Scott Topic: Eggs and Bunnies and Peeps, Oh my!

I like jelly beans. A lot.

"Hey it's Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead. What should we do?"
"...How bout eggs?"
"But what does that have to do with Jesus?"
"Alright, we'll hide 'em!"
"I'm not sure I follow your logic.."
"Don't worry, there's a bunny."
-Jim Gaffigan

He's got a point. Where do enormous anthropomorphic bunnies dispensing colored hen eggs factor into the commemoration of the death and resurrection of the Savior? I can't even think of some arcane, metaphorical way they could be related, so where does it come from? I could probably find out in 5 seconds on Wikipedia, but I'd rather just believe it's an unsolved mystery, like Nessie or Jimmy Hoffa.

Either way, I enjoy our strange Easter traditions. Dying eggs is one of my top three holiday traditions, along with Gingerbread houses and carving Jack-o-Lanterns. And for my family and me, there's a lot more to it than applying pigment to the calcium carbonate layer surrounding chicken fetuses. Every year we all troop into the kitchen armed with fresh flowers, eye droppers, old nylons, fingernail polish, rubber bands, crayons, and other tools which shall remain family secrets. Like a society of wizened alchemists we mix and dip, paint and scribble, creating works of art; at least in our eyes.

That tradition was something I missed on my mission. So much so that the second year I'd asked my family to send an egg dying kit in a package for Easter. It arrived in July (which was typical of the postal service there) but I didn't let that stop me from having the District dye eggs for a P-day activity. For the Guyanese missionaries and my Belgian companion it was the first time that they'd ever made Easter eggs and it was received with mixed reactions. Some of them got it and had a blast while in others the creative juices flowed much less freely. Nonetheless, fun was had by all.

But this year was my first year back, and I was excited to do the eggs with my family again. Actually, I dyed eggs twice this year. First with some friends in Provo since my family was MIA for Easter, and then with my family later. Here are some washed out photos of this year's crop (and pics from last year in Guyana if I can find them).