This Easter poem was published in Harper’s Young People, March 27, 1888. Illustrated with the original cover illustration, “Easter Flowers”, drawn by Jessie Shepherd that you can use as clip art.

Girl whispers to the Easter lilies in this Victorian illustration for the poem "Easter Flowers". Click on the image for a larger version that you may use as free Easter clip art.

Easter Flowers

By Mary B. Waterman

“We are going to church,” smiled the lily;
“We are going to church,” smiled the rose;
“Then I certainly think,” said the pert little pink,
“We should wear our prettiest clothes.

“So, heliotrope, put on your lilac;
And, crocus, your bright yellow vest;
Sweet violets, you must wear bonnets of blue,
While the rose shall in crimson be dressed.

“Our lily shall don her white satin,
And in white, too, the calla be seen,
While the hyacinth fair shall wear pink in her hair,
And the smilax have ribbons of green.”

The passion-flower tremblingly whispered,
With eyes looking tearful and sad,
“For me there’s no room: I speak only of gloom;
In garments of grief I am clad.”

Then the bright Easter lily looked upward,
While her smile the whole garden illumed.
“Oh, dear little sister, there ne’er had been Easter
If passion-flowers never had bloomed.”

The church bells were joyfully ringing
When out of the garden they passed,
And down through the porch and into the church,
Till they came to the altar at last.

They climbed over archway and pillar,
They nestled in baskets of moss;
The rose found a place in a beautiful vase,
And the passion-flower clung to a cross.

And they swayed to the breeze of the organ,
That sent its great throb through the air;
When “Laudamus” was sung all their censers they swung,
And they nodded “Amen” to each prayer.

They smiled in response to the children,
So like them in innocent grace.
When the sermon was reached and the minister preached,
They all looked him straight in the face.

“Oh my people,” he said, speaking softly,
Looking down on the listening throng,
“On this day of all days it is meet we give praise,
With offerings of flowers and glad song.

“But desolate homes are around us,
Where dwell the distressed and forlorn,
Their carol a strain full of discord and pain,
Their lily of Easter a thorn.

“Go forth, O beloved, and find them,
Your hearts with pure love all aglow;
E’en the lowliest flower that fades in an hour
The Lord’s resurrection may show.”

The great congregation departed;
The flowers looked around in surprise.
“And must we stay here?” said the rose, while a tear
bedimmed yellow daffodil’s eyes.

“I think we’ve a message to carry,”
Was the heliotrope’s gentle reply.
“But how can we know to what places to go?”
Said the gay little pink, with a sigh.

A flutter, a rustle, a whisper,
A step light and fleet as a fawn,
And, behold! standing close by the royal red rose
Was a child with a face like the dawn.

The flowers are first cousins to children,
The angels to both are akin,
And without spoken word all the bright blossoms heard
Where the dear little maiden had been.

She told them a wonderful secret.
They blushed with exquisite delight;
With tremulous haste down the long aisle they passed,
Until they were lost to the sight.

The heliotrope found a dark cellar,
A home of grim want and despair;
The white pink was led to a hospital bed,
And a rose climbed a rickety stair.

The daffodil followed a beggar;
By its side the hyacinth pressed;
The violets crept where a dear baby slept,
And laid themselves down on its breast.

The passion-flower caught on its purple
The tears which an erring one shed;
In a dark, shrouded room Easter lilies bloom
Waved their banner of hope o’er the dead.

A dream of the fancy you call it?
Some dreams have a touch that’s divine;
And a child’s simple act may turn fancy to fact
In fulfilling his vision of mine.

This vintage advertisement for Paas Easter Egg Dyes appeared in the March 1896 issue of The Ladies' World.

The coloring, decorating, and dyeing of eggs is a beautiful and fun Easter tradition that the entire family can enjoy. Before William Townley invented PAAS Easter Egg Dye tablets in 1893, the following old methods would have been used.

Decorating Easter Eggs

From Receipts and Remedies, Louis A. Fleming, 1908.

An old and simple way to color eggs for Easter is to boil them in a kettle with a lot of the outer peel of red onions.

