My Easter Story

I am pretty sure that the Jelly Bean Prayer has been shared many times by many bloggers.  It would be a shame if I kept this prayer to myself, so I’m sharing it with you.

Red is for the blood He gave

Green is for the grass He made

Yellow is for the sun so bright

Orange is for the edge of night

Black is for the sins we made

White is for the grace He gave

Purple is for His hour of sorrow

Pink is for our new tomorrow

An egg full of jelly beans, colourful and sweet

Is a prayer, a promise, a loved one’s treat!

Written by Charlene Dickensen, 1997

Easter Tradition

Easter traditions differ around the world.

Children in the United States and Canada believe the Easter bunny or rabbit brings eggs at Easter.

In Belgium, children say Easter eggs are brought by the church bells, or specifically, by the church bells of Rome.  According to legend, the church bells leave the village church on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) while reciting the first Gloria of the Mass and flew back from Rome on Easter Vigil (the day before Easter). For this reason, church bells in Belgium do not ring from Good Friday until Easter Sunday. When the bells fly back home for Easter, they drop coloured eggs for little boys and girls to find. Sometimes the eggs bear the names of the children. Should a child finds an egg with his or her name on it, it indicates happiness, as can – definitely – be seen from the child’s face 😀

Egg Hunting

When our sons were younger, we hid coloured chocolate eggs around the house.  The hilarious part was seeing them crawling under chairs, tables and small passageways scouring the entire house for the Easter Eggs. LOL!

Alas, my two boys have outgrown this expedition.  I’m pretty sure they can’t crawl under the chairs anymore.

Marbled-effect Easter Egg Recipe (without food colouring)

I got this recipe from one of my sisters-in-law many years back, which she inherited from her late mother.  I have yet to try making these marbled-effect Easter eggs. The ingredients looked simple, but I thought it was rather time consuming, so I am scrapping the idea for now.  Procrastination is the thief of time, I know.  Ah well….Maybe next year…*wink*

Anyway, since we are invited for the Easter reunion with the family at my brother-in-law’s place every year since the demise of my mother-in-law in 2006, I leave this part of the process to my sisters-in-law.  The yearly gathering becomes a family tradition. These coloured or marbled-effect Easter eggs are presented every year at the dining table.

Ingredients –

One dozen eggs

5 yellow onions

5 red onions

Preparation –

Remove the coloured layers from the yellow and red onions. Cut a muslin (or cheesecloth) into squares of about 12 cm x 12 cm. Place a few onion skins on a piece of muslin with an egg in the centre. Wrap the muslin around the egg. Secure with an elastic band.  Repeat the process with the remaining eggs and onion peel/ skin.

Fill a large cooking pot with cold water and add the muslin-wrapped eggs.  Place the lid on the cooking pot and bring it to a boil. 

Remove the pot from the heat and let the eggs sit for 10 to 15 minutes in the hot water. Rinse the eggs with cold water to stop the cooking process. Remove the muslin and onion peel. Rinse the eggs and pat them dry.

I forgot to take a picture of the eggs, because they were gone as soon as they arrived at the table!

By the way, here’s a picture someone else took which looks uncannily similar.

Easter in Kuching

I have fond memories of the mass services during the period of Lent, which starts from Ash Wednesday lasting for 40 days until Easter Vigil. Sundays are not included in the count. Lent is a time of reflection, repentance and spiritual discipline, in preparation for Christ’s death and resurrection.

At our local parish church, hard boiled eggs were given away to young children and senior citizens after the service on Easter Sunday.  At least that was what I could recall seventeen and more years ago!

We always looked forward to Easter Sunday, where the matriarch of the family – my mother – would be preparing one of the two “eggy” dishes: curry chicken with hard boiled eggs or the Teochew pak loh ark (Teochew style braised duck) with hard boiled eggs. Both scrumptiously prepared and gone at the end of meal time 😉

Why eggs? And why coloured eggs?

Have you ever wondered why eggs are linked to Easter? Eggs have long been symbols of immortality, rebirth and new life. Jesus gave His life to give us life.

The coloured eggs represent vitality and fertility evident in spring, where new life emerged after the cold, dark and gloomy winter.

“On the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified, two women named Mary went to visit the tomb where Jesus had been buried. When they arrived, there was a great earthquake and an angel came and rolled away the huge stone that had been covering the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. The angel sat on the stone and said to the two women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He has been raised, just as He said.”

In one of the Easter Sunday sermons, I remembered a young priest’s interpretation. Interestingly, the stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could get out of the tomb; it was rolled away so that His followers and believers could go in and see that the tomb was empty: the fact that we could see that He has risen and because of His victory over death, we can enter into eternal life with Him

Hallelujah!

By the way, here’s a song I enjoy listening to over and over again. How can we get bored with such a great song?

“Hallelujah” was written by the Canadian singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen.  There are so many cover versions of this song.  I chose the cover from the most amazing voice I have heard – the voice of a little angel. I just had to share Rhema Marvanne’s version.  Rhema who?  Please check her out. She was 8 years old when she sang this song.  Her full name is Rhema Marvanne Voraritskul. She was born on 15^th September, 2002. She is a gospel singer. Her father is Teton Voraritskul and her mother was Wendi “Mercy” Marvanne. Teton’s father, Chai Voraritskul was an immigrant from Thailand, while Wendi died of ovarian cancer on 8^th November 2008 at the age of 36 when Rhema was only 6 years old.

Enjoy and a Blessed Easter everyone!