Easter bunny story may change, other rituals remain the same
Apr 12, 2020
The Easter Bunny waves to kids outside the Mattapoisett Harbormaster’s office. Photo courtesy: Mattapoisett Harbormaster.
A more traditional Easter egg in the Rochester scavenger hunt. Photo by: Tim Seeberger.
The Easter Bunny rides shotgun in the CeCe and D traveling marketing truck in a parade around Mattapoisett in partnership with Bold Moves Real Estate. Photo courtesy: CeCe and D traveling market
A photo of the decked out traveling marketing truck. Photo courtesy: CeCe and D
Sippican Week could not determine why Nixon, 4, of Rochester seemingly rechristened Easter “Nerf Gun Day.” Photo by: Tim Seeberger
Melissa Weigel a Kindergarten teacher at Rochester Memorial School put this hay bale bunny up the day before Easter. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
With so much else in the world changing, some Marion parents changed the classic narrative of the Easter Bunny too, while for others it remained untouched by the pandemic.
Jennifer Murphy stuck to a classic Easter Bunny narrative.
“The bunny comes at night and leaves the Easter buckets filled with candy on Easter Sunday,” was her story to her kids.
Other parents looked to reassure their children that both they and the Easter Bunny would be okay, even with the pandemic.
K-leigh Crippen said that she “told the kids that bunnies can’t get covid-19, and that the bunnies are the only ones who touch the Easter treats, so they are all good.”
Another mother, Elizabeth Evelyn, explained why her children got baskets, but missed the usual Easter Egg hunts this year.
“The Easter Bunny sanitized all the baskets, but does not have the staff to sanitize enough eggs to do easter egg hunts for all of the kids, so he is skipping a year,” she said before Easter, adding that “Magical creatures don’t need masks and gloves, they can’t get sick,” to reassure their kids.
M Marso Mckenna referenced Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, in her response. Arden declared both the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy essential workers in a press conference.
Mckenna said that Arden had one of the “best explanations for children,” and advised other parents to, “think about it for your own kids and adjust her words — they were gentle, and truthful.”
In Mattapoisett, the Harbormaster was able to snap a photo of the Easter Bunny at the Town Wharf on April 12.
Cece and D traveling market and Bold Moves Real Estate teamed up and did a drive-by parade through Mattapoisett, with vehicles decked out in Easter decorations and the Easter Bunny at the helm of CeCe and D market truck. Although the Easter Bunny had to leave to drop off gifts to other places all over the world, he said that his brief stop in Mattapoisett, “was a hit and we had fun doing it.”
To make up for the lack of egg hunting, Rochester residents took it upon themselves to create a socially-distanced easter egg hunt via Facebook.
Residents could drive around the town’s endless winding roads to spot eggs sealed in bags and taped to mailboxes. Once found, they took photos of the ones they found and uploaded them to Facebook. The family that found the most eggs on the list won a prize.
