Easter Fun Facts & Jokes

Here are a few Easter Fun Facts to share with your friends & family.

Easter Fun Facts
1. The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour.

2. Easter is now celebrated (in the words of the Book of Common Prayer) on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens on or after March 21, the Spring Equinox. Therefore it can occur on any Sunday from March 22nd through to April 25th. This year it’s on Sunday, April 12th.

3. In medieval times a festival of egg throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choirboys. It was then tossed from one choirboy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg.

4. Easter Bonnets are a throw back to the days when the people denied themselves the pleasure of wearing finery for the duration of Lent. By tradition, it was obligatory (or at least lucky) for churchgoers to wear some bright new piece of clothing - at least an Easter bonnet, if not a complete new outfit.

5. The traditional act of painting eggs is called Pysanka.

6. The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, to whom the egg was a symbol of life.

7. The most famous decorated Easter eggs were those made by the well-known goldsmith, Peter Carl Faberge. In 1883 the Russian Czar, Alexander, commissioned Faberge to make a special Easter gift for his wife, the Empress Marie. The first Faberge egg was an egg within an egg. It had an outside shell of platinum and enameled white which opened to reveal a smaller gold egg. The smaller egg, in turn, opened to display a golden chicken and a jeweled replica of the Imperial crown. This special Faberge egg so delighted the Czarina that the Czar promptly ordered the Faberge firm to design further eggs to be delivered every Easter. In later years Nicholas II, Alexander's son, continued the custom. Fifty-seven eggs were made in all.

8. In 1878 President Hayes and his wife Lucy officially opened the White House grounds to the children of the area for egg rolling on Easter Monday. The event has been held on the South Lawn ever since, except during World War I and World War II. During the war years the Easter Egg Roll was held at the National Zoo, and other Washington locations.

9. The Guinness Book of Records holder for the largest Easter egg ever made is the Belgian chocolate producer Guylian who made the chocolate egg with at least 50.000 bars on behalf of the city of St. Niklaas. The egg measured 8.32 metres high . Twenty-six craftsman worked altogether 525 hours to build the egg. They needed 1950 kg of chocolates.

Easter Jokes
1. What is the difference between a crazy bunny and a counterfeit banknote?

One is bad money and the other is a mad bunny!

2. Why did the Easter egg hide?

He was a little chicken!

3. What do you get when you cross a bunny with an onion?

A bunion 4.

4. What did the bunny want to do when he grew up?

Join the Hare Force.

5. What does a bunny use when it goes swimming?

A hare-net.

6. What did the grey rabbit say to the blue rabbit?

Cheer up!

7. What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

A hot cross bunny.

8. How does the Easter Bunny say Happy Easter?

Hoppy Easter

text ©Alison Berry 2006

This August, the U.S. Congress enacted the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008 (CPSIA), one of the most comprehensive transformations of consumer-product safety regulations since the 1970s. The Act expands the role of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in ensuring the safety of consumer products, especially those designed for children.

Little Bugs Boutique currently conforms to safety standards of California (Cal Prop 65). This law adopted in 2006, established limits for lead in metals and several other components. Significantly, in recognition of the limited risk of availability of lead from crystal, the settlement agreement standards as incorporated under California AB 1681 allows the continued use of crystal without limitation in jewelry not intended for children. However, the new CPSIA legislation overrides the Cal Prop 65 law in regards to children's jewelry (up to 1 gram of crystal allowed per piece) and goes into effect on February 10th, 2009.

We have developed a reasonable testing program to ensure that the children's products you purchase from us comply with the aspects of the law that pertain to our products. However, as of today, we have not been able to source any lead-free crystals. Although many suppliers offer what they claim to be "lead-free" crystals (such as Celestial Crystal), none have been able to provide us with any type of certification that these crystals are indeed "lead-free". Furthermore, we have been told that cat's eye beads (used in so many of our designs) may also contain lead. We are working diligently to identify and quantify the total lead content in these components, but until further notice will no longer be able to market or make any product that contains crystals and/or cat's eye beads for children under the age of 12.

We are in the process of removing the children's sizes option from our website and urge you to make whatever changes you must in your shop and/or website. The Bitty Block collection will continue as designed, as it was never designed, intended or marketed toward children. Our entire collection will continue to be available in adult sizes. Again, any of our products that contain crystal and/or cat's eye components can ONLY be sold for children ages 13 and over. Additionally, we are in the process of designing some new items that will be CPSIA compliant using sterling silver and natural gemstones.

Another requirement of the CPSIA is that General Certificates of Compliance (GCC) be created for all children's products. Therefore, we will be creating General Certificates of Conformity for our products when ordered for children under the age of 12 based on "reasonable testing" of component parts. It is our hope that the CPSC will amend the law to accept component testing in lieu of the required third-party testing come August 14, 2009.

We have been corresponding with other small handcrafted "manufacturers" of children's products, like us, and many of us small business owners have been on a campaign to lobby Congress refine this law, and it seems that the legislators are listening! Below is a link which will take you to a letter dated January 21, 2009 from two representatives urging a hearing be held to discuss the legislation.

http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/File/News/1.21.09_CPSIA_Letter_to_Henry_%20Waxman.pdf

You can refer to our Jewelry Safety page on our website to keep informed of updates in government legislation and how it relates to handcrafted jewelry.

Learn More about the CPSIA:
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/faq/101faq.html#leadcontentcertifications
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/faq/faq.html

Win the Whispering Flowers Scrabble Tile Pendant

A big thanks to Irene at Irene Design. She has been kind enough to host a giveaway for my Whispering Flowers Scrabble Tile Pendant on her blog. Stop by and leave a comment to enter.

While you are there, be sure to visit IreneDesign's Etsy Shop full of custom pieces for the home which are functional and beautiful.

Contest ends on Friday, September 26th.

Don't Miss Another Sale!

Have you joined to our Email Mailing List yet?

From time to time, we send out email-only promotions. This is the promotion that was sent out today announcing our Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale. You can sign up to receive alerts to specials and promotions like these using our sign-up form in the right hand column.

While you are at it, why not subscribe to this blog as well?

Scrabble Tile Pendants at Wholesale Prices

I am running a WHOLESALE SPECIAL in my Bitty Block etsy shop.

Buy 2 Scrabble Tile Pendants and get a 3rd Pendant FREE!

Now is your chance to buy like a wholesaler. Stock up for gifts or yourself.

Personalized, dangle & photo pendants are excluded from this offer.
See shop profile for more details.

Recycled Envelopes

These are my Itty-Bitty Eco-Friendly Recycled Envelopes.

They are featured in a fun little Treasury on Etsy right now.

Mess Free Painting

I came across this idea recently and decided to try it for myself. My girls thought it was fun and I loved how easy it was to clean up after their lasting painting project.

Take a muffin pan and line it with cupcake liners. I used the silver ones so that the paint didn't seep through the paper. You don't have to use the liners at all, but it does make things easier. All I had to do was lift out the liners and wash it down a bit. Sometimes we use those styrofoam liners that come under fruits or meats, but the paints all run together. So, if you don't have a fancy paint tray, this is the way to go!