At this time many parents and people who just like to make Easter Baskets are busy right now creating a basket. I have already made four for friends and family. We’ll talk about those later.
On a recent Monday evening members of Delta Sigma Theta gathered at the Martin Luther King Elementary School on the North Side of Pittsburgh and put together 27 Easter dinner baskets for deserving families. Imogene Hines of Delta Sigma Theta said DST realized that there is much attention given to candy and sweets so we pledged to address hunger deficit in Black families by offering a full family meal instead. We hope that others will follow our lead and adopt other families in need at local schools. We addressed the hunger issue twice in 2015, once with Easter Dinners and once with the holiday Turkey Dinners.
We will have mac and cheese, green beans, sweet potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, jiffy corn bread, yellow cake mix, chocolate frosting, and a coupon for $15 to buy their choice of turkey, ham, or chicken. Each bag will have a card from our sorority. We thought it would be easier for those catching public transportation to have a bag instead of a heavy box.
The history of the Easter basket is an interesting one. The use of Easter baskets developed from the more modern symbolism of Christianity. Christians celebrate Easter because it signifies Christ’s resurrection. Lent, which lasts for 40 days before Easter, begins the day after Fat Tuesday, which is a festive day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. During Lent, many Christians sacrifice the consumption of food and other items until Easter. The tradition of feasting on a large Easter meal symbolizes the end of Lenten fasting. In earlier times, this Easter feast was brought in large baskets to church to be blessed by priests. Thereby, the link between a religious holiday and Easter treats was formed. The blessing of the contemporary Easter basket in Catholic churches today is similar to the ancient Jews who brought in their first seedlings for a temple blessing. Members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. will be hosting their Regional Conference in August here in Pittsburgh. Social Service is one of their program thrusts. DST teamed with the School Social Worker and Principal of Martin Luther King Elementary on the North Side to identify and deliver the gift of Easter Dinner Baskets to 27 families.
Now back to my baskets. I can write about it now because my family will not see this story since they live out of town. Everyone in my immediate family gets a basket. Oh I feel like Oprah. You get a basket and you get a basket. My great nephew gets a dinosaur basket with candy and toys and a pair of sunglasses. I have a basketball basket for my brother in law complete with golf balls and coffee mugs from his hometown.
I love what the Deltas’ did for over two-dozen families, that is what the holidays should be about.
(Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com)
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