Yesterday was Easter and I had the privilege of having two of my daughters with me for the holiday.  My former partner, now BFF had the other.  When we exchanged our Easter plans, stories and photos, it occurred to me how diverse they were.  I remember my BFF once telling me that she had a white friend over for dinner and they had steak and baked potatoes.  After dinner, her friend told her she was really surprised at the menu because it was just “regular food.”  Turns out, because my BFF was black, the assumption was that the menu would include fried chicken or chit’lins or other “black food.” That still knocks me out.  The things in people’s heads never ceases to amaze me. How little we know about cultures others than our own.  Even ones we may come into daily contact with and think we know.

I thought about that yesterday as I thought about how varied my tribe’s Easter experiences were.  

At my house, where my nephew was also visiting, my Le Cordon Bleu Grande Diplome-having, Le Cordon Bleu-teacher daughter cooked up a New England Boiled Seafood Dinner, though we are in the south.  I guess you could have easily have called it a “Low Country Boil or a Louisiana Seafood Boil.  She loved the idea of throwing in the big pot the red potatoes, corn on the cob, shrimp, Snow crab legs, crawfish, sausage, limes and Old Bay seasoning, then having us enjoy the cheese and wine she and her sister bought the day before at a local wine tasting event, while the pot turned into a delicious dish. She also served garlic butter braised King crab legs.  Yummy.  Later, at her request, I made Sherried Tea Biscuits, which we ate while watching movies.  The latter is their favorite thing to do.  The whole event was far from the traditional American Easter dinner with ham.  Of course, my grandkids, who were with their dad for the weekend, came over to hunt for Easter eggs and get their chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps.  🙂

My BFF and third daughter, on the other hand, outdid us in regional food diversity. They went to the house of my daughter’s girlfriend’s sister and her boyfriend.  They were met there by the parents of the sisters.  One of the parents is Jamaican and the other Indian, so my daughter’s girlfriend is a mix of the two, with dark blonde dreadlocks down to her behind.  Their family had never dyed Easter eggs or had an Easter egg hunt before.  Though my daughter is 26, she still loves to hunt for Easter eggs and please don’t make the mistake of getting between her and a hidden egg she has sighted.  Girlfriend, with her competitive nature, she will mow you down to get that egg, and apologize later.  

My BFF took eggs stuffed with lottery tickets to the dinner party and hid them all around the lusciously tropical Florida backyard.  The host, my daughter’s girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend, had also never done an Easter egg hunt and didn’t want to because he did not think he would like it.  He ended up loving it and finding the most eggs.  A great time was had by all as they ate Jamaican and Indian food and participated in their first Easter egg dying and hunt.

Talk about mixing it up!  My southern household of black folk had an Easter dinner of a New England Seafood Boil, Garlic Butter Braised crab legs and Sherried Tea Biscuits later, while my third daughter had Jamaican and Indian food and introduced a culturally mixed family to the age-old American tradition of dying Easter eggs and hunting for them.

Talk about living diversity!  Love it!