EASTER CELEBRATIONS
A Family Tale About The Easter Bunnies
by Judy A. Remmick-Hubert
Once Upon A Time at the base an ancient lime tree was an opening to an old rabbit burrow that tunneled down, down, down into the ground.
A mother and her child were walking along an age old path that went past the old Lime tree and the hole to the tunnel..
A few yards from the tree, the mother stopped and pointed at the tree and the hole. "Right there is the tunnel that leads down to where the Easter Bunny lives."
The child was wide eyed then some confusion crossed his brow. "Where, Ma Ma?" asked the boy.
In a few moments, the thin tapered fingers swept aside the spring grass which had hidden the burrow, "Here, under the tree."
The child's eyes reflected the hole. "He can't be living here, Ma Ma, " voiced the child who saw a heavy drawn web over the hole. "Nothing accept a spider has been here for a long long time."
"The Easter Bunny and his family have been too busy working on the eggs which they shall hide in the forest this Sunday," voiced the mother who was repeating a story she had been told when she was about the same age as her own child was, now.
"I can't hear the Easter Bunnies working," uttered the child who's eyes seemed glued to the dark hole.
"Easter Bunnies don't talk and sing like our family when they are working," answered the mother as she moved a few feet back and was soon on the path.
"Oooooh, " said the child who believed every word the mother was saying.
"However, they can hear us, " informed the mother. "so, call down to them and tell them your favorite color so they can make eggs for you."
"I," shouted the child, "love red eggs, "the child didn't stop with one color, " and blue and green." For a moment the child thought he could hear his echo returning from the depths of the ground where the Easter Bunnies were busy making eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt. "How do they know when it's time to hide the eggs, Ma Ma?" asked the child who moved next to the mother.
"God taught them," explained the mother.
The child took in the mother's words and digested them like tender morsels of knowledge that would be held dear to the child's heart.
"How do the Easter Bunnies know how many eggs to hide?" asked the child.
"Grandpa will come on Friday and call down the number and then he will cut away the grass and take the spider to another tree and clean the rabbit hole," told the mother.
"May I help Grandpapa?" asked the child.
"I helped my grandpapa when I was about your age," stated the mother, "so, I see no reason you can not help your grandpapa with so important a duty."
The child walked proudly next to the mother as they moved along the row of lime trees.
"Did your grandpapa plant that lime tree to protect the Easter Bunnies?" asked the child.
"These trees have been here for a long long time," told the mother. "so, I'm not sure which of our ancestors planted them.
"I see another hole. Does it, also, belong to other Easter Bunnies?" asked the child.
"This one belongs to Mr. Hare," explained the mother.
"Do other every family have their own Easter Bunnies or do ours take eggs to other families, too, " inquired the curious child.
"Some families do have their own, however, there are very few real Easter Bunnies left, " replied the Mother, "so, they can't make enough eggs for everyone. Most families have to make their own eggs, now."
"Why do we still have Easter Bunnies?" asked the child.
"Because our family have tried very hard to remember to do onto others as you would have them do onto you," answered the Mother. "I do hope you will follow this simple guide so when you have your own children , the Easter Bunnies will still be there in that old tree hole." The mother looked at her child with a very serious face. "Do you think you can treat others with kindness and fairness.?
"Oh yes, Ma ma, " said the child. "I will never do anything that will prevent the Easter Bunnies from being part of our family every Easter."
"I pray this is true, " she whispered.
"Cross my heart," replied the child who's fingers crossed two invisible lines over the chest where the heart is said to be.
- - - -
Year 2000
Although our family lives in a different country than our ancestors, the mother and the child, in the story, we have been fortunate to have found another tree hole where Easter Bunnies live.
It's believed their ancestors lived in the old Lime Tree in the Old Country and they, too, had to migrate to our new country to survive.
The End
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