There's Nothing More Natural than Easter - and Tastier!
What is greener and warmer than Christmas but equally joyful and lovely? Of course – it’s Easter! For some people, Easter is just another weekend in the middle of the Spring season, while for others, it is a long-time celebration of rebirth and hope. With its roots hiding very far in the past, the modern-day Easter holiday is just as colourful as many of its symbols. Today we will flip through the pages of Easter’s history to reveal some interesting facts about its original celebration, unity with nature and Earth, and increasing trends. Let’s Spring festivities begin!
Do Traditional Approach Still Works?
One would not be mistaken when speaking about Easter from a religious point of view – the celebration takes place in more than ninety countries worldwide! As described by Britannica’s credible authors, Easter is a principal festival of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Despite two millennia passed since its earliest recorded observance, the tradition to celebrate on the 16th day of the first full moon of Spring lives on. Due to moon cycles, Easter’s exact date varies from March 22nd to April 25th, but agreements to make this date fixed never received much support. This year, we will celebrate Easter on April 4th. Some believers will only do so about two weeks later—this is another strange thing as some Christianity branches use different calendars (more on this in our Christmas blog).
In Unity with Nature
Even though a paragraph earlier we spoke about Easter deriving from faith and religion, some are more willing to accept celebrations roots reaching even further back in history; thus, continuing to debate the Easter’s linguistic origins. There is an approach recognizing Easter as a pagan festival with close ties to celebrating Spring equinox, which marks the arrival of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere; surprisingly – people from Southern Hemisphere still celebrate Easter despite living in a middle of autumn! This year, Spring equinox fell on the same day – March 20th – as Earth Day. Since thousands of years ago, people mapped their life according to nature’s patterns; therefore, the day when the amount of darkness and daylight is identical made a pretty huge impact and allowed renewal.
Most Easter symbols are indeed related to nature. We sure all know the Easter bunny as a friendly fictional character who scatters around colourful painted eggs for little kids to find. As childish as it may seem, rabbits and hares get involved in the whole Easter thing due to being the symbol of fertility – Spring is the starting season of sowing crops and vegetables, so including rabbits into the mix does make sense. Similarly, the egg is one of the most well-known Easter symbols – its nature is commonly used to explain resurrection and return to life. You may now ask why these eggs were decorated as colouring seem to cover up their natural character? Well, the answer is quite simple as bold colours are easier to notice when the hunt begins and, of course, the metaphor of life is colourful.
Is it Still About Easter?
Easter and its symbols have been inseparable from one another for more than a few hundred years now. Little did people back then knew that one day their ideas and traditions would bring fortunes to sellers and businesses all around the world! Easter now as, any other national or international holiday, is commercialised and thematically put on every little piece of food or garment to sell it and make a profit from what once was a natural and pure celebration. From a marketing perspective, anything with Easter symbols sells very quickly, leaving only a handful of items to put on sale after the holiday ends. As we once talked about putting more effort into gifting and choosing more natural, hand-made presents, we often receive cute greeting cards complemented by edible bunnies or chocolate eggs – well, demand gives birth to supply.
While Easter chocolates are tasty, there are many ways to come back to our roots and highlight Easter’s original symbolic purpose – rebirth. Today we will share with you one fantastic recipe to bake in preparation for Easter with the hope of achieving a unique therapeutic effect and taking the stress off your shoulders – the recipe is so easy! Besides, we cannot maintain close physical contact with people we love this year again; we responsible picked out the recipe, which is perfect for baking treats, packing, and sending them for our family and friends to try.
Biomedicanna’s team wishes you a lovely Easter! Stay safe!
Vegan and Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients (12 servings):
• 60 g of coconut/olive/vegetable
• 200 ml of unsweetened plant-based milk
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 8 tablespoons of maple syrup (or any other sweetener)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• 150 g of ground almonds
• 150 g of gluten-free flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of baking soda
• 100 g of fresh/frozen blueberries
Cooking instructions:
• preheat the oven;
• place the coconut oil into a bowl and melt – skip the step if using other types of oil – add milk, lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, and almonds;
• sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix – do not be afraid to add more milk if the mixture is too dry;
• add fresh or frozen blueberries and gently fold them in – if you use frozen ones, take them out of the freezer seconds before this step as it stops them from colouring the batter blue;
• divide the batter into equal parts of muffin baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius – eat while hot, freeze if baked too much and enjoy!