Easter eggs can be colored many different shades with analine dyes. The dye should be diluted to the proper shade and the eggs boiled in it. Green, the color of hope and resurrection, is particularly appropriate.

Eggs can be boiled hard and painted in water colors with a flower or a butterfly as symbolic of the resurrection.

Another way to prepare eggs is to coat them with metallic paint and frost them with diamond dust; or to cover them with gilt, silver or colored paper.

A simple way by which children may prepare Easter eggs is by tying up each egg separately in a piece of bright colored silk or cotton, having previously pasted some little design on the surface of the egg. Have the eggs boiled slowly for half an hour and then set aside to cool. When quite cold untie the covering and the eggs will be found nicely colored and with a clear impression of the design. These eggs may be placed in egg cups which have been lined with fringed tissue paper, and placed upon the breakfast-table on Easter morning.

This antique St. Patrick's Day postcard would make a great party invitation! Click the image for the printable high resolution version.

Irish Bubble Party

Why not have something different for your St. Patrick’s social?

Make enough tissue paper hats to provide one for everybody who comes to the social. Half the hats should be green and half white. Everyone gathers at several tables, on each of which are a bowl of soapsuds and a clay pipe for each player. The soap bubble contest then begins.

• Largest Bubble.—The person blowing the largest bubble at each table has a green ribbon bow tied on his pipe. These persons then contest, and the winner gets an additional bow.
• Partner Bubbles.—Partners by putting their pipes close together may make one large bubble. The partners at each table making the largest bubble in this way get a green bow each. The winners then contest as before, and an extra green bow is allowed the winners of the final.
• Highest Bubble.—The person at each table to blow the highest bubble gets a green bow in this contest. As in the other contests, the winners contest for the additional bow.
• Through Wreath.—A wreath is hung in a convenient place, and each person able to blow a bubble through it gets a green bow.
• Bubble Tournament.—The Greens and the Whites line up against each other in this contest, about one and one-half feet on each side of a rope or line stretched across the room. The Greens are furnished with fans, the Whites with pipes and bubble solution. For five minutes the Whites blow bubbles and endeavor to have them break on the enemy’s side of the line. The Greens with their fans endeavor to prevent this. Judges award one point for every bubble that breaks in Green territory. The situation is then reversed, and for five minutes more the Greens try to blow bubbles into the White camp.

The following is a good bubble solution recipe: Fill a preserve jar two-thirds full of boiling water. Add three ounces of castile soup finely shaven, a teaspoonful of sugar, and four tablespoonfuls of glycerin. Shake thoroughly and strain through a white cloth.

Care should be taken to cove all tables used with oilcloth or heavy paper.

Suggestions for Saint Patrick’s Day Party Refreshments

Sandwiches tied with green ribbon, olives, pickles, Irish potato chips, green tea, and green mints or candy. Brick ice cream would also be appropriate.

Clip Art: Victorian Scrapbook Image of a Pug in an Egg

This menu for a traditional Easter Sunday dinner is from The American Family Reciept Book, by Annie R. Gregory (Assisted by One Thousand Housekeepers). Published in the early 1900s, it gives some historical insight into the Easter holiday traditions of early 20th century America and makes a reference to the White House Easter Egg Roll. You an enter a lottery for a chance to participate in the 2012 event at http://www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll

Easter Sunday

“Resurrection is the silver lining to the dark clouds of death, and we know the sun is shining beyond.”

Easter brings joy to the festival. Let the table decorations be fresh and dainty. The dominant dish should be eggs–eggs and eggs, over again.

In pagan days, the use of eggs in the spring was symbolical of nature–”the bursting forth of life.” With the Christians, it symbolizes the resurrection: “From death–Life.” The free use of eggs on Easter has now generally become a custom with all Nations, whether that nation acknowledges its religious significance or not.

White and green are the most appropriate colors for decoration. White china and pure white linen, with Easter lilies for a centerpiece, make an ideal looking table. Hard-boiled eggs sliced crosswise, make pretty garnishings for the different dishes. On this special day, for breakfast, let the eggs be cooked to order as best pleases each individual fancy. This privilege will be greatly appreciated, especially by the little folks, who like innovations.

