This is a very fragile ecosystem; please do NOT leave the trail! (And please be gentle with the greenery, and careful to close the log container snugly...)
In ancient agricultural societies in parts of the world with severe winters, the return of the sun and regeneration of life in Spring was cause for celebration. Today in the Western World this Spring festival is celebrated as Easter. Originally Easter coincided with Jewish holidays, but the First Council of Nicaea (325 CE) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's Spring equinox.
Modern-day Easter evolved from two ancient traditions: one Judeo-Christian and the other Pagan. Both Christians and Pagans have celebrated death and resurrection themes following the Spring Equinox for millennia. Most historians believe that many elements of the Christian observance of Easter incorporated earlier Pagan celebrations.
The name Easter is derived from Eostre, who was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Linguists trace her lineage through the Semitic goddess Astarte and the ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar, all the way back to Inanna, the great goddess of the Sumerians who invented written history in Mesopotamia around five thousand years ago.
This is a cache to celebrate the season of renewal and the promise of summer!