Southern Easter Traditions

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by Abby

Does your family ever play “remember when?” “Remember when Momma and Dad would take us to see Santa Claus every year at the mall?” “Remember when we would drive around looking at Christmas lights?” Traditions are important. Most families, regions, and countries have traditions that feed the culture of its people. The South is no different.

Easter is a special time in the South. For generations every good and respectable family in the Bible Belt belonged to one of the town’s many church congregations. UMC, FBC, A&E, or Presbyterian – it wasn’t just a church. It was and is a community centered social gathering place. Easter being the most holy time in the church, Easter is also a time for Southerners to entertain, socialize, and carry on with traditions.

  • New church clothes are a given. Girls get new dresses. Always. And sometimes a sweet hat, too. Boys get new suits. In the South we love seersucker and bow ties. That’s as southern as it comes. 
  • Egg dying is done every year. Now there are kits to glitter and glitz your eggs or wrap them in camouflage shrink wrap. But egg dying used to be an art form that took hours, even days to complete.
  • Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny hides are essential for the kids. A chocolate bunny, jelly beans, and a sweet stuffed rabbit are most likely to be found in one of these.
  • Egg hunts are an opportunity to socialize, show off your Easter finest, and take priceless pictures. If you’ve seen the movie Steel Magnolias, you have seen what a true southern egg hunt is like.
  • Easter dinner. In the south we feed you. We’ll feed you at every opportunity. We love you with food. Easter dinner is a tradition all in its own. For more details on that check out my post here.
  • The highlight of Easter is our time spent at church. Families bring flowers from their gardens to add to the cross at church. Sunrise services are popular all around the South.

 I hope that you will feed your family with tradition. Feed their memories and “remember whens.” But also important, I hope that you will feed them with the meaning behind the traditions and why it is important to keep our traditions and culture alive.

Hoppy Easter to you!
XOXO,
Abby

P.S. Here is one of my favorite things to bring as a hostess gift! If you’re celebrating Easter at someone else’s home, don’t forget to bring them a little something.

Photo Credits:  

http://imgend.com/5KeDj6Di
http://scprep.tumblr.com/post/21662508448
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cross-of-flowers-renee-trenholm.html
http://www.fabulousfindsstudio.blogspot.com/
http://dreamywhites.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-easter-egg-dying-experimentmaking.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goannatree/5915626717/
http://www.marthastewart.com/274848/easter-basket-ideas/@center/276968/easter

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/brown-sugar-bourbon-glazed-ham-50400000111509/

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Abby

6 thoughts on “Southern Easter Traditions”

  1. I love this post! Everything that you said is true! There are people up north who never buy new church clothes for Easter.. Can you imagine!?!?WendyThe Southern Newlywedhttp://southern-newlywed.blogspot.com/

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  3. True for my family also! My mom did all these traditions and made Easter so special! We were born in the south but moved to St. Louis when I was 3….but Mom kept all the traditions alive so much that I am carrying them on today! Easter Sunday I wore a new dress, hat & white gloves that had belonged to Mom, surrounded by my family in church….then we had a huge Easter dinner here, with an egg hunt!

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