Editor’s Note: If I’m asked, I’ll take the Rum Omelet (also from this book)

Make a very soft sweet omelet; when on the dish pour over some rum and sugar, send it to the table and then have it set on fire, basting frequently to keep it alight.

Menu

Breakfast

Oranges
Grape Nut and Cream
Eggs “to order”
Hashed Potatoes, in Cream
Rolls
Griddle Cakes and Maple Syrup
Coffee

Dinner

Consomme, with Egg-Balls
Roast Lamb and Mint Sauce
Greens, with Hard-Boiled Eggs
Egg and Watercres Salad
Strawberry Ice Cream
Easter Cakelets
Coffee

Supper

Welsh Rarebit
Filberts
Eggs, in Jelly
Easter Eggs
Palm Cakes
Russian Tea

It is a pretty custom to exchange souvenirs on Easter mornings. The candy rabbit and bonbon box of speckled eggs, fill quite a place in the boy’s heart and help him remember happily the day.

A pretty custom in my childhood was the rolling of the colored eggs out of doors on the day following Easter. I am told that this custom is now quite modern–that the children in our Capital city all repair to the White House grounds to roll their eggs, and that our Presidents, as well as the wee folks, enjoy the sport. Long live the Presidents!

From The American Family Receipt Book, by Mrs. Gregory and Friends, circa 1900, sprinkled with suitable poetry as originally published. I’ve included a selection of my antique St. Patrick’s Day postcards and greetings that you can use as clip art.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Clip Art

‘There’s a dear little Island far over the sea,
And no spot on the globe’s half so precious to me;
And by lake or mountain where e’er I may roam,
I shall never forget thee, my own Ireland home.
Other skies may be bright, other lands may be fair,
But what of all that if the heart be not there?
Other music may charm me, but ah! there is none
Which can move me to sadness or mirth like thine own.’

As green is the prevailing color on St. Patrick’s Day, I have suggested a dinner menu where this color and white are used exclusively. Let a dish of ferns be made the centerpiece and scatter ferns about the table. Let Irish flags decorate the room. Have the china green and white, so far as possible.

Green silk embroidered over a small wire, to imitate a shamrock, placed at each plate, for a boutonnière, is quite appropriate and novel.

“Oh! the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock!
Chosen Leaf
Of Bard and Chief,
Old Erin’s native Shamrock!”

Clip Art: The Wearing of the Green, a Vintage St. Patrick's Day Postcard.

Menu

Breakfast

Grape Fruit
Rice, with cream
Popovers
White Omelette, garnished with parsley
Irish Potatoes, in cream
Coffee

Luncheon

Escalloped Potatoes
Whitefish Turbot
Cold Slaw
Fruit Glacé a là St. Patrick
whipped cream
Cocoa

Dinner

Cream of Spinach
Creamed Fricassee of Chicken
Irish Potatoes, mashed
Peas
Lettuce and Celery Salad
Pistachio Ice Cream
Angel Cake
Coffee

Clip Art: Old-Fashioned Couple Dancing on Saint Patrick's Day Vintage Postcard Greeting.

Recipes

Escalloped Potatoes

Pare six medium-sized potatoes, slice thin in cold water. Drain and put in a pudding pan. Season with salt and pepper, pour over two-thirds of a pint of rich milk, add a piece of butter the size of an egg, send to the oven, and when potatoes are well done serve. ~ Miss Mary. E. Wetherholt.

Creamed Chicken

Boil a chicken until tender the usual way. When cold, or while hot, as you prefer, place the breast in the chafing dish in which a small lump of butter has melted and is just beginning to brown, heat thoroughly and add one cup of rich milk. Season, and when it comes to a boil, thicken slightly with flour rubbed until smooth in a little butter. As soon as it comes to a boil pour over squares of toast. ~ Emma C.

