It's officially Eastertime as the Cadbury Bunny has made an appearance.

The Ground Hog seeing his shadow, or not signifies what the weather will be for the next 6 weeks. There is also something that makes it officially Eastertime at least in my eyes. It's the Cadbury Bunny and he has made his initial appearance for 2021. Since 1984 there have been a variety of television commercials promoting Cadbury creme-filled eggs that are only around in the spring. Today is February 15, there is snow on the ground, the temperature is near freezing in my neck of the woods and warm weather seems a million miles away.

Be that as it may, the Cadbury Bunny has arrived and he is my assurance that warm weather, spring, and Easter are on the way. I was watching the CBS soap The Young and the Restless which airs from 12:30-1:30 PM. During the first commercial break, I heard the familiar clucking of the Bunny who sounds like a hen laying eggs. At first, I was stunned because it was a chilly, dreary day and when the Cadbury Bunny made his appearance and I was overjoyed.

Easter 2021 is roughly 6 weeks away and will arrive on Sunday, April 4. The origin of Easter lies within the attempts of early Christians to shift the focus away from celebrations of the Spring Equinox. They thought that they could proselytize and increase their ranks by getting the "pagans" to stop their idol worship and the orgies and rituals that accompanied the observance of the end of winter and the beginning of the warm weather.

The Easter Bunny is said to have first arrived in America with German immigrants in the 170os. He is alleged to have derived from the worship of the goddess Eostre. This is many Christians today say Resurrection Sunday and no longer use the word Easter. This way they keep their focus on the day they believe Christ rose from the dead. Meanwhile, the secular world is making big bucks from the holiday. In 2017 it was estimated that 18.4 billion dollars was spent on Easter candy.

The coronavirus has probably put a dent in what will be spent this year as well as changing values. Decades ago church-going people purchased new Easter clothing. Children especially would be decked out in new suits and dresses which gave retailers big business. Church attendance is down because of COVID-19 and there is also an increase in churches where casual clothing is the norm and not traditional "Sunday go to meeting attire."

In spite of these changes, the one thing that remains constant has been the purchase of Easter candy. Depending on the weather, communities and churches will host Easter egg hunts where hundreds of children will run around trying to fill their boxes, buckets, and bags with the candy, plastic, or dyed real eggs that they find.

Initially, German children made actual nests for the Easter Bunny to lay chocolate eggs and this evolved into the woven baskets that American children use today. When I was a child we painted pictures in school for Easter and took them home on the Thursday prior to Easter Sunday, because school was out on Good Friday and Easter Monday. We woke up on Easter Sunday to find chocolate eggs, jellybeans, and small toys in our baskets or buckets. On the following Monday, there would be an egg hunt at church and we would get more goodies.

The Cadbury Bunny commercials bring back memories of fun days gone by. I can recall egg hunts that were given by my cousins and our dogs would run with us all over the hillsides as we hunted for our spoils. The fun part was biting into the chewy, gooey, chocolate eggs and other candy. I am thankful to the Cadbury company for this seasonal reminder each year. I will enjoy every airing of this ad until it disappears again until next Easter.