I know that people of all faiths (and even some with little faith...) read this site and I love and welcome them all. But regardless of liturgical allegiance, I think everyone will find insight and maybe even a little humor in my own personal Easter memories.

First of all, to set the current stage, I woke this morning and realized that it was Palm Sunday and it's only March 16th! How is that possible? That would mean that the following Sunday was Easter and everyone knows that Easter is in April. Always has been, always will be. Clearly, the calendar must be wrong. So I quickly wrote a breezy missive to DayMinder pointing out that I had found a blatant mistake. I made my cogent and eloquent argument that it was way too early for Easter week and they should be more careful in the creation of their usually invaluable appointment books. Self-satisfied, I waited, arms folded and full of myself, for their humble reply. What I got instead was a call from my calendar-conscious sister, Patsy, patiently pointing out the error of my ways. Don't you hate self-possessed sisters? I feel like Linus to her Lucy. Good Grief, indeed...

Easter, I was dutifully informed, was indeed March 23rd. Fine. Well, then don't blame me if sunrise services will be held with frost and parkas! Or if extraordinary Easter bonnets are going to be displayed in a halo of snowflakes. Or if the annual egg hunt might need to employ snowshovels. Needless to say, that baked Virginia Ham is going to need to be heated extra long here in Turkey Hollow.

Whew. Now that I got that out of my system, I wanted you all to know that this is what I learned from assiduous research, so you can fully appreciate this early Easter.

The Easter holiday is determined by the lunar calendar created by the Hebrew people for Passover. Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Got that? It would seem we would need an Old Farmer's Almanac and a slide rule to figure out when that damn Easter Bunny is coming.

Now, here is what caught my attention: This Easter is a rare one. You would have to be 95 years old or older to have ever experienced it this early. The next time this faith-based holiday will surface so early will be 277 years from now! So wake up and know that this is the only time in your life that you will have to shovel snow while sporting your huge bonnet!

For me, historically, Easter was a great holiday.

We New Jersey Mixners would often gather the eggs from the barn the day before. I would gingerly put the gathered booty in my pockets and, being me, invariably become lost in my thoughts. As I contemplated the nuances of the world, I would become tired and sit down....on all the eggs I had collected from our hardworking chickens. Covered in egg yolk, redfaced, I would clean up as my brother or sister would complete the task so we would have eggs to dye and hide for the egg hunt with the relatives.

We could count on the Easter Bunny to hide the Easter baskets -- loaded with marshmallow rabbits, huge decorated chocolate eggs, jelly beans of all colors and several bright yellow candy chicks. The mystery always was why the Easter Bunny hid the damn baskets in the first place - causing my sugar-crazed brother, sister and I to run all over the damn house in the early morning search. Would someone please explain to me what putting an Easter Basket loaded with goodies in the coat closet had to do with the holiday? For the life of me, I can find a decent reference in the Bible.

Speaking of the Bible, then the Mixner family would be off to Sunrise services with me singing loudly - and badly - but nevertheless rejoicing mostly because I knew as soon as the service was over we would head to the Church Hall for a Sunrise Breakfast! Pancakes seemed never to stop flipping and the homemade maple syrup always melted in my mouth. Talk about a spiritual holiday! After the feast, we would pile back into the car and head home to gorge on our candy delights.

The combination of the chocolate and maple syrup would have me on a bonafide sugar high the rest of the day - there was no way to calm me down. As my parents took Brownie snapshots of the three of us in our Easter finery I couldn't stop sticking out my tongue, ruining, much to my parents dismay, every picture in our photo album.

Fast-forward to this year, I am worried about two things: A) Who will shovel the walk and B) will the Easter Bunny will be clever and hide the baskets in the deer meadow? But no sugar and no egg yolks covering my pants this year......at least I hope not.