Pistachio Ice Cream

Blanch and peel one-quarter of a pound of pistachios and pound them to a smooth paste with a few drops of rose-water. Beat the yolks of six eggs and pour over them one and one-half pints of boiling milk; add four ounces of powdered sugar and stir the custard over the fire until it begins to thicken; then pour it out and when cool stir into it the pounded pistachios and a teaspoonful of spinach coloring. Pass the whole through a sieve; mold and freeze. If preferred, the pistachio paste can be mixed with cream instead of custard. ~ Ella Brewster.

Fruit Glace

Boil together for one-half hour one cupful of granulated sugar and one of water. Dip the point of a skewer or darning needle in the syrup after it has been boiling the given time and then in water. If the thread formed breaks off brittle the syrup is done. Take any prepared fruits desired (grapes, pineapple, cherries, etc.) on point of a darning needle; dip them in the syrup. Place them on a dish that has been buttered lightly; when cold they are ready for use. Care must be taken not to stir the syrup as that spoils it. ~ Mary B. Burns

Victorian Easter Egg Made of China

Break out the bombazine and horse glue, because it’s time to decorate Easter Eggs, Victorian style!

From one of my favorite antique books comes these fine examples of Victorian Easter eggs. Household Elegancies, by Mrs. C. S. Jones and Henry T. Williams was published in 1877 and is full of amazing illustrations and advice on decorating every part of your home, including the humble egg. Click on the illustrations for a closer look, you may also use these images as Victorian Easter clip art if you wish.

With many it is a curious fancy, to dress Easter-eggs in elegant forms and keep as toilet elegancies, and we introduce several designs showing how this may be beautifully carried out, and result in charming effects.

This china egg is hollow and open at the dull end, so that it can be set up on end, or when given as a present, filled with candy or some valuable article, while it may be closed with a cork decorated with ribbon bows. Such eggs which have the not very poetic but certainly useful mission of helping in the darning of stockings, are generally white, a tempting subject for painting, to those who can skillfully wield a brush. But they may also be procured colored, and when decorated with ribbon bows, make a pretty and welcome Easter gift.

BOILED EASTER-EGG, WITH ETCHING

Example of an Etched Victorian Easter Egg

A very pretty Easter gift is a boiled colored egg, on which, as on colored porcelain, the most various designs, monograms, pictures and the like, may be etched with a fine penknife. As hard-boiled eggs do not decompose, this forms a durable mark of remembrance. The brown color on our model, is produced by boiling the egg in water filled with onion peels.

Victorian Easter Egg Hanging Basket

EASTER-EGG AS HANGING-BASKET WITH FLOWERS

Open a hen, duck, or goose egg at the pointed end; let all the contents run out, and cut the upper, smaller half away with small sharp scissors; fill it almost up with earth, and plant a sedum, which, despite the small space, thrives splendidly and spreads out its little twigs on every side. As outer decoration for this improvised flower-pot, a net-work of crochet suspended by cord made of chain-stitches, and trimmed with tassels, will do nicely. In the model, the net is crocheted of scarlet silk; Fringe is knotted in at the top, and a string drawn through to make the net fit firmly to the egg. Draw the net together at the bottom, and finish off with a tassel.

EASTER-EGG AS BONBONNIERE

This sweet little toy is made of a bonafide egg, cut through very carefully in the middle; the edges are furnished with a narrow binding of soft-colored paper, beneath which, for the sake of strength, a narrow strip of card-board is pasted. A strip of card-board, one-fifth of an inch wide, covered with the same colored paper, is pasted within one of the halves, partly projecting, and serves to close the two parts, as plainly seen in the illustration. The rest of the decoration consists of narrow gold braid pasted inside and out, at the edges of the paper binding. A skillful hand may easily execute a monogram, or wreath of flowers on the outside of the egg. Decalcomanie may also very suitably be employed.

