Every community has its Easter traditions in North Dakota. The Christian holiday celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and varies as to its date each year, but is often observed around this time in spring. Throughout North Dakota, the Easter traditions and doings have varied.
For years, the Plum Creek Homemakers Club of the Richardton area crafted Easter bonnets. So did the Anamoose Ideal Homemakers Club. The Butte Senior Citizens Club held dinners for Easter and hosted a pre-Easter food sale in 1976 to raise money for a bicentennial float. Social clubs in Pekin, Lisbon and other towns would send cards and gifts to residents of eldercare facilities.
Easter was an ideal date for social events, too. An Easter masque ball was a highlight of the social season for the Osnabrock area. Orchestras came from as far away as Grand Forks.
The Alice Concert Band hosted an Easter ball in 1916—at 35 cents per couple. For years, Easter dances were an event in Taylor, with music from that town’s Concert Band.
In the Pettibone area, a couple furnished hundreds of eggs for an Easter egg hunt. “No one went home at night without his quota of ‘loot,’” the local history says.
Churches marked milestones in coordination with Easter Sunday. In 1910, the bell of the new Methodist church in Mott rang in Easter Sunday tidings. The congregation of the Baptist Church near Martin dedicated a new church on Easter Sunday in 1965. In 1970, the church held a “Burning of the Mortgage” ceremony on Easter Sunday. The Bang congregation of the Portland area was organized the day before Easter Sunday in 1881 in a log house. The Church of God in Roseglen was dedicated at Easter time in 1940, the same day of the church’s first service.
A Braddock-area couple were married on Easter Sunday in 1919 in Linton. Another hallmark of the season occurred on that day: a terrible snowstorm.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
75th Anniversary Jubilee 1883-1958: Richardton, North Dakota
Butte, North Dakota 1906-1981 Diamond Jubilee
Sheridan County Heritage ’76: A bicentennial project
McHenry County: Its History and Its People
The Spirit Lives On: Osnabrock, ND 1887-1987
Pettibone, N. Dak.: 1910-1960
50th Anniversary: Hettinger County, North Dakota
Braddock, N.D., 1884-1984
A Saga of Two Cities, 1881-1981: A History of Mayville-Portland
Diamond Jubilee, Pekin, North Dakota: 75 Years, 1906-1981
Golden Jubilee, 1917-1967: Roseglen, North Dakota, June 30, July 1-2, 1967
Prairie Notes: Centennial, 1881-1981 Taylor, North Dakota
