Kind Classics: Happy Easter Everyone!!
Wishing you all a great holiday this weekend with your family and friends. Easter marks the end of the fasting season of Lent and the death, on Good Friday and resurrection of Jesus Christ, on Easter Sunday. The egg is seen as a sign of renewed life or resurrected life by breaking out of it.... hence the whole eggs and Easter deal.
The Easter bunny and rabbit connection is a bit more involved. It comes from the hare, an ancient pre-Christian symbol of fertility associated with Spring. But then there is something in mythology about how someone changed her pet bird into a rabbit to entertain a bunch of kids and the rabbit laid colorful eggs for them. There are lots of stories about how all this came to be out there. The chocolate bunny inspiration and chocolate eggs though were inspired by 18th and 19th century mid-European traditions.
What I love the most about this time of year is all of the Sweet Jasmine (pictured above) that is blooming in Los Angeles right now. It's my favorite thing about this time of year. It only blooms for a short time, and it smells insane!!!! I can not wait to get home to LA to the the Sweet Jasmine that we have planted at our house! I haven't seen any of this in New York (it might be something that only blooms in California) and I'm dying to get home and smell it! It's the most gorgeous smell.
I want to share with you some alternatives to dying Easter eggs. I know it's synonymous with the holiday... but exercise kindness to the animals and the planet! There are other ways to get that holiday feeling.
Get the little colorful plastic eggs... and reuse them every year!! If you must buy them new, buy them new, but you can put an ad on Craigslist to hunt down some used ones, or check out your neighborhood thrift stores. I've done a search to find ones made from recycled plastic, but didn't have any luck. If any of you know about these existing in the world, please let me know. Anyhow, go the plastic-egg route for Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, etc. Fill them with candy (see some kinder-to-your-body treat options below), coins, trinkets...get creative!!
And here are some cute upcycled eggs from etsy.com (upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value. This process allows for the reduction of waste and use of virgin materials). (they are not real eggs....they are made from plastic eggs) You could get something like this, or use inspiration to make your very own with scraps of wrapping paper and other crafty things you probably have in your house already. Have a little arts and crafts gathering with friends, maybe bring wine, and go nuts!
For Easter baskets, again, I would suggest thrift stores... any place you could find a cute used one. They are perfect for taking to the farmer's market year round!
For filler for the baskets, try for recycled paper shreds - instead of the shiny faux grass plasticy stuff. Or better yet, forgo paper all together and use leaves from your backyard or other cute things from nature.
If you are craving Peeps... check out these Vegan Easter Marshmallows from sweetandsara.com. They aren't superhero, just FYI, but they are super cute and super yum.
Lagusta's Luscious makes awesome bonbons and treats in general. Check them out here: lagustaslucious.com.
Allison's Gourmet has a great selection of Easter goodies as well. The little chocolate eggs would be perfect to put inside little plastic eggs!
And Rose City Chocolates has an assortment of Easter chocolates too.
I would love to hear about how you make your egg-free Easter. How do you make yours happen? And any other kind practices that you take part in during this time of year?
Related Stories:
kind classics: have an eco easter!
sheri's fresh lemon mousse
chocolate coma cupcakes
kind classics: passover
16 comments
-
I just made vegan tomato chickpea soup and vegan carrot cake cupcakes for tomorrow. I'll be bringing it to my father-in-laws to share. But I will not be telling them its vegan until they tell me how wonderful my soup and cupcakes taste :) -
This is a little bit after the holiday, however a good thing to look into for next year. Check out Ecoeggs.com for earth friendly Easter eggs that can be used year after year!
-
We decorate Easter cookies with the little ones and my oldest started something new this year. Easter eggs for the birds. Not a new kids craft but a new one for us for Easter. He just used pinecones, smeared with safflower butter and then birdseed. You could get very fancy with them using different kinds of seed and fancy ribbons to hang them on trees outside.
Sometimes what is really missed at a holiday is the smell. Vinegar brings back decorating memories. Make a vinegarette for a salad so that you still have the scent.
-
We don't do the Easter bunny or egg hunts in the UK as much as the US, my traditional Easter celebrations are days out in the countryside, proper family time and lots of chocolate eggs!
However, making paper mache eggs as a kid is so much fun, I would be tempted to get them to make and decorate lots of them. They could be painted, or turned into cows, pigs, chickens - wherever their imaginations can take them! As long as you leave a hole in the top or split them before decorating you could fill them with vegan chocolates, sweets or gifts. If you use home-made glue (flour and water) and earth friendly paint, they are completely compostable too! You can also make a pinata out of paper mache, which could be fun (and messy!).
