This is the fifth year for us in Dubai, and it is the fifth year in a row that we are celebrating Easter on Saturday. I know, Easter is always on Sunday. However, we live in a Muslim country, and rules are a bit different here. For Muslims, Friday is a holy day. It is the day for them to gather together and pray in the congregation. Therefore, Friday is the most important day of the week, which is why it is a non-working day, together with Saturday.
On the other hand, Sunday is the beginning of the workweek, and it is a regular workday. That is why, since we have moved to Dubai, we have stopped celebrating Easter on Sundays. It just doesn’t feel right to celebrate quickly before work or after work when everyone is already tired. In other words, we started to have our Easter on Easter Eve.
When we celebrate Easter, instead of focusing on the religious aspects of the holiday, we concentrate on spending time together and participating in our favorite traditions.
I decorate the house early in the spring. The day before Easter, I set and decorate our dining table to be ready for our Easter celebration lunch.
The night before, we always decorate hard-boiled eggs. All four of us are allergic to eggs, and we can’t eat them, but we do decorate them just for fun. The kids want to participate in the decorating process, but they still lack precision and delicacy, which is why we usually choose a simple method of decoration. For many years, my go-to method for dyeing and decorating eggs was to use onion skins. But this year, my son built a LEGO egg decorator, so we dyed eggs with food coloring and let the machine go crazy making decorative patterns. Here is a short video of our Easter egg decorating process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYGw8pUozk&feature=youtu.be.
First thing on Easter morning (which is Easter Eve morning for us), we all run downstairs to search for clues, do an Easter treasure hunt, and find our Easter baskets full of goodies.
Another Easter tradition of ours is making breakfast together. We usually make waffles and have a great breakfast outside, surrounded by nature and chirping birds.
Later, we all decide on a sweet indulgence for our feast. We all know that we should be careful with desserts, so we choose one of three options: cookies, cake, or cupcakes. This year, we voted for carrot cake cupcakes. It was a fun activity for the kids, especially making fondant carrot decorations.
Later, we all gather for a family lunch. It always starts with an egg fight game. The rules of the game are simple. First, everyone chooses the hard-boiled decorated egg that he likes and holds in his hand so that only the end of the egg is visible. Then, playing in pairs, one tries to tap another’s egg to break it without breaking one’s own. After trying one end, it’s time to try to break the other end of the egg. Everyone has a go. The winner is the one who has a champion egg, one that is not broken.
After the egg game is over, we eat a festive meal. This year, we had flank steak with oven-roasted baby carrots. We finished our Easter celebration with a cup of tea and freshly baked carrot cake cupcakes. It was a lovely and relaxed Easter celebration.
This is how we celebrated Easter this year. I am sending wishes of health to you all. Happy Easter! I hope you enjoyed your special weekend with those you live with.
I love this! Beautiful photos and the Easter colours are so great! Lots of Joy! Stay safe!
Hello Whitney! Nice to hear from you. I hope you had a lovely Easter celebration too. Stay home and stay safe!