March 2022

Feature Article

A tisket, a tasket – the story of Easter baskets

by Corbin Crable

 If you grew up in the mid-20th century onward, you’re likely familiar with all of the beloved staples you’d find in your Easter basket – Cadbury Crème Eggs (have they gotten smaller?), chocolate bunnies, malted milk balls, jelly beans, Jordan Almonds, candy buttons, and neon-colored, marshmallow Peeps. The favorite Easter candy of most Americans this year, according to a survey disbursed by RetailMeNot, is Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Eggs.

Meant to only hold eggs and candy for the past few hundred years, in recent decades the Easter basket it has become customary to add any variety of toys and small gifts to baskets given to children on Easter Sunday.  

In recent years, the article notes, spending on Easter-related gifts has exceeded $680 million, and it only continues to become an industry whose growth continues – as do the cost of the items found in a basket.

In other words, Easter baskets aren’t just for candy any longer.

More recently, parents are viewing these baskets as a way to gift items to children they can use – school supplies, books, gift cards, even articles of clothing.

“Easter baskets have become an indicator of status and means as much as they are a part of the Easter tradition,” D’Costa writes.
And they’re not just for kids, either. Adults in recent years have begun trading baskets as well.

“Like so many Easter traditions, the Easter basket has come a generic event that is tenuously tied to Easter and the religious tones of the holiday,” according to D’Costa’s article. “This broad appeal further drives its marketability and opens the door for greater displays of status.”

Still, despite their growing appeal to adults, Easter baskets remain a special treat coveted by children the world over. At least one writer, Hope Yancey of Our State Magazine, says that she and her sister delighted in their quest to discover more treats hidden within the basket’s plastic grass.

“(My sister’s) best basket memory is the suspense of rifling through it and not knowing what would be in it. That, and the Cadbury Creme Eggs,” Yancey wrote in a 2014 column. “Even now, she proclaims them her all-time favorite candy, with their filling the color of egg albumen and yolk, surrounded by a milk chocolate shell. On occasion, we might receive sugar egg dioramas with miniature scenes of rabbits or ducks displayed inside. (Those, we enjoyed more as keepsakes than for consumption, and they lasted practically forever). Like hungry rabbits in search of a tender patch of clover to nibble, we pawed through the Easter grass to find forgotten items hiding in the depths of the baskets.”

Now, as an adult, Yancey wrote, she appreciates not just the basket’s contents, but also the time and care her mother took in making them special – something parents had been doing on behalf of the Easter Bunny for years.

“Their presentation, and the fact that our mother took the time to pull it all together, made the difference,” Yancey wrote. “Somehow, the end result was always something greater than the sum of its parts.”

March 2022

Feature Article

Masks bring touches of playfulness, color to Mardi Gras

by Corbin Crable

Those masks manufactured in Venice are festooned with gold and silver embellishments in the Baroque style; they are intended to appear more comedic in nature. Other Venetian masks known as “Bauta” covered not just the upper half of one’s face, but the entire face. These masks usually had no mouth, but included a prominent brow and an elongated nose. This style of mask would usually be worn with a cape and tricorne-style hat.

A third style, the Colombiana, was a half-mask held up to the wearer’s eye level, usually affixed to a stick with ribbon; they also could simply be tied to one’s head. Meant to convey the wearer’s elevated social status and elegance, the Colombiana mask was usually decorated with jewels, gold and even feathers.

One style of mask that has made its way into pop culture in this current global pandemic era is the “medico della peste,” or plague doctor mask. With a curved beak that covered the nose and mouth, the mask was filled with fragrant items like dried flowers, cloves, and herbs thought to purify the air. The mask was invented in the 1600s by a French doctor who thought it would prevent physicians from catching the plague; in Mardi Gras celebrations, meanwhile, the plague doctor mask is meant to serve as a somber reminder of the revelers’ mortality.

Finally, a modern Venetian mask, simply referred to as the “volto” (“face”) mask, is crafted from porcelain, simply painted, with simple expressions on the mask’s sealed lips. This type of mask is able to be tied on with a ribbon.

Today’s masks used in Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans have taken the concept of these classic Venetian masks and expanded upon them to include portrayals of animals, angels, beasts, devils, and clowns, among other characters.

“Through this all, it is shown that masks are deeply personal. A Mardi Gras mask is not confined to any specific set of rules, colors, shapes, or accessories; it is simply confined to one’s own imagination and boldness,” Ortiz writes. “(People create) masks of all sorts, from simple, elegant masks, to masks depicting animals, to masks used to convey a message.” 

In addition to being found online on auction sites as full-sized versions, smaller versions of every style of mask also can be found, as a brooch, earrings, or as a wall decoration in your home. Let these items express your colorful personality and imagination during this Mardi Gras season.

Source: Collectors Weekly