This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

The treasured traditions of Easter, Little Bunnies, parades, new Easter outfits, sunrise services,

passion plays, and so much more, infuse our celebration of the season with meaning and glowing

memories. Best-selling author Ace Collins is

here to reveal the events and backgrounds that shape the best-loved customs of Easter, introducing you

to stories you've never heard and a deeper appreciation for the holiday's familiar hallmarks.

Here's best-selling author, Ace Collins.

Of all of the holidays that we celebrate here in the United States, there's no doubt that

Easter is the oldest holiday. It may not be the oldest official holiday as far as our calendar

goes, but of people who have celebrated Easter, it goes back to the very first Easter when people celebrated

Christ being risen, when they met the risen Christ.

And for the first generation or two after that, they would get together and visit about

what happened on that day and talk to people who actually saw a risen Christ or actually saw the crucifixion

or knew Christ when he walked the earth. And in that sense, it was a very, very personal holiday as opposed to

something that had traditions and you did this on day, you got up on before the sun came up and went out to the cross

and that you had displayed somewhere.

It was an opportunity to visit with people who were their firsthand, who knew Jesus.

And therefore, it wasn't as much a holiday, if you will,

is it was more of a reunion of people gathering to talk about

what to them were current events, recent current events. It's like probably not much different

than visiting with grandparents who may have remembered Pearl Harbor as a little kid and

...