Easter basket

In modern times, the baskets may be filled with food or toys and presented to children as gifts.

An Easter basket contains the foods traditionally forbidden to consume during Lent (meat, eggs, and dairy products) that is blessed by a priest for breaking the Lenten fast.

[3][4] In parts Western Christianity, emphasis is placed on making a Lenten sacrifice (giving up pleasures such as chocolate and cookies) rather than the traditional abstinence from meat, dairy products, and wine (though a few congregations have revived this practice);[A][7] as such, in countries of the Western world such as the United States, Easter baskets are filled with Easter eggs and sweets after having abstained from them during Lent.

[11] The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood (bukszpan), the typical Easter evergreen.

[10] Congregations and synods belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have made Easter baskets to be given to needy children or elderly persons.