April is one of my favorite months. The arrival of spring, with all its intense color and fragrances in the plant world, make it a month hard to ignore: so much beauty around us, so many pleasing activities outside to make us thankful to have survived another winter. April is overload month when it comes to setting out the new annuals and perennials, and it is a month of great optimism.

Birthdays have taught me to plan a little better with all those beautiful spring bedding plants, for they all need care throughout their growing season. After years of saying to myself, “not so many plants this year,” I am always adamant in the spring about planting lots of extras. And I have managed to cut back from say, fifteen years ago, but a visit to Badges Nursery, just up the road, or Buds and Blooms in Wesson, MS, really tests my resolve.

Easter is April 20th this year, and though the rabbits and eggs and chocolates have tried to dominate the holiday for us, we Christians know that the Easter holiday, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, is the most sacred on our yearly calendar. I don›t remember if I›ve ever done a column for Bluffs and Bayous on the reason for rabbits and eggs in our Christian celebration or not, but I have written on this before, trying to explain the connection.

The early church fathers incorporated pagan celebrations in with Christian celebratory occasions to win over the populace to the new religion, back in the day. They had learned that the old religions being mixed in with Christianity made it more palatable to the masses, and much more likely to be accepted without a fuss. Oestrewas a goddess of spring and rebirth, eggs a symbol of fertility and life, and the resurrection was Christianity’s own celebration of eternal life through the raising of Christ from the tomb. In their early fathers’ minds, why not combine the three, if it meant that people would begin to understand the importance of the resurrection better if they were allowed some of their old ways to tag along.

Now, understand this, all you theologians and historians out there who may scoff at my humble words: this is just a synopsis of what happened, in laymen’s terms. There are learned works on the early pagan religions and their introduction and confrontations with Christianity that are very enlightening in their explanations. If a person is interested, he can look up these articles and books and become more educated about the beginnings of Christianity as it spread west, across Europe.

Two non-religious traditions in the South about Easter are embedded in my mind, and no amount of modernity can change them. One is the rule about white shoes and white dresses: under no circumstance can a person wear a white dress (except a bride) or white shoes before Easter Sunday. It is not done. Period. Anyone who breaks the rule is lacking in training in social mores and will be looked upon as a heathen. I did not make this rule, but it was placed in my head at any early age. No white shoes before Easter meant no white shoes. I have no idea why it was so taboo, but it definitely was. Notice I am typing “was” because the masses break this rule all the time now, and when I see them walking around in white shoes before Easter, I know that they did not have a mama and grandmothers like me.

The other not before Easter tradition concerned going barefoot. As little children, we longed for the day when we could shuck our shoes and run in the grass as barefoot as our pagan ancestors did (the ones who believed in Oestre and eggs, etc.). But you didn’t dare take those shoes off before Easter, or you would catch pneumonia or something equally potentially fatal. Even if Easter was in March, and the wind chill put the temperature in the 40’s, we were going to go barefoot that afternoon, just because it was safe and legal to do so.

I can remember Mama warning us on warm spring, pre-Easter days, to not take off those shoes, and if we did, she would know. We would get out of her range, take the shoes and socks off, play in the abundant clover, then re-cover our feet before going home.

Our little children minds did not realize that she wasn’t relying on distance vision, but on evidence presented up close. When it came bath time, three barefoot children would have green stained feet, a dead giveaway to our disobedience. To keep us from catching pneumonia, we would have to drink some dreadful dose of something that almost made it not worth going barefoot again when we got a chance. None of us ever got pneumonia for our disobedience, but the lectures and medicine were almost as bad.

This must not be a rule anymore, either, for I have seen barefoot people in town before Easter is even thought of. I figured that they must have been making a statement of some kind of rebellious nature, to go barefoot on the germy, nasty streets of town. You know, the “look at me I am such an unconventional rebel” sort. While I might go barefoot in my house before getting out for the day, I don’t go barefoot outside at all, either before or after Easter, with one exception. A patch of clover is still irresistible. That cool, green, lovely plant just feels so good against bare skin that it’s hard to ignore even now, decades after being put on a going barefoot schedule by Mama and Mimi.

I wish a Blessed Easter for all our readers. May you enjoy your chocolate, white shoes, and walks in clover, but remember, first of all, it is the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave His life that we might have eternal life.