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Easter… you don’t need us to explain what Easter is, do you? No, thought not. You know it’s a ‘moveable feast’, and you know that phrase has nothing to do with drive-thru or bargain buckets, right? You know all about the Christian tradition of Good Friday, Easter Sunday, the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  

You probably even know that the date of Easter in the West is determined by first day of the full moon that occurs on or following the spring equinox on 21st March (although you could be forgiven for thinking some blindfolded priest in Rome just sticks a pin somewhere in the ‘March’ and ‘April’ pages of the calendar to decide the date). 

Easter actually has pagan and Jewish roots, as well as its obvious Christian association. We know from St Bede, an English historian and scholar from the seventh and eighth centuries, that Easter has partial origins in Teutonic mythology. ‘Eostre’ was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, who was celebrated at the vernal equinox and to whom the month of April was dedicated. 

It’s likely the term ‘Eostre’ had an influence on the Christians who chose the name Easter for their own spring-time festival, hoping to ease the culture shock for any potential pagan converters. But why does Easter fall in the spring? 

Well, that’s down to the Jewish festival of Passover. Celebrated during spring in Nisan (the first month of the Hebrew lunar year) to commemorate the Israelites’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt, it was around the time of Passover that Christ was crucified – so Easter is celebrated at the same time of year. 

Easter Symbols

The Feast of Easter as recognised by the Christian church was well established by the second century. However, some of the Easter traditions and symbols we recognise today can be traced much further back. 

For instance, the association of the egg with spring time was recognised by various cultures in antiquity, including the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, with the egg symbolising new life. 

In medieval times the egg took on a more Christian theme at Easter, representing the Resurrection. Some churches even held egg throwing ceremonies, during which the priest would throw an egg, which would in turn be thrown among the congregation and whoever held the egg when the church bell began to ring would get to keep it – a bit like pass the parcel, only with a bit less of an element of surprise and the potential for more mess. 

As for the good old Easter Bunny, the association of rabbits with spring also dates back to antiquity – they were symbols of fertility in ancient Egypt and later Europe. The Easter Bunny as we recognise it today though can be traced back to Germany in the 17th century, with writings referring to an Easter rabbit known as the ‘Osterhase’. Edible likenesses of rabbits have been made at Easter time for around 200 years. 

Easter bonnets go back to the days when people would dress down for Lent and then wear their finest clothes at Easter when the self-imposed period of austerity was over. 

If you're planning your own celebration over the holiday, DotComGiftShop have an excellent range of Easter decorations to choose from.

Want to really wow your mum on Mother’s Day? Want to show her what a clever boy or girl you’ve grown into? Then impress her with our five fantastic mother-related facts… 

1. The World’s oldest mother is believed to be Omkari Panwar from India, who gave birth to a twin boy and girl in July 2009. She claimed to be 70, although she has no birth certificate to confirm her age. 

2. Britain's oldest mother is Elizabeth Adeney, from Suffolk, who gave birth to a son in May 2009 at the age of 66. The wealthy businesswoman travelled to Ukraine for fertility treatment. 

3. History’s youngest recorded mother was Lina Medina, aged just five years and seven months when she delivered a six-and-a-half pound boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939. Her son was raised as her brother and found out that Lina was his mother when he was ten. 

4. The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia (her name is unknown). Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 pregnancies, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. All but two of her children survived infancy. 

5. The highest number of children born to one mother in modern times is 64, according to the claims of Leontina Albina from San Antonio, Chile, although only 55 of them are officially documented.

If you want to wow your mom with a top-notch present as well as this top-notch trivia, DotComGiftShop have a selection of excellent Mothers Day gifts.

 

 

All mums want for Mother’s Day is a hug (and don’t bother with the chocolates and flowers) 

According to a DotComGiftShop survey of over 200 mothers, the one thing above all others that mums want on Mother’s Day is a loving hug. 

Choosing from a list of traditional Mother’s Day presents and gestures, 52% per cent of mums indicated that they’d most like to receive ‘a cuddle’, making it the most popular choice by far. Equally staggering was that ‘chocolates’ didn’t receive a solitary first-choice vote. 

Although not nearly as popular as a hug, ‘a card’ was the second favourite on the list, with 26% of the vote, followed by ‘a personally chosen unusual gift’ with 10%, and ‘lots of attention’ with 9%. 

Like chocolates, though, ‘flowers’ proved less popular than you might imagine, finishing well down the list with just 2% of the votes, just behind ‘breakfast in bed’ with 3%. 

And further evidence of the unpopularity of flowers was backed up in another part of the survey where mums were asked to describe the worst Mother’s Day presents they had ever been given: ‘Last minute flowers from the corner shop and no card’, ‘petrol station flowers’ and ‘garage forecourt flowers’ were among the notable entries with a floral theme. 

But looking at some of the other ‘worst presents’ from the survey, you have to wonder what was going through the minds of the people who thought their mums would be pleased with ‘a plastic bird feeder’, ‘a wheelbarrow’, ‘a fluffy duster’ and ‘an old rusty bicycle’. 

But one conclusion that really stands out from the survey is that it really is the thought that counts. One mum sums it up perfectly by saying: “Being a mum I am very pleased to receive anything, especially a cuddle - the worst would be if they dared to forget!” 

Here are the full results for the first-choice gifts from the survey: 

52% A cuddle  

26% A card 

10% A personally chosen unusual gift 

9% Lots of attention 

8% Weekend away 

3% Breakfast in bed 

3% Dinner in a restaurant 

2% Home-made dinner 

2% Flowers 

0% Chocolates

For those wanting to back up their hugs with something more material, DotComGiftShop has a wide range of Mother’s Day gifts online.

Some folk baulk at the perceived commercialisation of Mother’s Day and prefer to pay tribute to their mums with a simple card.

Whether your card accompanies a present or not, it has to transmit the right message and a simple ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ smacks of laziness. 

So if you’re stuck for ideas as to what to write in your card, you can take inspiration from these famous mother-related quotes – or simply plagiarise them and tell your mum you thought of them yourself… 

 

1. God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers – Jewish proverb 

2. A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take – Cardinal Mermillod 

3. There was never a great man who had not a great mother – Oliver Schreiner 

4. A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie – Tenneva Jordan 

5. The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness – Honoré de Balzac 

6. An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy – Spanish Proverb 

7. The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven – William Goldsmith Brown 

8. A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them – Victor Hugo 

9. One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters – George Herbert 

10. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother – Abraham Lincoln

Don't forget there's still time to get an excellent Mother's Day present to accompany you're carefully constructed card, at DotComGiftShop!