Daily News, but it seems that the idea of jelly beans and Easter did not become popular until the 1930s. I decided to take a look in the LeRoy Gazette and because the 1954 edition was at hand, I opened it up to see what the stores in LeRoy were offering for Easter. Murphy’s offered tasty chocolate bunnies, hens, and roosters for 10 cents or as much as 98 cents. They also offered jelly bird eggs, foil wrapped eggs, marshmallow eggs, cream crosses, fruit and nut eggs with a fondant center. Brinks Family Candy was hollow milk choc- olate with sugar candy decora- tions and was offered in “Baby” for 25 cents; “Bunny” for 49 cents; and “Daddy” for 79 cents. Murphy’s also offered bright Easter baskets, filled with candy for only 49 cents to $1.98. Co- incidentally, one of the ads that I looked at, was for the “Market Basket Supermarket.” Happy Easter. May your Easter basket be filled with mem- ories and chocolate Easter Baskets