Easter ties are for the birds

As Easter approached I raided my stock of consignment finds to see how my children's springtime wardrobe was faring. Not great, but I did rummage up this little number, which I thought would do nicely for Ellie for an Easter dress if the weather was nice enough (it was; we reached 60 degrees even).



But poor Charlie. Still at an age where he outgrows his wardrobe every couple of months, and so big I don't dare buy too far ahead for him since he might just outgrow it before it't the right season to wear it anyway.



Determined not to leave him out, but realizing I had nothing Easter-y for him, I decided to make him some ties. I made this one first because I knew I would take pictures of it, and I knew that one day he would see these pictures and ask, "Why in the world did you put a mustard-colored with teal polka dots  tie on me when I was a baby?" The more conservative striped pattern just won't have that effect, and everybody needs to have that experience of being dressed in something that's a little trendy as a baby, but totally ridiculous when you're a teenager.





While I was working on it last night, I was listening to Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. (The novel is about 800 pages long, and I have to have it finished for my book club by April 9th.) The characters were talking about preparations for an Easter ball and how they all needed to have some new article of clothing to wear (preferably a bonnet or dress, but worse case gloves or a handkerchief--at least something that would show) or else they would be in ill favor with the birds. ?!?!? I know. I had to back that one up too. I was re-threading a bobbin at the time, so wasn't sure I heard that right.

I looked it up later. This is what Wikipedia taught me. If you didn't have new homespun at Easter, then moths and crickets would eat your old things, and rooks would nest around your home. Then there's the old Irish saying, "For Christmas, food and drink; for Easter, new clothes." Not super catchy, is it? Maybe it sounds better in Gaelic. And then there's the 15th-century proverb from Poor Robin's Almanack [sic] (yep, Ben Franklin didn't think up Poor Richard's all by himself), "At Easter let your clothes be new,/ Or else be sure you will it rue." Kind of some verbal gymnastics just to get to rhyme scheme right; could have just said it's bad luck not to wear something new on Easter.



So, turns out all this hoopla about Easter finery is based in old European superstition (I'd like to see some department stores set their Easter marketing campaigns based on this). But really, what of our silly traditions aren't really pagan or superstition anyway? The date for Easter itself is determined not by any religious calendar. It is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  I think it's time we just picked a day and settled it. Worked for Christmas. Second Sunday in April. Every year. Done.

At any rate, Charlie didn't seem too thrilled with all the evil rooks I was warding off for him and all the good luck I was getting for him this coming year. Not to mention all the homespun goods of his that I saved from crickets. Or, at least, he wasn't too happy about getting his picture taken.