History tells us that The High society in Russia in the 19th Century started the tradition of giving highly delicately decorated eggs, featuring many special intrinsic jewels and beading, creating beautifully ornate decorated eggs. This tradition led to the famous Fabergé egg.
It is believed that the first Fabergé egg was created for Tsar Alexander lll who was inspired to give his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna, a beautifully decorated Easter egg in 1885, perhaps for their 20th wedding Anniversary.
This delicate Fabergé egg was crafted from a gold base with a transparent white shell that, when opened, revealed the gold yolk. This yolk also opened to reveal a highly colourful gold hen in a basket. The hen also opened, revealing a miniature diamond crown, suspending a tiny delicate ruby pendant. This egg became known as the Jewelled Hen Egg. The delicate egg was supported on a tripod pedestal, also highly coloured with gold, jewels and intricate detail.
Maria was so adoring of this delicate gift given to her by her husband Alexander that it led to Peter Carl Fabergé being appointed to the Imperial Crown as a goldsmith and given complete freedom in designing any of the future imperial Easter Eggs. This in turn led to them to becoming more and more decorated and elaborately intricate. Alexander’s only requirements were that each wonderful Fabergé egg would contain a surprise and a special uniqueness.
Fabergé Egg
The Imperial eggs became quite famous and Fabergé went on to be commissioned by many private clients… duchesses and wealthy families, creating many more intricate designs for them, along with their special surprises hidden inside. History tells us that a series of 50-54 Fabergé Eggs were commissioned for the Russian Imperial family under the direction and supervision of Fabergé, all of which were delicate in nature, intricate in design and surprising in their secret inner creations. Many of the intricate inner surprises were of flowers, carriages, clocks, jewels, pearls and many more.
Other Easter Egg Customs
Chocolate eggs, egg-shaped candy and coloured jelly beans have all been well associated with Easter from the early 1930s. Many countries, cities and towns, on many different scales across the world, celebrate the Easter Hunt and The Easter Parade in a very big way, involving everyone to celebrate this festive season with dressing up, with elaborately coloured, decorated hats, and outfits, or people dressed up as the Easter Rabbit. Children enter into the fun by finding the scattered Easter eggs.
The American White House maintains an Easter tradition on the Monday after Easter as an annual event on the White House lawn, including an Easter Hunt and egg rolling Competition.
Easter is about celebrating with loved ones and spreading joy and happiness. Even in a time of global crisis, it’s important that we carry on these special traditions that we all look forward to each year.
At this time of year, it has become a tradition to give Easter cards that include a very special Happy Easter greeting inside. Everyone loves to receive an Easter card, especially if it is a DIY craft card.
It’s lovely when you can make your very own creative Easter cards and send them to family members who may live a long way away… or it may be for your teacher. Parents or special friends would also appreciate receiving one. But of course, you need to put a very special Happy Easter Greeting inside the card.
You might like to write funny Easter greetings or send an Easter blessing to a special friend. Everyone loves a Happy Easter Greeting.
Here are some examples of Happy Easter Greetings
Thinking of you at this special Easter time.
I am sending you HAPPY EASTER WISHES.
May you and your family have an Easter basket full of blessings.
Happy Easter! May Easter bunny bring you lots of yummy eggs.
Here’s a special Easter greeting… HAPPY EASTER!
May your hearts be filled with joy and thankfulness at this special Easter time!
Funny Easter Greetings
We all love funny or silly jokes or clever sayings. When you open an Easter Card and unexpectedly read a funny Easter greeting, you could well be put into stitches of laughter. It’s fun to have a silly joke to make people laugh. You can always make up your own funny Easter greetings.
Here are some examples of Funny Easter Greetings…
So why did the Easter bunny cross the road? …The chickens were chasing him.
Happy Easter! A large Easter Egg is on its way …if the Easter Bunny hasn’t eaten it, like last year!
Happy Easter Greetings
How does the Easter Bunny stay fit? …He EGG-cersizes
Happy Easter! Funny Bunny!
Happy Easter! Hope you can wait till the bunnies bring your eggs back home.
Wishing you a Happy Easter with lots of Bunny-kin greetings.
