Julie Fison
Easter is a time to reflect on sacrifice, forgiveness and rebirth. To catch up with family and friends, to organise an Easter egg hunt, or maybe it’s just an opportunity to put your feet up and overindulge in chocolate. We asked the team at SheSociety what Easter looks like for them. Love to hear your plans too. Drop us a line in the comments below, or jump onto our socials and tells us what Easter means for you. Whatever you’re up to, we hope you have a safe and happy holiday!
I will be heading to the Noosa River for a few days with the family, which is pretty much how we have been spending Easter for almost two decades. Now, with one son in Canada doing the ski season at Big White and another about to head to London for work, every moment is precious! There’ll be paddle boarding, beach walks, bike rides and sunset drinks. Bliss!
As a child, Easter always involved boating, camping or a combination of both. We’d often be on Moreton Island – swimming, climbing sandhills, eating mince jaffles, and singing country songs around the campfire. And it would often rain. Our canvas tent and sleeping bags would get soaked, our air beds would deflate, but it was all part of the adventure. Ah, the seventies!
I’ll be reading Dervla McTiernan’s new crime thriller What Happened to Nina. I have to admit I’ve already started and it is almost impossible to put down.
Dark chocolate for me please. I’m also happy with a book. Happy Easter!
Michelle Beesley
Our Easter is always spent with the family on the Sunshine Coast. We enjoy soaking up the last days of summer with beach days, family dinners, board games, pool swims and walks along the jetty. It often rains so then it’s books, binging and hot toasted hot cross buns. Easter Sunday sees us up early to check out what the Easter bunny has delivered and to enjoy the Easter egg hunts.
Easter Sunday is enjoying an early lunch with butterflied lamb, salads, barbecue and pavlova plus more chocolates with dessert. My family are amazed at how many Easter songs I know now that my granddaughter is here. Luckily, she is my biggest fan. I miss the Easter hat parades every year from when I was a young teacher to a mum in the audience.
One memorable Easter I sent my son to school with a cork hat, but the corks were replaced with little Easter eggs. By the time the hat parade came around it was just strings. He and his friends had eaten all the chocolate. What did I expect? We still laugh at that memory.
Last Easter a red bellied black snake was found in the yard just as I was serving Easter lunch.
Who knew snake catchers worked at Easter – time here in Australia? That was a pretty memorable one! It’s good to be reminded of those who don’t always have the day off with their family.
We all read over the Easter break. This Easter I’ll be reading a new release book called The Radio Hour by Victoria Purman. It tells the story of Martha Berry, who is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of the army of polite and invisible women of 1956 Sydney who go to work each day and get things done without fuss, fanfare or reward. She works at the national broadcaster, where she’s sent to work as a secretary on a brand-new radio show created in the footsteps of Australia’s longest running show Blue Hills.
Faced with an incompetent staff and actors with big egos, Martha is forced to step in and ghostwrite scripts for As the Sun Sets. This creates mayhem with management but resonates with the serial loyal audience of women listeners. But she can’t keep her secret forever and when she’s threatened with exposure, Martha has to step into the spotlight or stay in the shadows. It’s a book for those who loved Lessons in Chemistry.
Easter is all about good quality milk chocolate for me. I like the small caramello or plain Cadbury eggs. My sons enjoy Crunchie, Mars or Top Deck egg selections. They are also partial to a Bilby or elegant bunny. My husband always likes a block of Toblerone. The ladies of the family adore their delicate Lindt bunnies. When I was young, I was excited by a Humpty Dumpty Egg every single year. I think my son in Texas has the very best Easter surprise. He and his partner have a real life fluffy white bunny as a pet. Happy Easter to all!
Amanda Goddard
I will be spending special time with my family down the coast at my mum and dads. My brother and sister in law made me an aunty 3 years ago and it is like the magic of Easter has come back! My mum never let it go away, however it has sparked up again with two beautiful children now to share it with. There is nothing better than the magic a child brings with imagination! We will have a big seafood feast that we will all chip in and create delicious salads from recipies we have all brought down and dress the table beautifully and sit down to a long lunch on Good Friday with delicious wines to match. Mum will do a beautiful floral arrangement and dress the table beautifully and we will sit down to a slow lunch full of great conversation and love.
Growing up Catholic, Easter was also a time of reflect for our family, it was always the turn of the weather into a cooler climate and sometimes meant a surprise holiday down the beach which was always welcomed. Easter has always been a celebration with immediate family which is special as it allows me to spend valuable time with my mum and dad, siblings and partners and now nephew and niece. As a child I have so many fond memories of my mum helping me make and Easter Bonnet for the Easter Parade.
Every year we would sit down and create something special together. I loved walking down the catwalk at kindy and school knowing how much effort we had put into the hats! As a tween my fondest memory was my dad taking us on a suprise holiday to Burleigh Heads where my mum was pregnant with my youngest sister. We let mum have a sleep one afternoon and dad walked my brother and sister down to the shops and dad brought me the coolest bright red Mt Woodgee skort that I loved and wore until it tore at the seams. As an adult my fondest memory has been recreating Rick Shores Bug Rolls with my brother in the kitchen as a treat for everyone one COVID Easter. If we couldn’t be there to eat them, we made the next best thing!
I have a really busy brain and find it really hard to stop and read long form. I am still to find a book that draws me in within the first couple of pages to make me want to go back for more. I did purchase at Christmas time the Meg Mason book Sorrow and Bliss of which I have started and will try to push through and continue to read.
I am a milk chocolate kinda girl. My all time favourite chocolate is Haigh’s Chocolates, there is no better chocolate in the world.
