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An Easter bonnet is any new or fancy hat worn by women as a Christian headcovering on Easter. It represents the tail end of a tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter,"Also significant of a new beginning are the new clothes often purchased for children for the Easter celebration. The practice many times was recalled from the mothers' own childhoods. New clothes are symbolic of renewal in general," observes Cindy Dell Clark, Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith: Children's Myths in Contemporary America (University of Chicago Press), 1998:97; also briefly noted in Iona Archibald Opie and Moira Tatem, eds. A Dictionary of Superstitions, (Oxford University Press) 1989, s.v. "Easter"; in Stephen Roud and Jennifer Westwood, The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, 2003, s.v. "clothes: new, blessing", in harmony with the renewal of the year and the promise of spiritual renewal and redemption. As with the wearing of headcoverings by women during Christian prayer and worship in general, the use of Easter bonnets is inspired by the passage of in the Bible.
The Easter bonnet was fixed in popular culture by Irving Berlin, whose frame of reference was the Easter parade in New York City, a festive walkabout that made its way down Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Berlin composed the song "Easter Parade" in 1917, and wrote the familiar lyrics in 1933:
At the depths of the Great Depression a new hat at Easter, or a refurbished old one, was a simple luxury."The improved financial conditions of most post-Depression, post World War II families meant that new clothes were purchased year round, not just at Easter" (Marilyn Coleman, Lawrence H. Ganong, Kelly Warzinik, Family Life in 20th-Century America, 2007:127).In your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it, You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.Berlin, "Easter Parade", 1933.
The broader English tradition of new clothes at Easter has been noticed in late 16th century references by Peter Opie,Peter Opie, "Proposals for a Dictionary, Arranged on Historical Principles, of English Traditional Lore" Folklore 75.2 (Summer 1964:73-90) pp.77-80. who noted Mercutio's taunting of Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet: "Did'st thou not fall out with a Tailor for wearing his new Doublet before Easter?" At just the same time Thomas Lodge's moralising pamphlet Wits Miserie (London, 1596) recorded "The farmer that was contented in times past with his Russet Frocke & Mockado sleeues, now sels a Cow against Easter to buy him silken geere for his Credit".Cited by Opie 1964:79. In Samuel Pepys' diary, 30 March (Easter Day) 1662, he notes
Having my old black suit new furbished, I was pretty neat in clothes to-day, and my boy, his old suit new trimmed, very handsome.Opie 1964:79.
Poor Robin, an 18th-century English almanac maker, offered the doggerel
At Easter let your clothes be newand the notion that ill-luck would dog the one who had not something new at Easter expanded in the 19th century.
Or else be sure you will it rueNoted by Opie, op. cit. and repeated by folklorists as an old saw.
Today the Easter bonnet is a type of hat that women and girls wear to Easter liturgy, and (in the United States) in the Easter parade following it. Ladies purchased new and elaborate designs for particular church services and, in the case of Easter, took the opportunity of the end of Lent to buy luxury items. In certain localities such as Boston, Easter bonnets are becoming harder to find, "Where's the Easter wear? Forget the Easter eggs, try to find a bonnet", Boston Herald, April 16, 2006. while in other areas, such as Burlington County in New Jersey, Easter bonnets remain popular.
Although the traditional Easter bonnet is a hat with depictions of Easter and spring with bunnies, flowers, eggs, etc., recently more creative designers have been producing full face hat and mask taking the mantilla head dress from Spain as their inspiration.
Nowadays a traditional girl's Easter bonnet is usually white, wide-brimmed hat with a pastel colored satin ribbon wrapped around it and tied in a bow. It may also have flowers or other springtime motifs on top, and may match a special dress picked out for the occasion.
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