Giving Virtual Easter Baskets for a Cause

Willa, Marce Seiko, Marce Kikamz tagged me with Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop. Here’s what to do:

* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

* Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.

* Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
* Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
* * Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this Better Basket Blog Hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
* Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).

* Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

I think the Marce Club has been tagged already so no need to tag them again. I'm tagging ACmomCee and Gagay.

The History of the Easter Basket

The tradition of a bountiful Easter basket goes back a long way before our modern consumer driven version. Spring has always been seen as a time of rebirth and blessing and the fertility godddess Eostre (or Oestre) was sometimes depicted carrying a basket of eggs. It was traditional to take baskets of early seedlings to temples to increase the chance of a good harvest.

This ancient custom is reflected in the Catholic tradition of taking the Easter food to mass to be blessed.

The Easter basket was especially popular in the countries of central and Eastern Europe. It appears to have been brought to the USA in the 18th century by the same German settlers who introduced the Easter bunny.

In earlier times when Easter bonnets were at their most popular it was common for the bonnet to be used in place of a basket.