Religious Easter Messages
Often Easter is only thought of as a season of family fun, lots of eggs and bunny rabbits …painting eggs and having a meal with family or friends.
But Easter is a special religious time of the year, when we are reminded that Easter is the remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it was his sacrifice that has shown us the path to eternal life with Him in God’s Kingdom!
Here are some religious Easter greetings…
May God bless you at this special Easter time!
Hallelujah! The King is risen. May you receive many blessings this Easter season.
May all the blessings of Easter fill your heart with joy!
Let’s rejoice and be glad in Him for He is risen! …Blessings at Easter time!
May all His blessings come upon us this special Easter time!
Happy Easter! May all the blessings of Easter fill your heart!
“Happy Easter” greetings can be expressed in many ways.
If you are at home with your kids you can help them to make their own free Easter Greeting Cards. “Happy Easter” cards can bring so much joy to the family when they are handmade by the children, rather than the usual Easter greeting cards found in the shops. Card craft is great fun for kids as they can improve their cutting, glueing and drawing skills and develop their own individual creative skills.
There are many different types of free Easter greeting cards. Some are printed Easter cards to colour. Some are animated Easter cards and some may have funny Easter greetings.
In this post, we will show you some Easter cards to make in a short time.
We have several different projects for easy Easter cards to make. As well as Christian Easter greetings, children could write funny Easter wishes. Below, we have some Easter greetings that children can write into their very own Easter greeting cards.
TWO EASTER CARDS TO MAKE …
Yellow Cottontail Easter Bunny EASTER CARD
YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING ITEMS FOR YOUR Yellow 3D Free
Easter Card
PDF template
Card cut to size … 12in (31cm) x 6in (15.5cm).
White card for Rabbit
Scissors, pencil, eraser,
Black marker pen (texta)
Paper glue plus craft glue
Colored card for Easter Card
Colored paper for star shapes
Coloured card for flower shapes
Doubled sided tape,
One cotton ball
3 small paper punch hole shapes
INSTRUCTIONS
COTTONTAIL EASTER BUNNY EASTER CARD
Easter Card Template
1 Download and print the free PDF, perhaps 2 to 4 pictures
2 Cut out all the patterns… 2 stars, 2 rabbits, 3 flowers
3 Trace the 2 star patterns
4 Cut out 2 different stars
5 Measure card and cut to size
6 Fold card in half, carefully
7 Glue large star in centre of card
8 Dry then glue smaller star
9 Mark rabbit position when dry and glue on first rabbit
Simple Easter Bunny Fun Projects to do with your Children.
According to the Easter tradition, the Easter Bunny would hide Easter eggs in the garden for young children to find and collect in their little baskets. This activity was always a fun event with our own children and sometimes they would even find Easter eggs throughout the house, hidden under and behind furniture. We as adults would also give Easter eggs to our family and friends when we visited them over the Easter break.
What to use for Easter craft projects…
Materials to Use
Easter craft materials can be purchased from your local craft supply store or you may find many items amongst your household items. Pegs, plastic spoons, paint, coloured cardboard or paper; felt, icy pole sticks, disused cardboard cylinders, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, coloured ribbons, string, wool, paper plates (all sizes), egg cartons, cotton eye-wipes, ear-cleaners, straws, paper bags, colored cellophane and tissue, feathers, popsicle sticks and, of course, paint.
Great ideas for kids’ craft for Easter can be realised so simply by collecting many of these items and placing them into a craft box, in readiness specifically for any craft projects that will happily entertain and occupy your children, grandchildren or toddlers leading up to the many events during the year.
Painting
Encouraging children to be more creative using paint is a fun way for them to experience painting, and by using the many other craft activities, children learn to express themselves. By using the primary colours, then mixing different ones together, they can create the various shades of colour, which extends their palette experience.
Fun Things to Do for Easter
It’s a wonderful experience for children when they see, for the first time, small fluffy yellow tiny chickens hatching out after a long wait, while the mother hen has been sitting on these eggs over the past few weeks. Children love holding, very gently between their two hands, a lovely little chick who is chirping endlessly and enjoying being held. Bunnies and chicks can be so absolutely adorable and can be made from the simplest items.
These will inspire you to make many other fun handicraft items for all pre-school children.
