A Place to Celebrate Eggs

In 325CE the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the Spring equinox.

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/determining-easter-date.html

Easter 2018 falls on April 1^st.  Hummmmm, do I remember the last time that occurred? I googled it and alas, I found the following: 

https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm

1 April, 1584, 1646, 1657, 1668, 1714, 1725, 1736, 1804, 1866, 1877, 1888, 1923, 1934, 1945, 1956, 2018, 2029, 2040, 2108, 2170, 2181, 2192, 2238, 2249, 2260, 2306, .... From AD 1583 to AD 3000 Easter Sunday will fall most frequently on 16 April, though over longer intervals the most frequent date will be 19 April.

Voila! The last year that it happened was 1956 and I was 3 and a half years old.

Would you be fooled if I tried to convince you that the egg is celebrated on Easter as a symbol of new birth and resurrection?  And that the coloring of eggs, particularly of red, represented the blood of Christ spilled on Good Friday (Why isn’t it called Bad Friday?), and that the hunting of Easter eggs represents the hunting for the tomb of Christ?

Regardless of the fact that many people can be fooled by almost anything, today at Merry Mount we will celebrate Easter and will pay homage to the EGG.

What came first, the chickens or the eggs?  In our case (no fooling here) the chickens came first.

These hens have blessed us with fresh eggs almost everyday since the late summer of 2014.

A couple of times a single egg has contained triple yolks! Yum.

Rett and I have the great fortune today to host an Easter brunch for our immediate family: Simon and Kris, Caroline and Jess, Julie and Jason, but the center of attention will be on Joy and Eva.

While they will no doubt understand the task of finding the eggs, we adults who are enamored by the twins, will get the most enjoyment guiding and observing their first Easter egg hunt at Merry Mount.

Rett has planned a special Easter brunch menu of green ham (April Fool) and biscuits, sausage chili grits, Bacon-Hash Brown Asparagus Quiche, fruit bowl, and of course her “Deviled Eggs” (even on Easter).

Anyone who wishes to be creative will also have the opportunity to color and/or decorate an egg or two.  We will see if anyone comes close to competing with the images of eggs that follow:

Who knows, maybe the Easter Bunny will bring a few eggs of the chocolate variety.

It is no April Fool that we at Merry Mount will enjoy a few traditions associated with Easter today, therefore, I leave you with an original limerick and a final April Fool.  Enjoy!

There once was a man with two legs

Whose kids sat and whined and begged.

He told them to stand, and give him a hand

For today they will hide and eat eggs.

CPW