Easter - Holidays, Candy & Toys

Large Aussie Easter Eggs

You read that title correctly... candy and toys, not chocolate, is how Easter is celebrated here in the US, that is IF they celebrate Easter at all. (Again please remember this could be specific to my area so no offense to anyone who celebrates differently!) It's not only candy/chocolate that's different either, it's also the manner in which it is celebrated, and the Easter holidays themselves.

This Easter, like the ones before it, I was jealous. Posts all over Facebook, people talking about their four-day weekend in Australia and me, I had work both Friday and Monday. Easter is supposed to be four days of relaxation, family time and chocolate comas... not in the US!

I was talking to a friend on Friday morning as I was getting ready to work and she asked me why I was up so early on a day off, that she would be sleeping in. When I told her I was getting ready for work she was confused and asked me if it was Friday here. When I told her yes, but it's not a Public Holiday... well... she had some choice words to say so I thought it would make a good post to explain WHY :)

I'm sure a lot of you are aware that Americans in general tend to be quite religious, so you would think that the US would have a religious holiday such as Easter as a public holiday... BUT the US is also big on separation of church and state and also Freedom of Religion (the freedom to pick any religion or none)... so having a religious holiday as a public holiday is a no-no because that would be "forcing" people to participate in a religious holiday.

Now, don't think that means you CAN'T have those days off, you can tell your employer that you are taking that day off as a religious holiday and they cannot refuse you (discrimination issue and all that), and apparently quite a few people do this. Some government agencies (like the court house near where I work) elected to close on either Monday or Friday, businesses can choose to close or not close, but it's not "mandatory" like some holidays are (there will be another post about the different kinds of holidays to come).

I asked my work colleague about schools as well (as she actually has kids, I do, but just the furry and scaley variety :P) and she said that as Spring Break is around the time of Easter, some religious schools will time Spring Break to start on Good Friday so that they have the Easter weekend off as well as the regular time off for Spring Break (which varies by school, no set period), which averages about a week off.

Easter basket for young kids

Easter Basket

Easter Basket for the older child

So now we come to candy and toys. I was able to get a few photos of Australian chocolate (many thanks to friends and family!) but because I don't really know that many kids here, I didn't get any of Easter baskets  (so I borrowed some pics from online) but in short... kids don't get chocolate like we do. No chocolate comas for them. No giant chocolate bunnies and giant eggs about the size of your head. That's just unheard of. Here in the US, you get an Easter basket. Quite literally a basket (usually in Easter colours - pastels) that has toys in it, and often with some candy (skittles, M&M's etc) thrown in.

Large Aussie Easter eggs!

 The Easter candy/chocolate here does not even compare to what is sold in Australia over Christmas. Here they have themed items, like Easter coloured M&M's, or the shapes of bunnies or eggs in regular candies (like egg shapes Reeces Peanut Butter Cups). You'll get skittles, or pop rocks, peeps (they are little chick shaped items) and a whole slew of other candy, just Easter themed. I believe it's around now that you start seeing chicks and ducklings for sale in some farming stores too.

It's not that Easter here is BAD or anything. It's just one of those holidays that for 26 years I was used to celebrating a certain way and was, quite honestly, disappointed that I couldn't get my head size eggs and other Easter chocolate like I could in Australia, it just did not seem to be as big an event as it most definitely is in Australia. I know a lot of ex-pats feel this way their first Easter as well.

One of the things that a lot of these differences do is make me wonder when the time comes, if we have kids, what sort of traditions are we going to pass on? Would our kids appreciate having Easter treated more like the Australian Easter where they only get Easter Eggs (lovingly imported from Aus that is :D)... after all, they get candy on Halloween, and toys on birthdays and Christmas... or will they hate that they're "different" from their friends? The same goes for any of the other Australian holidays. Should we celebrate Australia Day? Should we tell them what the Melbourne Cup is? Should we explain that Thanksgiving is an American holiday (and Canadian but a different date)? Where is the line between TOO different, and just different enough? Maybe just having a mum that talks funny will be enough :P