An Easter Story

An Easter Story

   Easter occurs each year on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal Equinox (The first day of spring), which is why there is such a wide variance in its date every year. It is at this time that churches fill their alters and chapels with the delicate, pure white blooms of the Easter lily. The base of the crosses will usually be surrounded as well in recognition of the Resurrection.

The Easter Lily, also known as the Bermuda lily or the Trumpet Lily, has become a prolific icon in the celebration of one of the most important Christian holidays. For centuries the Easter lily has been a symbol of elegance and spirituality in association with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ after his execution. Unlike all of the other Pagan symbolization that we see in modern times, such as, the Easter bunny, colorful eggs, and candy, the Easter lily has been around since biblical times.

 The Easter lilies we use today are sometimes referred to as 'The White Robed Apostles of Hope'. 

There is one legend that speaks of how the blood of Christ made its way to the ground and miraculously turned into flowers that filled the earth and heaven.The bulb of the flower as it is buried in the ground is representative of the tomb of Jesus Christ. The white trumpet flowers represent his life after death. The white color represents the Savior's purity and their trumpet shape represents the Angel Gabriel's call to re birth and new life. 


















   One of the oldest stories of the Easter lily is that it originated in the Garden of Eden and its seeds were spread by Eve's tears as she left the garden. While there are conflicting stories about this, some accounts say that it is not the Easter lily, or trumpet lily but rather the snowdrop.
   No matter what the legend or story behind this lovely flower, it is by far one of the most iconic of all spring flowers and has been the subject of many artists and writers throughout time.

                                            Easter morn with lilies fair

                                     Fills the church with perfumes rare,

As their clouds of incense rise,

Sweetest offerings to the skies.

Stately lilies pure and white

Flooding darkness with their light,

Bloom and sorrow drifts away,

On this holy hallow’d day.

Easter Lilies bending low

in the golden afterglow,

Bear a message from the sod

To the heavenly towers of God.

-Louise Lewin Matthews

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Rightly the lily is the flower of Easter. It lies buried in the ooze of pond or stream. There is nothing in the grave of the dead lily that appeals to nostril or eye. But silently the forces of life are working in the dark and the damp to prepare a glorious resurrection. A shaft of green shoots upward toward the sun. This is followed by a cluster of tiny buds. One day the sun smiles with special warmth upon the dank, black ooze, and there leaps into the light a creature of light and beauty; it is the lily, an angel of the earth, whose look is light.  ___________Author Unknown-_________

Here is an interesting fact.

95% of the worlds crop of Easter lilies are produced right here in the United States, along the border of northern California and Southern Oregon. However, they originate from the Ryukyu islands of southern Japan.

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