-
I bought ceramic eggs from EGGNOTS.COM. They are very real looking and dye well. They even come in a cute egg carton. Check them out! Dawn
-
Very nice to read how everyone is celebrating :) I love the idea of rice balls in egg shapes! how cute.
I am *very* early on in the journey to a whole foods, plant-based (and vegan) life - just a few weeks in! This blog has been so helpful in making me feel like I'm part of a community :)
I will be telling my brothers about my life choice (which is still a little scary to me!) when I see them this Sunday. My entire family eats many animal products daily (as did I :(), so I'm a little nervous about this but staying positive...and I'm going to bring vegan peanut butter chocolate eggs to smooth things over :)
Happy Easter, Passover and spring to all!
My recipe will be a little different, but based on this one:
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/03/29/copycat-recipe-reeses-peanut-butter-eggs/
-
Hey Aurora Parlin
I didn't read the comments before I posted mine....oops! Pretty much the same idea (or I guess the EXACT same idea lol). I like it! :)
-
I was just thinking about it because I have always loved decorating Easter Eggs and I have looked forward to it every year (all the way up until last year when I was 23! This is the first year that I am fully concious of the impact of decorating eggs and I do not want to partake anymore)... 'What could I do that WOULD instill that same creativity and fun in my future children (and me) without harming anything in the process' and I think I figured out what would be a good subsitute (that would give the exact same feeling as coloring eggs without harming the little chicks in the process or succoming to the horrible treatment chickens get to produce those Easter Eggs). I realized (so simple) Arts and Craft stores sell those white clay eggs (or wooden eggs) and I'm sure you could find recyclable eggs (or make paper mache' eggs) to color and get some actual paint instead of the dye and just let them paint the eggs. Then you have beautiful creations from your little ones that you can collect and show them once they're older (write the date on the bottom of the 'eggs' you want to keep and if they want to decorate more than one well then there's an Easter present they can give grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc.).Even though I do not have kids yet (and am still a beginner at being vegan... going on 5 months now and happier than ever) this is what I will do for my children so that once they come to realization (hopefully) that the vegan path is the kind path they will have the satisfaction of knowing that even when they couldn't decide for themselves on how to help fuel the kind fire, they were still being kind to the world while also getting to enjoy the happy and fun memories of childhood! Thanks for the Easter Basket ideas, I really enjoyed reading it and glad it gave me time to stop and think and come up with this idea. :)
Peace and Love to all!
-
If your kiddos are outgrowing the plastic easter egg phase, churches often do community easter egg hunts where your extra egg donations might be graciously accepted instead of throwing them away.
As for my vegan Easter, I always do something off beat for holidays since it's usually just me and maybe another person or two. For Thanksgiving, I did a veggie lasagna, several sides of veggies, and a veggie tray. It may have been a strange thanksgiving dinner, but it was a hit for the three people there. I work Easter this year so for work I am making a mix of blackbeans, corn, jalepenos, tomatoes (rotel), spinach, and rice to go in tortillas for an estimated 15 people. Strange, but it works and it's a way to get other people to eat animal friendly and not notice.
-
I'm not sure how eco friendly this is, but you can get plaster eggs at craft stores and color them with markers in addition to dying them like real eggs. I've never done this before, but you could probably get sculpey and make your own eggs to decorate.
-
Oy, one more correction: You don't use "sticky rice" but sushi rice. Which I confuse by name all the time, but it is sushi rice that I have. Sorry to spam.
-
Forgot to add: You can also use dulse flakes for the kelp in the mock tuna. And canned chickpeas (rinsed) are better. Both the dulse and the canned chickpeas have a pleasantly fishy taste. Of course, if you don't like fishy, and just want to try a new chickpea spread, which is great on a whole grain bread, then use fresh cooked chickpeas and forego the seaweed.
I've also used this with Korean laver, which does not have a fishy taste, and is also good.
-
hi catgirl, I really enjoyed reading your article. This is my first vegan Easter, and it really snuck up on me. I have two daughters, one who is vegan, both have loved dying eggs every year for the Easter Bunny to hide and I couldn't or didn't think of an alternative for them. I did get eggs from a farm I know and feel ok about that but where those chicks came from, etc. isn't maybe great. Anyway just wanted to say you inspired me and I know by next year I will have an alternative plan!
-
I am going to make egg-shaped onigiri, Japanese rice balls. I have some brown sticky rice but I may also use up the white sticky rice I still have just as a treat. I plan to use umeboshi paste and mock tuna (made with chickpeas) as stuffings for them.
http://happyherbivore.com/2008/10/mock-tuna-salad/
http://www.justhungry.com/2003/12/obento.html
-
-
I recently wrote this article regarding our first vegan easter!
Available at:
Available at:
Join the Discussion!