BUNNY EGG ART

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, April 17, 2019

This weekend family traditions will be celebrated for Jewish Passover, Resurrection Sunday and Laotian New Year. The memories and ways of acknowledging the holiday are as diverse as the number of families who will gather this weekend around the world. One of the traditions started in childhood is the custom of dying Easter eggs. The bunny will hide them — perhaps multiple times throughout the day — and children as well as adults will find them, to eat or discover a treat. Amy Loehndorf, who relocated several years ago from Washington state, said the Easter Egg Hunt was orchestrated by her father-in-law for the adults — very serious business. Acting just like children, they would search for the eggs that could be eaten, candy and prize stuffed eggs — numbers that allowed the treasure hunter to claim a prize.

Folk art collector, art teacher and party giver Becky Collins, who has relocated to New Iberia from Mississippi, shared her family recipes today along with the collection of eggs she keeps hidden in the archives of her extensive folk art collections. Most holidays, Collins brings out the theme for an extended display, but this year, the special showing included stories for readers of The Daily Iberian.

How significant is Easter in your family?

Quite often, Easter was celebrated at the same time as our birthday. My twin sister, Bobbye, and I usually had a huge Easter Egg Hunt and invited everyone in the grade below us, with us and above us. Because our granddad Anderson owned the Nehi/Royal Crown Cola Bottling Company, there were plenty of soft drinks for our guests. One favorite beverage concocted by our older sisters was made of one-half Nehi orange drink and one-half RC Cola.

What foods do you associate with Easter and/or your birthday?

Our favorite cake was a special Devil’s Food sheet cake topped with chocolate fudge poured over marshmallows and sprinkled with pecans. This cake was made by our beloved Lulu only for our birthdays and very special occasions. Easter Sunday meals usually included a baked ham, fruit salad, fresh green beans, potato salad, hot yeast rolls and a pineapple upside down cake/ pound cake. Sometimes a baked turkey replaced the ham. Sweet iced tea was the only beverage.

Were the eggs you hunted as a child real or plastic?

Easter Egg Hunts always featured real eggs dyed with care and a lot of supervision. One Easter mother hid the eggs inside because it rained. Later that fall, we followed a really stinky smell to locate the one we never did find in the spring. It was well hidden in the closet under the stairs. When we had children of our own and returned home to Ellisville for Easter, we made a few changes to the Easter Egg Hunts. We still dyed eggs to hide, but we also filled lots of plastic eggs with loose change or candy and one plastic Golden Egg with folded money. This egg was hidden with great care and took all the cousins a while to find as we buried all but a tip of it.

What are some other Easter memories?

Easter always involved going to Lewis’ General Store to pick out a dress pattern and material for mother to sew our Easter dresses. Our first “bought” dresses happened when we were in high school. We started painting egg shells with my mother, brother and sisters. Some of these painted by my mother go back to 1994. Some are from former art students. Cricket was in the fourth grade when she painted one with the Statue of Liberty. She said she would live there one day, and she did. I just love these. They are just a few of the memories I have of growing up in Ellisville, Mississippi.