The day before Easter, I surveyed my followers on social media on their preference of ham or lamb for Easter dinner.
According to my survey, more of you are eating ham today than lamb. Some chose beef. The reason we eat lamb today is pretty obvious. The lamb represents the sacrificial lamb of God.
But in the US many more of us will eat ham and I wanted to do a little research as to why. I secretly was hoping I would find that we ate ham at Easter because the pink color of ham matched our pretty pink Easter dresses and pink dyed eggs. But, probably not.
Some say that the tradition of ham at Easter goes back to pagan traditions associated with the celebrations of the Spring equinox, and others say that ham was eaten during this time because pork was considered a lucky meat by pre-Christian Europeans.
However, in the Ozarks and much of the rural US, the tradition of ham at Easter probably originated from the fact that pigs were slaughtered in the winter and the hams and shoulders were cured. The curing process in those days took many months, so the first hams were ready at Easter.
It really doesn't matter why we choose ham or lamb or beef, what matters is that we are taking the day to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus with our families or (like we do it) with our church family.
After note: For lunch, Ed made a ham for church pot-luck and had a piece of it, but there is a man at our church that makes some awesome BBQ chicken, so that's what I had.