Vernon museum looks at Easters from years past

Photo: Greater Vernon Museum and Archives

This is probably one of the strangest holiday seasons most of us have ever experienced.

We are isolated at home, away from our family and friends and unable to celebrate Easter as we normally would. Despite all this, the sun continues to shine, the Easter Bunny has been declared an essential worker, and many faith groups are offering virtual services.

However you choose to celebrate, we wish you the happiest of Easters.

Over the decades, Easter has brought a new season of vitality to the Okanagan. The weather is cheerful, flowers are beginning to bloom, and summer seems just around the corner. Despite the fact the Second World War was ranging, and many local families were torn apart by their sons and husbands going overseas to serve in the war effort, a poem by Leona Ames Hill published in the Vernon News of April 11, 1940, captured the optimism of the season: “When drifts lie meagre where a mist of green shimmers across the stubble fields, and clean and cold the early rain drives down the sky, forget the somber winds, the storms, and find a dream of April burning in your mind.”

In April 1982, Queen Silver Star Bev Foisy and Princess Silver Star Corrine Harris found themselves judging an Easter bonnet contest at the Polson Place Mall.

Nine-year-old Joelle March was awarded first place for her Victorian-inspired bonnet while Jennifer Knox, 15, won second place for her headwear adorned with what appeared to be a large Easter egg.  City Alderman Staff McKergow had the crowd in stitches as he modelled another award-winning bonnet, this one consisting of a huge stuffed rabbit that was at constant risk of toppling off the wearer’s head. 

In 1925, the Hudson’s Bay Company advertised “the event of the season,” a sale of dainty Easter neckwear, blouses and handbags along with chamoisette gloves and specialty chocolates. Fashionable ladies would have the opportunity to model their spring attire at a dance at the Vernon Military Camp’s armoury on Easter Monday.

And in April 2014, the Vernon Fire Department visited the House of Dwarfs Daycare where the children performed their Hop-A-Thon for Muscular Dystrophy, while the inaugural Splash of Colour Family Fun Run in Kin Park raised $95,000 to send children with disabilities to the Easter Seals Camp Winfield during the summer.