By: Onome Usiohen
I am and always have been raised Christian and celebrated Easter.
This year I got to celebrate Easter not only as a Christian, but as an Christian in America
America has many traditions that are different from the Nigerian ones that I am used to, but American Easter traditions are by far my favorite.
I always loved celebrating Easter in Nigeria, but this year I got a whole different look of what Easter looks like in America with my newfound second family.
When the week of Easter was approaching my Aunty invited me to spend Easter with them. In my head I was thinking, “Sure, I guess.” My plan for Easter was to watch a virtual church service this year due to the Covid 19 pandemic, but I thought “why not go I am not doing anything else.”
So I changed my plans and headed for her house around 10:30 on Easter morning.
When I got there, they had placed a bunch of colorful plastic eggs all over their backyard. My two cousins and I were handed baskets to collect the eggs.
To be honest I was confused by the whole idea. I thought, “Why do my cousins want to collect so many of these plastic eggs?” As I was thinking this I went to pick up an egg and it accidentally opened, I found that it had a treat in it.
After this I realized that , “Oh my gosh all these eggs have something in them, no wonder my cousins wanted them so badly!”
My aunt and uncle were saying, “Hurry up Onome! Get some eggs!”
After the egg hunt, I was given another big basket, this one was filled with so many awesome things that I couldn’t think anything but, “WOW!”
In that moment I looked around and I saw a celebration of love, laughter and family and it was such an incredible feeling. Easter to me has always been a day to celebrate Jesus, but in America they celebrate Jesus and celebrate what I saw as a celebration of Jesus and life.
The day continued. We talked, we laughed, and we ate good food.
Just when I thought the day was almost over another family tradition started. Each year since the grandma in cousin’s family was little, the whole family would make an Easter bunny shaped cake and decorate the cake together.
It was something simple, but it was so much fun, and the cake tasted even better. This year they decided to add a new family tradition which was to start their fire pit and make s’mores.
I didn’t even know what a s’more was, but they are so good. We ate our treats and just continued to tell stories and talk and laugh together.
This whole day had made my heart so warm. As the day came to an end I thought to myself, “Wow! What an amazing day filled with joy for Jesus and time as a family.”
The whole day changed my experience of Easter, and It made me wonder what other countries do for traditions on Easter and other holidays? Seeing the American way of celebrating Easter changed my emotions and feelings towards what was now going to be my new tradition, my own new American tradition of Easter.
So far I have experienced a Nigerian and American Easter, both have the same thought behind them, but such a different way of celebrating it. I am so excited and happy to continue to learn the different traditions of the world, but for now I will say, “Celebrating my first Easter the American way was really amazing!”