The LuLac Edition #3747, April 1st, 2018

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our "Maybe I'm Amazed" logo

EASTER EDITION

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that in Texas there is such a thing as an Easter Eve fire. It originated in there and  how it got to the Lone Star State is anyone’s guess. But the children are told the Easter Bunny is burning wild flowers to make dyes for the eggs to color.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that there are certain parents in the U.S. that have Easter Egg hunts but hide vegetables instead of chocolate in the eggs.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..but not really that a bunny laying chocolate eggs came from Germany in the 1700s. That tradition made its way across the Ocean as part of the secular celebration of Easter. 

 MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that the Egg painting custom is traditionally known as “Pysanka” continues to be a source of both hope and delight after weary winters. The reason for painting Easter eggs in bright colors is that they represent the bright sunlight of spring time.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….but not that the egg is believed to be the symbol of life and rebirth since early times of Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……in the Greek Orthodox culture, Easter eggs are traditionally painted red.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……the inaugural chocolate eggs recipes were made in Europe during the nineteenth century.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED.... that the Easter’s most valuable eggs were hand crafted in the 1880’s. Made by the great goldsmith Peter Carl Faberge, these baubles were commissioned by Czar Alexander III of Russia as gifts for his wife, Czarina Maria. The first Faberge egg, presented in 1886, measured two and a half inches long and had a simple exterior.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..but knew that the most famously known Easter event took place in the year 1878. That was the year President Hayes and his wife Lucy officially opened the White House grounds to the children for egg rolling on Easter Monday. Since then, this event is held each year. Hayes, a one term Congressman who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College, had the first typewriter and phone installed in the White House. The phone was installed by Alexander Graham Bell and Hayes could call only one other entity, the Treasury Department. Hayes was quoted as saying "It's a great invention but who'd want to use one?" Well, 100 years later, in 1877,  there was a song about not only the phone, but "The Telephone Man".  And the song wasn't about Mr. Bell.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that Americans spend 2 billion dollars on Easter goodies. They consume 7.1 billion pounds of Easter treats each year.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…but not surprised that on the California-Oregon border, the “Easter Lily Capital of the World,” they produce 95 percent of all bulbs grown in the world for the potted Easter lily market.