The religious aspect of Easter, as a celebration of Jesus's resurrection, is sometimes alluded to as well, if not emphasized. Thus, you may see characters going to an Easter church service, or at the very least dressing up in their Sunday best (and if that's the case, you'll often see someone complaining about how uncomfortable their clothes are). Female characters may be seen wearing a fancy Easter bonnet.
If there are Jewish characters, there will be an overlap with them celebrating Passover due to the holiday coinciding with Easter.
Compare to the similar Christmas Episode, Christmas Special, Halloween Episode, Halloween Special, Thanksgiving Episode, Valentine's Day Episode, and St. Patrick's Day Episode for similar holiday-centric tales. Also, compare Easter Special.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Cadbury Cream Eggs airs their classic Easter Bunny auditions commercial every year leading up to Easter.
Anime & Manga
- The first chapter of Moriarty the Patriot (and episodes 2 and 3 of the anime) is a prologue that culminates on Easter day, when William and his brothers burn down the Moriarty manor and William is symbolically reborn as "William James Moriarty" in keeping with his role as a Messianic Archetype constantly compared to Jesus.
Fan Works
- The Calvin & Hobbes: The Series episode "Eggs for Calvin!" has Calvin being forced to find five Easter eggs hidden around town, or else he gets pranked.
- The Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Smurfed Behind: The Passion Of The Smurfs" is one where the time-traveling Smurfs arrive outside Jerusalem around 33 A.D. for the last week of Jesus' life on earth before His death and resurrection, with Tapper telling his fellow Smurfs the significance of the event. Snappy, however, is disappointed in that it has nothing to do with eggs and Easter bunnies, while Slouchy comments that Snappy is only disappointed in not getting to see Smurfette in a bunny suit.
- The Punch-Out!! fanfic Ma Fille has a chapter called "Easter Egg", where Glass Joe and Von Kaiser, with their daughter Katrina, spend Easter with Joe's family to help out with their newborn.
Films - Live-Action
- Steel Magnolias begins and ends on Easter over the span of five years with Shelby getting married in the opening scene and Annelle giving birth at the end.
Literature
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Downplayed for the book "Hard Luck". A recurring theme in the book is Greg and his relatives (on his mother's side) who are visiting for Easter looking for a plastic egg in which a dead relative allegedly hid her wedding ring.
- Junie B. Jones: In Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny Junie B. and her friends decide to celebrate Easter at Lucille's house by having an egg hunt.
- Roys Bedoys: Despite none of the characters getting any older, this series actually has two – “Let’s Go Easter Egg Hunting, Roys Bedoys!” (in which Roys takes more than his share of Easter eggs and must give some of them up for his friends) and “Easter is Cancelled, Roys Bedoys!” (in which the Bedoys brothers take matters into their own hands when an Easter egg hunt gets cancelled.)
- Whateley Universe: "Tennyo's Easter", a Protagonist Title + Time Title, which is less about how Tennyo spends her Easter holiday than that she has an outer space adventure that takes place during the holiday.
Live-Action TV
- All Creatures Great & Small (2020): The Series 4 premiere "Broodiness" takes place at Easter of 1940.
- The Boardwalk Empire episode "Sunday Best" takes place during Easter 1923 with the plot revolving Nucky and his family visiting his estranged brother Eli's family for Sunday dinner.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: In the episode "Valloweaster", some awkwardness involving the crew's annual Halloween heist leads to the event being held on Easter instead, leading to such events such as a master plan involving an army of Easter Bunnies.
- Everybody Hates Chris: In "Everybody Hates Easter", Chris escorts Tasha to the Easter Pageant after her boyfriend breaks up with her but how to deal with having to be in two places at once without his mother finding out. Meanwhile, Julius pretends to be working on Easter so that he doesn't have to go to Church.
- The second season of Happy! is an entire Easter season, with the plot revolving around Sonny Shine planning a massive Easter special for his TV show.
- The Mad Men episode "Three Sundays" ends on Easter with Peggy attending an Easter egg hunt after Mass, she praises Father Gill for his sermon and is gifted with an Easter egg "for the little one", implying that he knows that Peggy is pregnant.
- M*A*S*H: The episode "Private Charles Lamb" centers around a visiting Greek unit treating the 4077th to an Orthodox Easter feast, and Animal Lover Radar trying to rescue the intended main course.
- Extended throughout the entire series of Midnight Mass (2021), which takes place over Lent and culminating in Easter.
- Modern Family's final season episode "I'm Going To Miss This" takes place on Easter with Haley, Alex and Luke cleaning up after a out-of-control party with Phil and Claire out of the house.
