Jonathon Aube wrote the following essay in 1994 when he was 10 years old. The essay won the $75 first prize in a contest sponsored by the Chatham Business Association. Jonathon is now a welder working in Saint John, NB. Submitted by Jonathon’s Nanny, Joan Cripps of Chatham.
Every Easter about a week before Easter all my mother’s family gather at the camp for the “Great Easter Egg Hunt.” All the parents buy Easter eggs and they all go out together and hide them all around the camp. The big kids help the little kids by being their partners, and everybody has lots of fun in the big search.
After all the eggs are found we go into the camp and put the eggs in the middle of the floor. Nanny and Poppy help us divide them up evenly so it is fair for all the kids. After this is finished we all gather around the table for a big meal that the parents have made for us.
Nanny and Poppy say Grace and thank God for our families for being able to bring us all together for the day to celebrate the fun part of Easter. We know that the next few days we will be thinking more about the real reason for Easter, about Jesus dying on the cross because of our sins, and rising from the dead and going into heaven.
On Good Friday we all go to church and say the Stations of the Cross, after that we go to Nanny and Poppy’s and have some fish chowder because we do not eat meat on Good Friday.
Nanny and Poppy have a big family because they have 13 children and 38 grandchildren, but they always like to see everybody around the holidays. It makes a lot of fun to be around the relatives at Easter.
On Easter Saturday we don’t do too much to celebrate the Easter holidays, but when we are getting ready for bed our dad reads to us about Jesus and how he died for us. So we can go to heaven when we die.
When we were small our parents used to write a letter to the Easter Bunny. We would leave a carrot and a glass of milk out for him then we would go to bed. We would have a hard time to go to sleep because we were so, so excited about what we were going to get in the morning.
On Easter morning whoever wakes up first gets everyone else up. We go down the hall into the front room. The Easter Hunt begins. We know the special places to look now, since most years the chocolates, baskets and eggs are hidden in the same place. There always seems to be some new places though.
Mom makes us a special Easter breakfast and then we go to church. We meet a lot of relatives and friends there, and that makes it a fun Mass.
In the afternoon we go to my father’s sister’s house. All of our relatives go here too, and we get to have another fun day with everyone.
Finally that night when we are getting ready for bed we talk about our day and why Easter is such an important religious holiday, and why family and traditions are so important.
The reason Easter means so much to me is because it gives us a chance to talk about God and why He died on the cross for us, and then He rose from the dead so we could go to heaven. Easter Sunday is a day most families try to be together for the holiday. I think family is so important. I think this makes a very special time.
That was beautiful. Really good thinking for a young child. The way I figure it he must be in his 20s now. I hope he still enjoys Easter as he did when he was a child. I especially liked the part when they pooled the eggs to make it fair for all the kids. What a lesson that must have been!!!
This is the best Easter story I have ever read-what a great loving family – how they love, share, and respect each other. What a great way to keep all the family together. And greater yet is that they honour the Lord both on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. May God richly bless you all!
Wow! What a great story! Reminds me how important and valuable traditions and faith are for children (and adults too!)–a source from which to draw comfort and joy from as the years go by!