Faith Crafter Magazine 2 2016 | Page 7

What I like most this time of the year is that the days are getting longer and warmer. Plus, it is no longer dark in the mornings when I leave for work. In a couple of weeks, the first spring flower will bloom in bright bursts of colors, and life will unfurl and bustle in beauty as winter fades. I have always loved Easter, and when I accepted Christ as my Savior eight years ago, I started to question my holiday traditions especially around Easter. We have an Easter tradition in Sweden to bring in tree branches and put them in water. We then decorate our tree branches with empty eggshells that we paint and colorful feathers. Decorating an Easter tree, is something I have done every year since childhood but never given a second thought as to why I was doing it. When researching my homelands’ Easter holiday tradition, I discovered many surprises. The Easter tree symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus. The branches represent the flogging that Jesus received, and the empty Y