Regardless of whether you celebrate the religious holiday (I do not), there is plenty of awesome to be found in modern Easter. Chocolate bunnies? Sure! Jelly bean eggs? As long as they aren’t the black ones (those go to my dad), then fine! Daffodils and flowers blooming? Not really affiliated with Easter so yes, yes, of course.

Our friends in old timey Ann Arbor were mostly Christian. Some of the Tribe was here  but we were then (as now) the minority religion. Here are some things going on back in the day at good ol’ Eastertime:

• St. Andrews Church (which is still in use!!) had evening lectures in the week leading up to Easter in 1846. They ranged in topic from how the religion of Christ has been adapted to the wants of man to the humanity of Christ
• In 1897, the churches all had something afoot from a “particularly bright and pleasing” choral concert at St. Andrews to an orchestra and choir performance at St. Thomas (also still in operation!)
• 1895 saw the Ann Arbor Commandary No. 13 Knights’ Templar threw its annual Easter party on Tuesday beginning with a grand march and ending with a waltz. Room were decorated with bunting, flowers, plants, and pictures. E.V. Hangsterfer provided the catering and the details were hammered out such “that nothing but a successful social event could result.”
• St. Andrews was still cranking out the Easter celebrations in 1940 with an Easter Ball! Here is the “chairman” (I understand that it is a term of its time but I loathe when “chairman” is used for a female. My sexist political science professor said something like “well it’s applied to both genders” to which I said “okay then let’s use chairwoman and apply it both genders”. That asshole never gave me about a B+ in any of his classes, by the by).
• This about sums up many Easters in Michigan–an Easter snowperson. Can you spot the typo in the caption??
• Our friends at Mack & Schmid were advertising their Easter wares in 1891, including Easter black lace scarves (which I didn’t realize was a thing) as well as some “Very English” jackets.
• You bet your bunny tail that the folks at Sugar Bowl had some Easter candy specials!
• And Wahr & Miller simply told us to GET YOUR EASTER SHOES at their store on Main Street, circa 1894.

And let’s be honest…getting Easter shoes is much better than sitting on the lap of this thing: