Easter Orange Coriander Honey Glazed Ham

Easter is a special time in the South. For generations, every good and respectable family in the Bible Belt belonged to one of the town’s many church congregations. Easter is the holiest time in the church, and is also a time for Southerners to entertain, socialize, and carry on with traditions.

Easter can bring at least some degree of inner conflict to the South. Those of us who celebrate it know that Easter Sunday is a holy day, to be celebrated with joy, reverence, and gratitude. And yet we can get caught up in all the pageantry—the food, the fashion, the Peeps. Some ladies of the church have speculated as to whether the cold snap that always seems to strike the South on Easter weekend is the Good Lord's way of reminding us that Easter is a worship experience, not Project Runway. After all, it's hard to be prideful about your outfit when you're shaking in your organza.

When it comes to celebrating holidays, Southerners would never be accused of going the less-is-more route. Rather, we tend to take an all-in, over-the-top approach that’s matched only by the amount of butter we include in our dishes. And while we certainly don’t hold a monopoly on celebrating Easter, there’s no denying that we mark the day with exceptional flair.

For this beloved spring holiday, our exuberant MO means dyed eggs by the dozen, the whole crew dressed in seersucker, and tables set with every single piece of our grandmothers’ silver.

New church clothes are given. Girls get new dresses. Always. And sometimes a sweet hat, too. Boys get new suits. In the South, we love a good bow tie. That’s as southern as it comes, but the real highlight of Easter is our time spent at church. Families bring flowers from their gardens to add to the cross at church.

Egg dying is done every year. Now there are kits to glitter and glitz your eggs or wrap them in camouflage shrink wrap. But egg dying used to be an art form that took hours, even days to complete.

Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny hides are essential for the kids. A chocolate bunny, jellybeans, and a sweet stuffed rabbit are most likely to be found in one of these.

Egg hunts are an opportunity to socialize, show off your Easter finest, and take priceless pictures. If you’ve seen the movie Steel Magnolias, you have seen what a true Southern egg hunt is like.

Easter dinner. In the south we feed you. We’ll feed you at every opportunity. We love you with food. Easter dinner is a tradition all on its own. When did ham become the thing to lean on during the Easter holiday? It used to be that lamb was king on Easter, but eventually, the ham proved to be a cheaper cut of meat that was easier to source. And what would post-Easter meals be without a ham sandwich on white with mayo? We look forward to the circle of leftovers surrounding this inspiring holiday every year.