The Easter bunny still deposits fleeting gifts of chocolate eggs and marshmallow Peeps at 5-year-old Noah Garced’s house, but his mother is working to make sure an ancient custom of spiritual-themed Easter baskets remains important throughout her son’s life.

“This is my tradition, something I’m so proud of that has such deep meaning, and I’m trying to teach my children so they can pass it on,” Marta Garced said as she straightened an embroidered linen cloth that’s part of this year’s basket in the making for her family.

The native of Poland moved to the U.S. 16 years ago and brought with her a cultural mainstay that’s near and dear to her heart and that of many Eastern European Christians.

Her family spends much time, energy and intention on creating Easter baskets that become feasts for the eyes, body and soul.

While others see a jar of horseradish, a ring of kielbasa (Polish sausage), hand-painted eggs and pascha, a sweet yeast bread, each item reminds observers of the commemoration of the suffering, death and resurrection of the Christian savior, Jesus.

“From when we’re little, every year we put the basket together and bring it to the church to be blessed so we can have a beautiful breakfast out of the basket that’s been cleansed,” Garced said.

The ritual of assembling Easter baskets with symbolic foods and having a priest perform a rite of blessing with holy water on the day before Easter dates to the early 12th century in Poland. The activity spread to other countries and churches, including Catholic and Orthodox.

The practice became widespread in the U.S., died off somewhat and appears to be experiencing a resurgence, said the Rev. Marek Król, pastor of Our Lady of the Woods in Woodland Park and St. Peter Chapel in Cripple Creek.

“It’s slowly coming back and something we’re working to keep going,” he said. “As a church, there’s more emphasis on family celebrations, and it’s important that people understand why this was used in the past and realize the symbolism that continues today.”

At least six churches in the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, including his, offer an Easter basket blessing, according to officials.

“Every element of the basket is exploring the meaning of life — even the decorations,” said Król, who was born in Poland under Communist control when some of the elements were difficult to find.

“But my parents took care that we had everything that should be in the baskets, even if it was hard to get because of food limits,” Król said.

Celebrations revolve around food in every culture in the world, Król said, even in the poorest countries, because “food means blessing and prosperity.”

The baskets are a highly anticipated part of Easter, he said, because Christians who fast during Lent break their abstinence from particular foods on Easter morning, when they eat the bounty in the baskets.

“It’s a breakfast of joy,” Król said, as believers celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

Components of the basket can vary by geographic region and cultural influences but generally include certain foods embodied in biblical passages.

A chunk of butter shaped into the figure of a lamb refers to Christ as the lamb of God and victor over sin and death, said the Rev. Gus Stewart, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate.

Braided sweet bread, sometimes having a cross emblem, indicates Jesus as the true bread from heaven, he said, while eggs depict new life in the risen Christ.

Ham or sausage is included to break the Lenten fast from meat, and horseradish is a throwback to the Jewish Passover, “to remind us of the bitterness of slavery out of Egypt and slavery to sin, and how we want to be free of that,” Stewart said.

Salt, a fundamental preservative, speaks of humans being the salt of the earth and displaying the joy of Christ toward others, cheese a foreshadowing of the richness of heaven and a candle showing the light of Christ.

Making the baskets becomes like a competition in some churches, to see who can assemble the most beautiful presentation, participants say.

Colorful ribbons, sprigs of greenery and detailed linens embroidered with crosses, lambs or flowers and often handed down from generation to generation are among the decorative touches, Stewart said.

Garced travels to Denver every year to her favorite European deli for Polish sausage and also was heading across town in Colorado Springs last week to another deli for bread.

Her mother sends linens, signifying the shroud that covered Jesus in the tomb, and hand-decorated wooden eggs from Poland to include in her family’s basket.

“It’s not just the food, it’s the aesthetic that comes with the food,” Król said.

Children are enlisted to assist with dyeing hard-boiled eggs, which in Garced’s family are split in half on Easter morning and used in toasts wishing each other God’s blessings and goodness in their lives.

Król remembers his family in Poland boiling the eggs in onion for a brown color, blue ink for a blue shade and greenery for green-tinted shells.

Other families make a toast with the whole hard-boiled eggs, cracking the shells together and saying, “Christ is risen, halleluiah, halleluiah,” Stewart said.

“The cracking sound is like the opening of the tomb as Christ is risen,” Stewart said.

Król’s church has six Polish families, but the Easter basket blessing is drawing more partakers from different backgrounds each year, he said.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Southgate, where Garced attends, is the spiritual home of 60 Polish families, who gather in an outside garden for the basket blessing. This year, Garced provided flyers for all parishioners on how to assemble a traditional Easter basket.

“I appreciate blessing not only the baskets but also the potential they symbolize for family unity, peace and harmony,” Stewart said.

A handful of families at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church and School put together baskets, Father Jason Keas said.

“People look forward to the food,” said the Polish priest, who also has fond memories of participating in the custom as he was growing up in the Springs.

“There’s something about the anticipation and eating of these specific foods on Easter that reminds us of the hope of Christ,” Keas said.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.