For many, Easter is a religious celebration.  For others it is a celebration of Spring’s rebirth which involves fun filled activities such as egg hunts, baskets over-flowing with colored jelly beans, peeps, and chocolate rabbits, and the family gathering for a ham dinner, but the celebration wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of none other than the Easter Bunny himself. 

Although these holiday festivities seem innocent enough you still need to be careful! The Easter Bunny likes to hide his eggs in tricky places; trying to reach for that sweet, chocolate filled egg in your garden pot may leave you flat on your bum and unable to get help. What should you do? Well, with Life Alert Protection, you would simply push the button on your emergency pendant and summon an emergency medical response fast! Life Alert does not take holidays, so no matter when you may face a life threatening emergency, Life Alert’s 24/7 dispatch team is available and ready to send you help fast. 

This Easter, don’t get more candied bunnies or jelly beans, get the best in personal protection with Life Alert Protection! And while munching on your marshmallow peep and hunting for eggs, share these fun Easter facts with your family straight from Real Simple[1].

1.      Some claim that the word Easter derives from Eostre, a pagan goddess of spring and fertility. According to folklore, Eostre found a bird dying from the cold and turned it into a rabbit so its fur would keep it warm—but that rabbit still laid eggs like a bird. “In one version [of the story], the bunny paints and decorates the eggs as a gift to Eostre to show his loyalty and love,” says author, Brandi Auset. It’s possible this story is the reason that bunnies and birds—and chicks, if you ask the company that makes the popular Peeps marshmallow candies—are connected with the holiday.

2.      Dyeing Easter eggs may have a deeper religious connection as well. One tradition regarding Easter eggs is related to Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Jesus after the Resurrection. She was holding a plain egg in the presence of an emperor and proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The emperor said that Jesus’ rising from the dead was as likely as that egg turning red—and the egg turned bright red while he was still speaking. In addition, for the 40 days leading up to Easter, known as Lent, Christians begin preparing for the holiday by praying, meditating, and making personal sacrifices. “Christians [have historically] prepared themselves by forgoing ordinary dietary items, such as meat, eggs, and milk,” says author Anne Kathryn Killinger. “For many years, Easter was known in Western Europe as Egg Sunday, for eating eggs on that day was one of its joys.” Those eggs were often presented in baskets lined with colored straw to resemble a bird’s nest, thanks again perhaps to Eostre.

3.     Where does all the chocolate come from? “The tradition of chocolate eggs began in 19th-century France and Germany and soon spread to the rest of Europe and eventually the United States,” says Katherine Tegen, the author of The Story of the Easter Bunny. “To receive the special Easter eggs, children were told to make nests from hats or baskets so the Easter Bunny could leave them there.” Killinger says that many Christians are also eager to eat chocolate on Easter because it’s a common modern-day sacrifice during Lent.

4.     Another typical Easter food is lamb. “Lamb is traditional because Jesus' last supper was the Passover meal,” says Karen Jean Matsko Hood. “If he ate meat during that meal, it would have been lamb.” But Jews traditionally do not eat pork, so why is ham so often a part of the Easter table? “Salted pork would last through the winter and be ready to eat in spring before other fresh meat was available,” says Hood.

5.     It’s very likely that children play an important role in the origin of the fun side of Easter. “For Christians, this is a serious holy day, dealing with issues of life and death,” says Robin Knowles Wallace. “Because of the difficulty of sharing these big issues in age-appropriate ways, sometimes we divert to the more lighthearted symbols of eggs and rabbits, hence the proliferation of Easter-egg hunts at churches.”

Celebrate Easter in a way that makes you happy and although the Easter Bunny may be welcomed in your home, not all outsiders are. So protected your home from an invader by getting Life Alert Protection! With their emergency pendant, you can summon help fast with just one touch of a button! No matter if it’s a home fire, a serious fall, or some guy in a bunny suit breaking in through your window.  Life Alert’s 24/7 dispatch team is available to help you at the touch of a button. Living independently has never been so safe with Life Alert’s personal protection and medical alert system! Stay safe year round with Life Alert Protection, so you can experience another fun Easter with your family! For a free brochure on all of Life Alert’s life-saving services call 1-800-513-2934.

Works Cited:

1.       Miller, Josey. “Easter Traditions, Explained.” Real Simple. <http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/more-holidays/easter-traditions-explained?xid=soc_socialflow_facebook_realsimple >.

---

[1]