What's in Your Easter Basket?

Spring is here and that means Easter baskets filled with good things to eat. Did you know that Easter is called a movable feast? And no, it's not because you need a basket to carry all the candy and treats that show up on Easter morning.

The holiday takes place on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is the date in March when spring begins (either March 20 or 21). Go ahead, you can figure it out by marking the days on your calendar. Equinox means 'equal night' because when the sun is over the equator, as it is for the spring equinox, that day and night are more or less equal in length of time, all over the world.

But back to the candy.

Easter is second only to Halloween as the most important holiday for candy. On Halloween, you have to go out and get the candy, but on Easter, it comes to you. Did you know that 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are made for Easter? And that most of us--76%--eat the ears first?

Over 16 billion jelly beans are eaten at Easter time. If you had that many jelly beans, you could wrap them around them planet three times. Just imagine the Earth with rings like the planet Saturn, made out of jelly beans!

Peeps or eggs, what's your favorite?

The 1800s must have been a century when people started thinking seriously about candy because that's also when chocolate eggs became an Easter tradition. The most popular Easter candies after chocolate are the Marshmallow Peeps. Americans buy 700 million Peeps each year! The favorite color is yellow, but marshmallow Peeps are available in many other colors as well.

Happy Easter, enjoy your treats. And remember . . . it’s nice to share!