Easter Crafts
Easter is a fun time of the year, it’s both a religious time where we get together with family and friends to celebrate and for some it’s an extended holiday. Special table settings are decorated with coloured Easter eggs and other symbols of the celebration of new life. This is a great time of the year to involve toddlers and young children in card making, painting eggs, cutting and gluing activities, using ribbon, string, glue, coloured paper along with discarded kitchen egg containers, cereal boxes and cylinders that can all add to this overall fun event. Involving your pre-schooler in these easy craft ideas adds to the whole occasion.
Great Activities for Toddlers
There are many craft ideas that can involve our toddlers and pre-school age children, especially indoor activities for kids. Toddler activities need to be colorful and easy for them to do and this can involve many art activities such as painting or crafting and they need to be quick and easy and fun things to do with kids.
Little chickens have long been a favourite decoration during Easter. Here is a lovely little Easter project you could do with your child.
Easter paper chick
This was a fun activity that I enjoyed doing with my three-year-old grandson prior to Easter this year.
He helped me to cut out the yellow rectangles for the chicken pattern and the beak. He also helped me to stick on the eyes, wings and feet and we had a ball!
We created the face of the chicken, placing a small blob of glue for the goggle eyes that he placed very carefully on top of the glue. Then we also glued the beak, only sticking on half of the folded cut out paper beak. His tiny fingers were able to stick these carefully. He is a child who pays attention to detail but not all children can do this so carefully.
What you will need…
plastic to cover your table
yellow paper and orange paper
goggle eyes
pink and black markers (textas)
yellow and orange pipe cleaners
quick drying clear craft glue
scissors
Instructions
To make the beak, cut out a rectangle (3cm x 1cm) and fold it in half across the long side.
Make a chicken beak
Then cut it to form a diamond shape.
Fold the diamond shape in half to form the beak, making the beak 1.5cm long.
Stick only the bottom half onto the body of the chicken.
Lay out the yellow body shape (18cm x 7cm).
Easy construction
Add the pink cheeks and black eyebrows, using pink texta and thin black marker.
Turn the body over and carefully punch two holes 4cm from each end of the body shape, half way down, just big enough for the pipe cleaner to pass through. (Refer to the photograph).
Take one yellow pipe cleaner, 30cm long.
Cut off 8cm, cut it in half to form the two top feathers, each 4cm long.
Run the pipe cleaner into one hole from front to back and then back through the other hole to the front
Then fold each end back on itself and push the ends into the holes to create the chicken’s little wings.
From the orange pipe cleaner, cut six 4cm pieces
Turn the flat body over and glue the pipe cleaner pieces on a slight angle to create the feet, each foot having 3 toes.
Allow the glue to dry.
When finished and the glue is completely dry, turn the chicken over. Bend it into a circle and tape the back with sticky tape.
If dry, bend the toes forward and splay slightly to form three toes on each foot.
When all is finished and dry, a small Easter egg can be placed in the top, to complete the decoration.
While you are enjoying the Easter craft activities, it is a good time to talk to the children about the traditions of Easter… why we celebrate Easter.
Where does the tradition of Easter eggs and rabbits and chickens come from and why do we celebrate Easter?
It’s a chance for you to talk about old traditions, why we celebrate Easter and how it has developed over the years… how other children all over the world celebrate Easter.
And what you as a teacher or grandparent did when you were younger.
Or, if the child is not sure, you can explain the Christian meaning of Easter.
Have fun making your paper Easter chickens. You could make several and put them in a little basket for display.
The origins of the Easter bunny are somewhat of a mystery. One thought is that they stem from an old pagan tradition celebrating the goddess of fertility. The name of the Germanic fertility goddess was Ēostre. The sacred animal was the hare. Hares were profuse breeders; hence they became a symbol of fertility. Over time the hare was replaced by a rabbit that became known as the Easter Bunny who hid colored eggs at Easter.
Why Easter eggs?
Pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Ēostre’s honour, but this tradition was replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Easter is a religious holiday and the Easter eggs are a representation of Jesus’ emergence from the tomb to his resurrection. Eggs were and still are representative of new life and the decorating of eggs for Easter dates back many hundreds of years to the 13th century. Churches encouraged their followers to abstain from eating eggs and to paint and decorate them instead, during the time of Lent… then allowing them to eat them once again on Easter.