Victorian Easter Egg Gift Basket

EASTER-EGG AS HOUSEWIFE

Materials: Tulle, zephyr worsted, white sewing-silk and crape, colored silk and watered ribbon three-fifths of an inch wide, narrow blond lace. As may be seen in the illustration, our model is provided with the necessary sewing-materials for embroidery. The outer decoration consists of tulle drawn through with zephyr worsted and sewing-silk, beneath which, the tulle is almost hidden, leaving a peculiar sort of net-work. The pattern of this pretty design is worked of worsted and cross-stitches of white sewing silk. We would here mention that this work is very suitable for children’s hats. For each of the two oval halves of the necessaire, work a piece of tulle seven and one-fifth inches long, and five and one-fifth inches wide; round it at the corners; line it with blue or pink silk, and baste it to a piece of card-board. The outer rim is then marked at even distances, into twelve parts; between these cut out points one-fifth of an inch wide, one and one-fifth inches deep. Bind the incisions with silk ribbon; by drawing them together the arched form is produced; tack in the silk lining; wire it on the edge, and finish off with a binding of ribbon. Ornamental stitches of colored silk decorate the outer side; the inner margin is finished off by a narrow blond lace. The piece that covers the rims is to be fastened to one of the perfectly equal parts, and consists of a strip of card-board two-fifths of an inch wide; it is covered on the inside with silk, on the outside with white crape taken four-fold; it is edged on either side with button hole stitches, and decorated along the center with herring-bone stitches. Two pretty bows, one within and one without, conceal the spot where the parts are connected, and ribbon serves to tie the halves together.

Victorian Easter Egg Gift Box

Easter Clip Art of Cherubs with an Easter Egg

Easter

By Margaret E. Sangster

From Harper’s Young People, March 20, 1894

When Easter comes the violets lift
Their shyly hooded faces.
Where late the frozen snows adrift
Heaped high the woodland spaces.
When Easter comes the sunbeams dance
On green leaves all aquiver,
And grasses rally, spear and lance,
By rippling brook and river.

When Easter comes the lilies haste
What time the bells are ringing,
To bring their perfumes, pure and chaste,
From hallowed censers swinging.
Shine dim church aisles on Easter day
Beneath their serried whiteness,
And happy children kneel and pray
Amid the lilied brightness.

When Easter comes, a merry train,
The robin, wren, and starling,
With song and wing are here again,
And many another darling.
The bluebird and the oriole,
The martin and the swallow,
“Away,” they chant, “with grief and dole,
Here’s spring, and summer ‘ll follow!”

When Easter comes, when Easter comes,
Then winter’s spell is over!
Erelong we’ll hear the elfin drums
Where bees are deep in clover.
After we catch the swaying lilt
Of winds among the daisies,
And see the rosecups’ sweetness spilt
Among the garden mazes.

When Easter comes, ah! happy day,
E’en tears like dewdrops glisten,
And songs climb up the heavenward way
While angels bend to listen.
For love and life and joy untold
Are in the age-long story
That spells itself on harps of gold,
And thrills with endless glory.

Safety-Pin Holder

For a unique Easter gift idea, take a page from what the Victorians gave as Easter gifts. Let this article from the Victorian children’s publication, Harper’s Young People, be a source of crafting inspiration.

While the article title is a little misleading–I wouldn’t exactly call a flatiron a “toy” and can hardly imagine the look on a child’s face to receive such a thing in their Easter basket (the equivalent of coal in a Christmas stocking, I’d say), they do illustrate how resourceful and crafty young people were encouraged to be over 100 years ago, and most likely these diy Easter gifts were intended to be given to parents and grandparents by children and young adults.

Be creative, many of these ideas can be made into modern Easter presents by adapting them to use what we have available today. Skip the cigar box and simply decoupage postage stamps to an unfinished wooden tray, and you’ll have a thoughtful and unique gift that retains the charm of these old-fashioned craft projects.

Easter Toys

From Harper’s Young People, February 27, 1894

One of the prettiest customs of the year is the giving of Easter gifts. Unlike Christmas, these presents at Easter-time are never supposed to be expensive. They are rather a little reminder of the happy Easter-time, and a sign from the giver to the receiver that the one is thinking of the other.

Of course there are many different kinds of gifts, and perhaps the most conspicuous are those prepared in the shape of eggs. These are not the only gifts that you can appropriately make for this time of the year. The different presents described here are all easily made, with almost no expense, and very acceptable to those you decide to send them to, because they will be the result of your own labor and thought, and that is the best part of giving.