Bec Pini
I love Easter at home because Brisbane clears out and the suburbs are quiet. It’s a time for pottering around the house and doing all the things I never get time for. This is Easter is going to be particularly quiet as I recover from eye surgery, so again a perfect time to relax.
My most memorable Easter is with my side of the family where easter egg hunts around the yard became very competitive. At my parents house with my two children and my two nieces, the battle and race to find the eggs often became controversial. Though challenging to even up the takings, it made me giggle.
I don’t tend to gravitate towards a book over Easter. I leave that to island holidays. I will be reading articles on things that interest me which could be anything from finance to the latest rabbit hole in Tiktok.
My go to chocolate is Lindt milk chocolate with sea salt.
Maliah Pini
During the Easter break, my main focus will be on studying, as unfortunately easter celebrations has not occurred within the family for quite some time now as we are now all older.
However, one of my most cherished Easter memories transports me back to the gatherings at my Nonny and Poppy’s old house. Those were the days filled with joy as my siblings, Kaleb, Sienna, and I would eagerly comb through their backyard in search of hidden Easter eggs, each armed with our colourful buckets. The tradition of equalising chocolate amounts after the hunt often led to playful disputes upstairs, adding to the fun-filled atmosphere. And, of course, no Easter celebration would be complete without savouring a delicious Easter roast together as a family.
As for my Easter reading, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in “The Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, a book I’ve been eager to finish.
Regarding my favourite type of chocolate, my tastes have evolved over time. As a child, I adored white chocolate, then transitioned to a love for milk chocolate, especially those delectable Cadbury eggs. However, due to dietary changes prohibiting dairy consumption, I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for the richness of dark chocolate.
Ruth Greening
Over the Easter break, I will be spending time in Melbourne with her daughter and family. I will be busy helping out with cooking/baking ( which my son-in-law loves), fold piles of washing, driving pickup and drop offs, watching movies together, watching my grandsons play footy (AFL), trying to unsuccessfully beat my grandsons at UNO, shopping with my daughter, catching up with friends at my local favourite cafes, reading and crocheting in between it all. She will FaceTime my son and his family who live in the Philippines and chat to other family members who live interstate.
My most memorable Easter moments were seeing the joy on my children’s faces after Easter bunny had been and later in life as Nanny Babe to my grandsons, watching and hearing their excited squeals when they participated in the Easter egg hunts.
Over Easter, I will be reading three books by local authors: The Weaver by Melanie Kanecky, When Things Happen Together by Jordan Clayden-Lewis and Love Stories by Trent Dalton.
I love all chocolate and choose them according to my needs: Milk for comfort, Dark with red wine and White for a sugar hit.
I am supremely grateful for the now cooler climes of Autumn in Brisbane, my residence, at this time of year. (Brisbane residents endured a long Summer of searing and draining high temperatures and oppressive humidity).
My Easter break, spent at home, will be a time for me of relaxation and restoration. This will take the beautiful and life-affirming form of listening to the birds cheerily chirping outside my window, walking along atmospherically tree-lined streets, passing a multitude of eager and rambunctious dogs and walkers as I walk, and reading books that are recent publications to my heart’s content. A book I will be reading this Easter is “What Happened to Nina” by Irish author, Dervla McTiernan (the loveliest person you could meet, I went to a recent author talk by her). She is an author with a razor-sharp intellect and is phenomenally gifted in writing crime thrillers. I will also be reading “The House That Joy Built” (on creativity), by Australian author, Holly Ringland. I am looking forward to reading a book by her for the first time, as I have read many raving reviews of her books.
Additionally, I will be binge-watching transporting, fabulously eery and brilliantly scripted and acted, episodes of “Vera” (a British crime series) on dvd and listening to my go-to radio station, 96.five. Musically, I will also be serenaded by cd with the classy and timeless Johnny Cash, the thought-provoking and deep thinker, Sting, and the soul-stirring Cole Porter.
Milk chocolate is my favourite Easter chocolate of all. Hopefully I can ration it?
On Good Friday, I will be heading off to visit my 84 year old mother, who lives nearby. I enjoy my weekly catch-ups with her, and it is a time of joy when I see her. A mother’s unconditional love is precious beyond measure.
Saturday night, I’m off to have a roast lamb dinner at my brother and his family’s house. For some reason, I always associate Easter with a roast lunch/dinner. Perhaps due to the considerable influence of my English/Irish ancestors?
My most memorable Easter was camping in the ethereally beautiful environs of O’Reilly’s, in the Gold Coast hinterland. Think mossy, emerald-green rainforest, mountain vistas ‘to die for’, cascading and relentlessly flowing waterfalls and walking tracks that go on forever).
That redemptive Easter was spent with my devoted parents, Bill and Estelle, and exuberant and playful siblings, Mark, Peter, Jenny and Megan. I remember having quite literally one of the best times ever, excitedly walking and exploring the well graded tracks that took us to creeks and waterfalls gushing with pristine water, and to lookouts that showed us God’s imprint on this terrain. I recall also going to “Junior Rangers” and devouring an abundance of chocolate Easter eggs. It was a time of superlative happiness and joy.
My family have since had a great love affair with O’Reilly’s, camping and staying at the Mountain Retreat and Villas many transcendent times.
Yes, Easter will always hold a special place in my heart. It really is a wonderful time of year, particularly in much of Australia, where Autumn temperatures are refreshingly welcome. Happy Easter to everyone! I hope this Easter is a time of hope and joy for you, however and wherever you are spending it.
SheSociety is a site for the women of Australia to share our stories, our experiences, shared learnings and opportunities to connect.
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