Easter is a very important time on the religious calendar and is celebrated widely around the world, having grown out of the ancient symbol of fertility and new life. The egg is associated with spring and “fertility”, “rebirth” and “the beginning”. With a rise in Christianity across Western Europe, many pagan customs and beliefs were adopted into Christian tradition. The egg was a symbol of new life represented by the Resurrection.
Easter Traditions across the Atlantic
Immigrants brought their traditions with them when they decided to migrate to new lands. New continents were being discovered and new traditions were developing. The earliest Easter Eggs were painted with different vegetable dyes and were duck or hen eggs. Flowers and baskets were a later addition. These varying customs eventually spread, along with the fabled Easter Rabbit. These customs developed into the famous morning Easter hunt for multicoloured Easter Eggs, along with other candy ones. Decorated Easter baskets became essential to collect these special eggs, replacing the original nests. Carrots are also sometimes left out the night before to entice the hungry Easter bunny to add additional eggs and so that he would not get hungry while jumping around the garden.
Family Easter fun
The painting of Easter eggs is still a strong tradition and quite fun to do with children. It’s easy to do, but only paint hard boiled cooked eggs.
Children love to paint and cut out Easter shaped eggs and decorate Easter egg cartons along with straw like decoration.
This is a picture of my 3-year-old grandson’s decorated painted cardboard Easter egg carton. We had so much fun using various colours and blending different colours together. Some of them we placed in a cut-out green basket, rolled together, that stood up on the table. We had a lovely three hours of bonding, chatting, and painting while he was using his skills of drawing, painting and cutting out shapes which he does extremely well. I allowed him to experiment and explore his creative side. It’s such a fun activity to do for Easter.
Easter is celebrated in France just as in so many other countries around the world, even though some traditions may vary.
In France Joyeuses Pâques! means “Happy Easter!”
When French chocolatiers start making their delightfully carved chocolate creations, wonderful displays start appearing in their front shop windows. When this happens, you can expect that Easter is going to be right around the corner.
French chocolate is deliciously smooth and will tickle and tantalize your taste buds for more. This is why the French love eating them.
The delicate chocolate chickens, eggs and fish are filled inside with even more delightful bonbon surprises and they are almost too beautiful to eat.
Chocolates begin to appear in every chocolate store, months before Easter as the French people just adore them… along with chocolate hens, bells with wings and wonderful varieties of friandises. The very first chocolate eggs were produced in France and Germany during the 19th Century.
Easter Traditions in France
The French people have a Fish symbol for their Easter Season, much as the Rabbit is a symbol of Easter in other countries across the world. The French fish is called The Poisson d’Avril or the “ April Fish.” French children love to play at sticking as many paper fish onto the backs of as many unsuspecting adults as possible. The children then run away screaming “Poisson d’Avril!”
Flying Bells
Another French Easter Tradition is the Cloche Volant or Flying Bell.
On Holy Thursday, all the church bells in France are silenced. The legend goes that all the church bells fly to Rome to see the Pope, then on Easter morning the bells return from Rome, just in time to ring out across France declaring the joyous news that Jesus has risen again.
Playdough is a wonderful medium for children to explore.
It is easy to make and is fantastic for a child to mould, having the freedom to explore different shapes.
Making Playdough
Playdough is easily made and can be created in various colours.
Ingredients to make playdough…
4 cups flour
1 cup of warm water
Food colouring of your choice (red, blue, yellow, green)
Canola or vegetable oil
Salt
Children learn when their minders allow them to know the feeling of the playdough in their hands.
Setting up for playdough activities
What you need…
Table
Playdough
Plastic sheet
Rolling pin
Cover-all apron for child
Plastic knife, fork and spoon
The child can cut, score and shape the playdough in interesting formations, exploring flowers, animals, star shapes etc.
After reading a book perhaps on dinosaurs or farm animals to your child, it might be an opportunity for an exercise using playdough. Simply suggest that they create their own dinosaur or farm animal. The child can then explore their own expression of the animal.
Making Easter Eggs would be one of many indoor activities for kids, using homemade playdough.
