In our family, there are a few traditions we follow to celebrate the last day of the Triduum which is Holy Saturday. Some of these traditions actually have a very religious significance.
Take for instance, new Easter clothes. This tradition came from the part of the Baptismal ceremony where one was given a new white garment to wear for its newness and its whiteness both signifying purity. Therefore, wearing new or special Easter clothes isn't just commercialism, it is done to celebrate our New Life in Christ just as our Baptism did.
Even the Easter bunny has a religious significance. It is a symbol of God's plan for His creatures to "be fruitful and multiply". The Easter eggs the bunny carries in a basket represents Christians carrying the message of Christ into the world.
Today is the day we decorate the eggs we boiled yesterday. The Easter egg is a symbol of the Resurrection. The shell represents the tomb which could not contain the Resurrected Lord. The chick which `bursts forth' from its lifeless shell is a metaphor for the mystery of the Christ's Resurrection. Filling baskets with colored Easter eggs is a nearly universal custom in Christian countries, and there are nearly as many traditional ways to dye and decorate eggs as there are ethnic groups. From the very elaborate and expensive Easter eggs made by the jeweler Fabergé for the Russian Czar in the nineteenth century, to the intricately etched Pysanky eggs of the Ukraine and similarly distinctive egg-decorating customs of eastern Europe, to the simple (if messy) kitchen-table food-coloring dyed eggs most Americans know, the Easter egg is revered as a symbol of the Resurrection.
Holy Saturday also includes the blessing of the water. The water is a sign of purification and of baptism. Holy water is water that has been blessed is a sacred sign. Water blessed during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday is used for baptisms and other blessings. Upon entering a church, Roman Catholic churches have a font or basin so that the person who enters the church can dip their fingers in the blessed water and make the sign of the cross as a symbol of purification.
Our family not only dyes our Easter eggs today but we make our Easter bread which is served on Easter Sunday. I remember when I was younger that we would bake our colored eggs into the bread dough. I personally have never done that since I always had an aversion to having the dye in the eggs being a part of the bread. Instead I would make a standard yeast bread but instead make rolls out of the bread. Traditionally we would have ham on Easter Sunday along with cappelletti but this year instead we are going to a restaurant. We would also take the dyed eggs and make deviled eggs out of them. My husband and I learned a long time ago not to hide the real eggs since we would seem to forget where one would be hidden and a few months later, we would find it via our noses. Instead we switched to plastic eggs for hiding and the dyed eggs for eating.
