Why are Easter dresses always summery things when in at least half the country, Easter weather is usually cold?

I don’t know, but you are right. I remember wearing lightweight, short-sleeved frocks with a winter coat!

People who dress to spite the weather aren’t thinking clearly. There are no longer rules except for my crazy mother, who still does what “they” tell her to.

You already answered your own question. It is still warm somewhere, and you are aware that spring is usually warm enough to wear a dress right? It is 60 right now and will get warmer in the next days as well.

Wishful thinking. If you dress for nice weather then the weather will be nice, right?

It is what Churchill called the triumph of hope over experience.

@Blackberry I think you missed the point. Yes, it is warm somewhere, but all Easter dresses are made for warm weather. I think @jca is asking why there are no Easter outfits made for cooler climates. (I personally remember wearing the exceedingly light-weight dresses in the snow just because it was Easter, and Easter dresses are always light-weight.)

I think dpworkin and stump are right. Easter is a Spring/rebirth celebration and even if Spring has not yet arrived it is much desired and people dress accordingly.

I’d be in favour of all the gorgeous women wearing playboy bunny outfits.It may be cold out but that would certainly be hot hot hot.

@bobbinhood Oh I see. Well then I got nothing lol.

What’s an Easter dress? Wouldn’t a nice suit with removable jacket and lovely blouse do just as well?

As a corellary, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur always fall after Labor Day. We were forced to wear woolen suits or dresses no matter what the temperature. My memories are of sweating for two hours.

Maybe Easter was invented in a hot country.

A corollary for where I live, the Pacific Northwest: when June comes we’re always suckered into thinking summer’s here. We do get some nice days. We also get at least two weeks in the low 50’s. But our poetic ideas were fixed in language back in England, where so many of the first American immigrants came from. Over there, I gather June is really hot. As loyal, trusting English speakers, we pack up our wool and raingear in May and start wearing little t-shirts. Summer colds, we’re ready for you.

Edit; I thank the Academy and Susan C; corollary.

I dunno, climate change? haha – sorry, I’m kidding.

Same reason the majority of ads feature slender and attractive people, ideals.

I think it is symbolic.

Easter and Spring have parallels in that they mark a transition from dark, cold, death to new life, light (and by association, warmth). The symbol of the Easter dress is that of putting the cold, dark winter behind you with expectation of warm summery days (and life) ahead.

Ok, so symbols don’t always reflect real-life.

Maybe because people go out to buy their new Easter dress, and all of retail is already gearing up for spring/summer, so that is simply what is available even in northern climates. Easter also has been adopted to be the mark of the beginning of Spring, the rebirth, and pastels and white are symbolic of that. But, mostly I think it is because of modern day retailing.

@jca I know exactly what you are talking about. Every year when I set out to find an Easter dress for my daughter, I have to make sure I also find a matching sweater and warm tights. This time of year, dresses for girls are all sleeveless or have very short sleeves. We live in the Northeast, and it is very rare for us to have Easter weather that doesn’t require at least a jacket. Heck, we have pictures of our kids outside hunting for eggs while wearing winter coats and hats!

It’s not as difficult to find something for a boy or an adult to wear without freezing or needing an extra layer. I have no problem finding long-sleeved shirts and cute sweater vests for my boys to wear on Easter.

This year I’m not even buying Easter clothes. The kids can wear something a bit nicer than usual, we’re not dressing them up. Unless I happen to find myself in a clothing store and they just happen to have outfits on sale that my kids can look back on and find humiliating…

Maybe because summer is nearby?

Easter is a combination of a christian religious holiday and pre-christian celebration of the return of the Sun after a long winter.

If you are a christian, your clothing shouldn’t be as important as the celebration of the return of Christ from death. I expect any clothes appropriate for church are good enough If you are there to impress your neighbors, then you probably shouldn’t bother going to church.

If you are celebrating spring and fertility then what you wear should be something that you can easily discard. Hopefully you’ll be some place warm enough for a proper pagan orgy.

Either way, what you wear isn’t as important as the meaning you attach to the holiday. For me, it is an opportunity to sleep late, so pajamas are appropriate attire, unless I get lucky on Saturday night.

@Ron_C When I was young Easter was painting eggs, egg hunts, and chocolate. I once asked my mom why were allowed to paint eggs and not to have a Christmas tree (You might remember I am Jewish) and she said because the eggs are about the beginning of spring. I realize as I get older people do whatever they want and somehow make it make sense in their own minds. For my mom I think she just liked art projects, chocolate and getting us out of the house.

@JLeslie I like the idea of doing what you like and following traditions that make you happy.

I never went to a pagan orgy to celibrate the end of winter but it is something that I’d like to try. I’d even decorate some eggs to contribute to the party.

did somebody say “orgy?”

Easter is the celebration of lige, so wearing floral frumpy winter dresses would not work. Maybe in the past, Easter was closer to Summer than Winter, and therefore such dresses were practical?

The triumph of hope over experience.

>.< I meant “life” not “lige” I don’t know how I live with myself…

@PacificToast: I was wondering, but ligelly it’s ok. (And f and g are next to each other on the keyboard, so you are one of the few who can actually plead “typo.”)

Gige yourself a break.

@gailcalled Thank you for your mercy. u_u

@PacificToast: Glagly.

The term “Easter dress” drives me up the wall. I had two girls and they never wore a brand new dress on Easter, even if they had one in their closet.

Bible belt = warm springs?

@timmeaganewen Your comment made me think of some of the Easter Hats I see here in the bible belt. A couple of years ago, on Easter Sunday, the wife of one of the ministers in one of the mega churches here in Memphis was wearing a hat that looked like the Mad Hatter in fuscia and green, covered in sequins. She was not in the church at the time she was at the next table where I was having lunch. It did not scream Easter to me, it just screamed attention.

it screams “tacky” to me.

@benjcaew That too. My brother-in-law was visiting and they took a photo with their phone, because they could not believe what they saw.