themselves or may even be organized by churches.

Easter Sunday is not a federal holiday but a number of stores are closed in many parts of the US and if they

during Easter Sunday.

In Pagan times, many groups of people organized spring festivals. Many of these celebrated the re-birth of

nature, the return the land to fertility and the birth of many young animals. These are the origins of the Easter

eggs that we still hunt for and eat.

combined, for example, in candy models of rabbits with nests full of eggs. Eggs, rabbits, hares and young

animals are thought to represent the re-birth and return to fertility of nature in the spring.