Happy Easter! Welcome to week 14 of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a sustainable living tip for the week. This week I’m spreading some Easter joy with an Easter-themed edition of The Sunday Spark. Read on for some Easter trivia, spring weather pondering, and ideas for plastic-free candy treats.
The Sunday Spark – Week 14 – Easter joy
On my mind this week: A frosty Easter
When I woke up on Saturday morning, it felt more like Christmas than Easter weekend, with the thermometer reading -6 C and a thick layer of frost on the rooftops. As I scraped ice off my car at 6:45, I was thinking about how our seasons seem to be shifting.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I recall Easter being associated with warm temperatures, spring flowers, and outdoor egg hunts.
It has been many years since we’ve had a really warm Easter. Even when my daughters were small, they’d often have to wear winter boots to church with their new Easter dresses, and I don’t think we’ve ever had nice enough weather to do an outdoor egg hunt.
While spring seems to be arriving later every year, we often enjoy nice weather well into October, and a white Christmas isn’t guaranteed even here in Canada. So it just seems like the seasons are shifting. Maybe in the future, we’ll be dreaming of white Easters and hiding Thanksgiving treats outdoors in October.
There is good news, however. The long-range forecast for this week shows daytime high temperatures in the low 20’s. I’ll take that.
No matter what the weather is doing in your part of the world, I wish you all the joy and blessings of Easter.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- On Sunday, I attended a baby shower for a friend from church. The shower was postponed by a few weeks when her beautiful baby boy arrived two months early. It was a fun gathering.
- My daughter Laura’s wisdom tooth surgery went well on Thursday. She’s relieved to have it over with and is now recovering. I’m glad I could take the day off work to be with her.
- On Friday, I had a short visit with my friend Cher and her husband. They’re here from Chicago for the first time in three years. It was wonderful to catch up with her.
Three things I learned this week
Keeping the Easter theme going, here are three interesting bits of Easter trivia for you to ponder while you munch on your chocolate eggs.
- Pastel colours are often associated with Easter, but did you know they have religious meaning? White represents light, triumph, and glory. Violet signifies penance, power, and royalty. Pink is for joy and love. Green represents hope and eternal life. (Source: Woman’s Day)
- The tradition of the Easter Bunny dates back to Germany in the middle ages and was brought to North America by European settlers. (Source: Good Housekeeping)
- Eastern Orthodox religions celebrate Easter later than Protestants and Roman Catholics. They base their date on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar. This year, they will celebrate Easter next weekend. (Source: Britannica.com)
Finally, if you’re wondering how the date for Easter is determined every year. It’s the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the first day of Spring. Now you know!
Sustainable living tip: candy with no plastic packaging
I’m so excited to enjoy some chocolate this weekend after giving up chocolate and candy for Lent this year. I always feel guilty about indulging in chocolate that comes packaged in non-recyclable plastic packaging and I’m really hoping that Ontario’s new province-wide recycling program might address that.
While your Easter treats for this year are probably already bought and eaten, I did some research and identified several plastic-free candy options in a previous post. If you’re looking for guilt-free indulgences, check out Happiness is…candy with no plastic wrapping.
But, this is the weekend for guilt-free indulgences. I’ll get back on track next week.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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Funny – I was just wondering how they set the date of Easter. Thank you for that answer — and all the other delightful info and updates!
My pleasure Wynne! I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.
It was sunny here. Probably warmer than it should be in April. Glad you are having a lovely week.
There’s no denying weather patterns are changing. The forecast for this week is sunny and over 20C most days. Weird.
Love that you made this into a fun Easter-themed post! It feels especially true that the weather every year seems to reflect the past weather and happy depictions of Easter as taking place in spring . . . Happy Easter to you and yours, Michelle!
Thank you Layla. Happy Easter to you too!
Thanks, Michelle! I love the Easter trivia! Just the thing for some fun dinner table conversation later today! 😊😊😊
Happy Easter Victoria. Glad I could spark some conversation with my trivia!
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Wow, we are deep into spring already and the garden is in full bloom. I shivered as I read your post. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a shift in seasons going on along with just more variability in general. The world is literally a bit a’kilter (but I’m saying more with poetic license then any scientific basis). Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Happy Easter!
Thank you Monty! We have a lot of snowdrops in bloom but that’s all at this point. The birds are returning though. Robins and red-winged blackbirds are a sure sign that spring is coming.
Enjoy Spring’s arrival!