The history of our traditions always interests me, so I wonder, what's with the tradition of dressing up for Easter? When I was a kid, Easter morning involved all five daughters walking into church with pincurls, new desses, spring coats, pastel-colored hats with plastic flowers, white anklet socks with lace, and white patent leather shoes. It really was a parade!
My first (minimally educated but common sense) guess about where our tradition comes from is...pagan rituals. Winters were long and cold in many parts of the world, and around the vernal equinox, people came out, took their first bath of the year and de-loused their clothes. Seems like while you're doing that, you should throw a party, welcome spring, say hello to your neighbors, and thank the gods you didn't freeze to death...since now you could stand to be in the same room with eachother without passing out.
Second, early Christians were still pretty Jewish and they probably celebrated the resurrection at the time of Passover, mixing together the two traditions. Passover involved remembering the exodus from Egypt, right? When the Israelites ran for their lives while God killed all of the Egyptian babies. This involved eating matzoh (crackers--because there was no time to add yeast to dough and let it rise) with your coat on, ready to walk to freedom! One of my books on these traditions says that the Israelites "got dressed in their best clothes" for this event--and it could have morphed into that over time, but likely they weren't going to leave the good stuff behind in Egypt and wear their shabby stuff on the road to their new life. (Duh.) So, the default became "wear your bank account out of here," and it moved on into the early Christian Easter observances.
Next, I figure that a whole lot of Middle Ages mess between religion, monarchy, and government got really mixed up until Martin Luther came along and tried to straighten things out. Then the Puritans got a hold of happiness and went way off in the other direction--banning everything from lace and sex to smiling....and burned people at the stake just in case they missed any unrepentant sinners.
The 1800s is when the Easter bonnet thing got started in America, involving arrangements of ribbons, flowers, and feathers. When I was a kid, "hat boxes" existed and were stilled used--to keep Grandma's best hats from getting crushed or misshapen in the closet while they were stored. The Easter parade tradition actually started with churches, who would hold competitions for the best dressed parishoners who would then walk up and down main street (or 5th Avenue if you lived in NY), simply to show off your new clothes....Ta-da, a parade!
Finally, the market economy capitalists got on the Easter bandwagon in the 1900s and started merchandizing the whole thing...clothes, candy, flowers, cards. Today in America Easter seems like a holiday more than a holy day.
In Nicaragua, you will be between the Evangelicals and the traditional Roman Catholics this "Holy Week."
What will Easter mean for you this year?
Oh, PS, guess who brought over the Easter bunny tradition from Europe. Yup, the Germans and the Dutch.
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