We’re in the midst of Spring Festival – eggs are prettily displayed in baskets and on shelves, a pot of pink mums has cheered up the kitchen table, and painted ceramic bunnies peek out from amongst the houseplants. There are lemon cookies we decorated with coloured honey glaze, depicting nascent animals: Chicks, Ducklings, Bunnies, and Eggs. Yesterday morning we awoke and coloured eggs with wax and dyes. Traditional foods include sweetly spiced, fruited rolls, fresh fruit salads with yogurt, and feasts. Tonight we had prime rib, cooked with garlic and the bounty of roasted winter vegetables. A reminder of what we leave behind as we enter spring.

Feast days continue tomorrow and the following day. This is a four-day festival and then all returns back to normal. So, we are halfway through. We give each other gifts of chocolate and garden plants. Today I was given a gold garden fork and shovel. The children raced to decipher clues until baskets of summer toys and candy were uncovered. In the morning our four year old will awake to learn that three shimmering gold eggs have been hidden in the house, and a search will commence while I make pancakes.

As I painted the three eggs gold and poured glitter on them, I thought about King Midas and his beloved daughter transformed to a statue as she embraced him. And of the golden goose and all her ridiculous followers. Of the young, good daughter in Mother Holle who is blessed for her thoughtfullness by a shower of golden coins that stick to her body, and the mixed additional blessing of gold coins dropping from her mouth with every word she spoke. This in sharp contrast to her poor sisters who were rewarded for their selfishness by accursed, sticky pitch over their persons and toads that leapt from their mouths with every word they spoke. Another Grimm – a short one, of the prodigal son who comes home to eat and is surprised to see a giant toad on the table. After one more final, cruel word to his father, the son is punished. The toad leaps onto his face and sits there, forevermore, eating one of every two bites the son tries to eat.

All hail the Easter Bunny and lunar festivals.