Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Easter What???

The Connor family has just closed out our first Easter in Australia - successful by Kaia's standards which is good because I have been berating myself for not putting enough stuff in the Easter baskets this time. But I'll cut myself some slack since I just didn't have the time or wherewithal to put a whole lot of effort into the holiday this year.

On to more interesting things:

Kaia came home from school the other day claiming she saw the Easter Bilby during class.

I was sure I didn't hear her right so I just said "You saw the Easter Bunny at school? Oh that's good because I talked to him the other day to make sure he knows we moved to Australia and he promised me that he knew our new address and he'll be here on Easter..." -- etc. etc...

Kaia looked at me like I had three heads and said "Mom, I didn't say Bunny I said BILBY."

Huh???

So Kaia gave me the lo-down. The bilby is a native Australian marsupial who has long ears. The species is endangered and there are currently only about 600 bilbies in existence today. Because they are endangered there is a national effort to promote "bilby awareness" and Australians have introduced the Easter bilby. People can now purchase chocolate Easter bilbies at the grocery store during Easter and the proceeds will go toward restoring the bilby species.

So next year in addition to our chocolate eggs and treats, I'll be putting a couple of bilbies in the baskets...

Happy Easter to friends and family in the States and beyond!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now when asked to name 3 marsupials, I can respond: kangaroo, wombat and BILBY.

Happy Easter!

Colleen Howell said...

From the looks of your picture, there's plenty of Easter Bilby's running through the alleys of Chicago.

Austinites said...

You know, bunnies are kind of a sore subject with Aussies. I don't know if you bring it up at cocktail hour, but rabbits have infested, yes, infested, the country/continent for over 100 years. There are old movies of swarms of thousands of bunnies overrunning farms and ranches. Desperate homeowners shooting, poisoning, trapping, drowning them, to no avail. Some parents even threaten children with them, "If you're bad, the bunnies will come get you!" So, in that culture, the Easter Bunny could be seen as more of a menace than a delightful springtime visitor. The idea of a rabbit coming into the house at night probably gives kids nightmares. That's why bilbies are so appealing. With only 600 left, it wouldn't take any time at all to "take care of them".