The Flatiron

A handy trifle for the sewing-table, and a most friendly little article to take into the country for the summer outing, is a simple flatiron. Gild the upper part, but leave the face untouched. Wind the handle with a woollen strip covered by a ribbon, or bias strips of fancy silk. In one end of the bow-knot stitch a thimble case, in the other end a place to hold blunt scissors. Choose a heavy iron, and it will be always in use. It will have sewing pinned to the handle for swift running and hemming, or else it will be engaged in pressing sea-moss or flowers, or holding papers together. But very often it will have thimble, scissors, and needles removed, and it will be heated to smooth out ugly wrinkles in cloth, or to dry and pres a sponged spot. It will be absolutely renovate twisted whalebones by dry pressing the bodice or corsets on the wrong side. Use in tailor fashion–that is, bang down the iron firmly, and bear upon it.

Postage Stamp Tray and Pin Holder, and The Egg Basket Bonbon Box

To make a pretty bonbon-box get a small wire egg-boiler and a tall round box with a flat circular lid. This box must fit inside the opening of the egg-boiler, reaching from the bottom to the top, so that the box lid lies level with the top of the wire opening. Before placing the box inside, take a sheet of pale green crimped tissue-paper, cut in in half lengthwise, and tie the strips into the form of a Maltese cross. Fasten the tie to the centre of the bottom of the wire frame inside. Spread out the strips inside, pressing them against the wires lightly with cotton wool; in the centre of the wool put the box. Clip the ends of the tissue paper and paste them narrowly inside the box. Sew a pompom of the tissue-paper on the lid, and finish with a narrow hinge of ribbon. Fill the box with bonbons.

A Stationery Box

The box for stationery is made from a flat cigar box. Take off the lid and front part, fasten them both on in place of the lid, curve off the projecting corners, and sand-paper the box carefully. Set it up on its back, and put in a few lead moulds and sachet powder, covering them with a false bottom of silk-covered pasteboard. Ornament the box with pyrography, or a cluster of postage-stamps varnished, or tie three or four cigar ribbons around the box, fasten their ends with red sealing wax.

The Doll Bonbon Box

When postage stamps are pasted very smoothly, “crazy-quilt” fashion, and varnished, they make a fine enamel-like “all-over” decoration like those on the small try of china from the Young Women’s Christian Association Salesrooms. From the same pretty rooms came the postage-stamp pin-holder. A two-cent postage stamp of the Centennial issue is mounted on a small oblong of cardboard, covered with lavender silk; the front and back are alike. Black pins set off the tints very well.

Will you make another bonbon-box? Take a paper doll’s head and bust, and stitch on a strip of cardboard about five inches high, making the figure about eight inches in all. Cut in half a sheet of crimped tissue paper, gather the crimps together in the middle of each piece, and lay them over each shoulder, hanging even back and front. With a stout thread draw the drapery in like a girdle, just under where the arms belong, stuffing a morsel of cotton under the folds to give roundness. Paste the breadths of the skirt together, paste on the arms, catch the skirt lightly to the fingers, and in a fold or two around the front. The candy box is fastened to the pasteboard strip at the back.

An Iron-Work Inkstand

A new holder for safety-pins is a china doll with two strips of flannel hanging from its waist, stuck with pins; a satin ribbon covers these strips, suggesting an infant’s robe.

For stick-pins and hat-pins a cushion may be ornamented by a china doll fastened to a circular piece of pasteboard. Around the “sitting down” doll is a soft ring of curled hair, and this is placed in the centre of a piece of soft gay-colored silk. The silk is then drawn up lightly and gathered like a Loie Fuller gown around Miss Dolly’s breast.

The iron-work which is now in such favor is really artistic and durable. The big toy-shops and sporting goods shops keep outfits for this fancy work. These patterns are not elaborate. Do not let the curves degenerate into circular curves; keep them “catenary” curves, and you can easily make an inkstand such as is represented in the illustration.