Easter Lilies
© Norine Woods
In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
From Easter Parade by Irving Berlin
It's spring, and it's the Easter season. For some, it's a time of prayer and praise, for remembrance of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. For the younger generation, it's a time to dream of Easter bunnies carrying baskets of chocolate eggs, a time for egg hunts and baby animals -- lambs, puppies, kittens, puppies.
It's also a time to welcome into your home, either as a gift or as a purchase, an Easter Lily. The Easter Lily has been associated with spring and with Easter for hundreds of years. It's pure white beauty is often seen decorating churches for the Easter services. During the Victorian era, however, worshipers insisted that the stamens and pistils be removed because they could lead to impure thoughts.
But before Christianity discovered the Easter lily, Pagan
religions linked it to several goddesses. Astarte,
goddess of fertility during Phoenician times, was known as the
Goddess of Easter lilies. Mythology tells us that Juno, roman
goddess of women, was suckling Hercules, and the excess milk fell
to earth, leaving behind a trail we know as the Milky Way. The
milk that landed on earth became -- Easter lilies! Easter lilies are sometimes associated with Venus, the Roman goddess of
love and beauty, and with Hera, Greek goddess of marriage. Easter also is the time the Pagan religions celebrate the vernal
equinox, the greening of the world. The Easter lily is the
sacred emblem of the Sumetro-Babylonian Goddess,
Lilith. In Medieval times, the Easter Lily was called pas-
flower, Pash-flower, Pasque flower or Passion flower. To the
Pagans, this passion refers to the Spring passion of the
vegetation god for the Earth goddess. The Pagan holiday often
coincides with the Jewish Passover. In religious circles, the
passion in passion flower is said to refer to the Passion of
Christ. The flowers of the Easter Lily are pure white,
sometimes with a greenish tinge. They are funnel-shaped and have
long orange stamens and a light fragrance. The greenhouse plants usually bloom during
Easter or around Mother's Day, and may be of the "Nellie White"
variety. The plants are propagated by scaly
bulbs where each scale will develop into a root or a shoot
when the bulb is planted. These plants have narrow, dark green
leaves and may grow as tall as three feet. When purchasing a lily, look for a compact plant
with a couple of open flowers and lots of buds. Be sure to check
the axis of the leaves (the place where the leaves join the stems) for insect pests such
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