Easter in America More About Bunnies than Resurrection

Rutgers experts address religious significance that has faded from public consciousness.

The following article is courtesy of Rutgers Today. By Carrie Stetler Fifty years ago, Easter arrived with hoopla. There were parades and Easter bonnets. Little girls wore Easter dresses to church, complete with white gloves, and went home with an Easter lily, the flower pot wrapped in purple foil. While Americans still celebrate Easter as a rite of spring with colored eggs, baby chicks and bunnies -- all remnants of its pagan origins -- it isn’t the major holiday it used to be.  But for centuries, Easter was more important than Christmas, according to Tia Kolbaba, an associate professor of Byzantine Studies in the Department of Religion in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers. It was the first documented Christian holiday, and …

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Easter Fun Facts: From Ears to Peeps

Eat the ears first, save the red jelly beans for the kids and don't forget the Peeps!

Easter is here, Middletown! Here are some fun facts to celebrate.

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Street Talk

Some Bunny Listen! Just Us Kidz Street Talking 'Bout Easter Stuff

The kids offer their opinions, beliefs about the Easter holiday and the bunny

Whether you're old enough to remember Art Linkletter or not, you still probably know that "kids say the darndest things." Well, Patch caught up with a few who offered their unique insights on the impending Easter holiday.  Street Talk obtained permission from some parents at the Middletown Arts Center's Eggstravaganza  to capture their kids' opinions on what's to come on Sunday on film.  The Easter Bunny: from where he lives to what he does, the kids all had opinions about that hippitty-hopitty icon.  And they didn't hesitate to tell us what they liked about Easter, and what they got in their baskets, either. This special kids' edition of our column wouldn't be complete without a visit from the bunny himself.  Although usually very busy …

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Street Talk

Part 3: Easter Parade of Opinion Marches

Middletowners offer advice and opinion on the fair-weather friends known as BENNYs

In this special Wednesday edition of Street Talk, we continue our Easter Parade of Middeltowners sharing their opinions about, and advice for, our economy-boosting, sometimes challengingly intrusive friends from the north known as BENNYs. We hopped over to the Middletown Art Center's Eggstravaganza to ask who townies thought was more frightening this season — those ominous, large costumed Easter bunnies or BENNYs? For the third part of our five part series this week, click the video above. 

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