It’s that time of year again—Lynn’s Holiday Column.

In case you haven’t noticed, I get really into the seasonal stuff, and Easter is no exception.

“Here we go,” you may be thinking. “She’s going to talk about jelly beans the whole time, or worse yet, those stupid marshmallow chicks with the yellow sugar on them. Oh no!”

Well, yeah, I do like jelly beans (only the black ones, please) and those chicks are rather disgusting, but there’s more to Easter than food, right?

Take, for example, Easter baskets. I was running low on food (you know it’s bad when you eat toast and microwave popcorn for dinner) and just had to buy an Easter basket, so I ventured to the store last week via the bus.

Two hours later, (“We could’ve gone to WISCONSIN!” my boyfriend kept muttering), I trudged home balancing three grocery bags and dangling a hot pink basket under one arm.

If that wasn’t bad enough, that cellophane green grass (at 44 cents a bag, I figured it was a bargain) keeps coming out of the basket and ends up on the floor, table, sink, bedroom, fridge, etc. I’m half expecting to find a strand in my spaghetti.

One of the neat things about Easter, in fact, is the fine American tradition of the Easter Basket Hunt, where Mom and Dad hide your basket in the same place every year as you feign surprise and say, “Why you stinkers—I never expected to find it under the living room chair!”

Many people also hide colored Easter eggs all over the house and backyard, where at least a quarter of them remain until mid-August. “What’s that weird smell?” we used to wonder when mowing the lawn. “Kinda like sulfur.”

There is an art to coloring Easter eggs, however. My roomie and I spent the better part of Saturday trying to make Fabrege-like creations. She, the art major, made these gorgeous marbled and patterned ones, while I, the one who has problems with stick figures, had a hard time getting the food coloring-vinegar mixture right.

My eggs, lovely shades of chartreuse and streaked purple, looked like something my two-year-old cousin might make. Moreover, I forgot food coloring STAINS everything it comes into contact with, including countertops and clothing. Thank goodness for Comet.

Many foreign people don’t understand the Easter egg decorating custom in this country. I remember trying to explain it to one transfer student friend about two years ago.

Him: Why do you color eggs? Do you eat the shell?

Me: No, you take the shell off before eating it.

Him: Then why do it? You go to all that work for nothing?

Me: (pondering this point and thinking he’s kind of making sense here) Um, yeah.

Then I had to explain the concept of the Easter bunny and where it all fit in with the traditional religious meaning of the holiday. “You know,” he said, looking confused. “You have some strange customs.”

It did make me wonder, but I realized that’s what makes our society so different—we can have Cadbury eggs alongside crosses, Paas kits next to palms. There’s something to be said for diversity.