- In a sketch on Saturday Night Live: In one sketch, Hanukkah Harry and the Prophet Elijah end up saving Easter when the Easter Bunny gets sick, much like Harry did in "The Night Hanukkah Harry Saved Christmas."
- Superstore: The episode "Easter" takes place over Easter and has Amy dealing with a mysterious person in a bunny suit going around the store. Meanwhile, Glenn is excited about a Passion Play at Church.
- The Vicar of Dibley: The episode "The Easter Bunny" is set during the run-up to Easter and features the cast giving up something for Lent. It also comes complete with Geraldine promising to become the Dibley Easter Bunny, which comes with dressing up as a bunny.
Western Animation
- The American Dragon: Jake Long episode "The Egg" has Jake and Fu Dog guarding the titular Griffin Egg from the Huntsclan. When the Huntsman and Huntsgirl steal it, Jake and Fu chase them all over the city to get it back, resulting in many wacky hijinks along the way: first, it falls into a ball-pit, then, it gets mixed up in a public Easter Egg hunt, and finally, it ends up stuck in a candy factory making thousands upon thousands of peanut butter eggs.
- Arthur: "Brain's Brain"'s plot is kicked off with an Easter egg hunt that Brain holds for some younger kids. D.W. and Bud compete to see who can find more eggs: they tie, but there's one more that nobody has found. Brain goes into his room and has a strange dream about memory and how his brain works, trying to remember where he hid the last egg.
- As Told by Ginger's "The Easter Ham" is about Ginger throwing her first party around the Easter holiday, and conflict arising when a feud between the Foutleys and Bishops means that Dodie can't go. A subplot also has Carl and Hoodsey trying sell recycled Halloween candy as Easter candy, with Hoodsey doing a dance dressed as the Easter Bunny. When the aforementioned feud breaks out, Lois has to fill in.
- Bluey: In "Easter", Bluey and Bingo wonder if the Easter Bunny forgot about them again, but they're sent on a scavenger hunt looking for where he hid their Easter eggs. Just when it seems like he gave them nothing this year, they find paw prints leading to a table, where there's a basket full of eggs, jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies.
- Bob's Burgers: The episode "Eggs For Days" revolves around a competitive egg hunt going awry, leading to a missed egg going off and the family having to locate it.
- The last few minutes of the Family Guy episode "Family Goy" is set on Easter with Lois discovering that she's Jewish and Peter objects over Lois and the family converting to Judaism and threatening to sabotage their Passover Seder by dressing as the Easter Bunny before being confronted by Jesus Christ.
- Little Princess: In "I Want to Find the Treasure", the royal family and their staff have an Easter egg hunt. She finds a map and uses it to find all the eggs, without realising she isn't allowed, and ends up getting cramps from eating too much.
- Madeline: In the episode "Madeline and the Easter Bonnet", Miss Clavel, Madeline and the girls create a beautiful Easter bonnet for the milkman's horse, Bon Bon. However, an enormous gust of wind sends the hat flying across town, into the shop of a struggling designer, who attempts to market it in time for Easter.
- Looney Tunes:
- Bugs Bunny fills in for the Easter Bunny in "Easter Yeggs" where he contends with a Dead End Kid and Elmer Fudd.
- The TV special "The Bugs Bunny Easter Special" involves a search for a fill in for the Easter Bunny. Pepe Le Pew is approached, but he says "Asking me to be ze Easter Bunny is like asking Robert Redford to play ze Fonz!"
- Muppet Babies (2018): In "Kermit and Fozzie's Egg-cellent Adventure", an Easter egg hunt is held in Miss Nanny's backyard. When Kermit gets upset because he isn't very good at finding Easter eggs, Fozzie suggests to Miss Nanny that he and the other babies find the eggs in teams, and Miss Nanny likes that idea. Fozzie is teamed up with Kermit, while Summer is teamed up with Animal and Piggy is teamed up with Gonzo. Fozzie's overeagerness results in the other babies finding the eggs before him and Kermit, so Kermit has to teach him not to rush into things.
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: The episode "Easter Egg Island" has Pac and his friends, along with Cyli's family and Betrayus, journeying to the titular island during Easter break to rescue all of the ghosts who were kidnapped from the Netherworld by the Easter Pac-Peep as revenge for a child Betrayus replacing her Easter eggs with stink bombs one year when he grew tired of never being able to gather any eggs like the other kids. When Betrayus asks the Pac-Peep why she chose to get back at him now instead of all those years ago, she replies that it's because she believed that taking revenge on a child wouldn't have looked very good on her résumé.
- PAW Patrol:
- In "Pups Save an Easter Egg Hunt", Mayor Goodway injures her arm, so the PAW Patrol has to plan the Easter egg hunt for her. Alex finds an egg and takes it to be painted, but then it hatches into an eaglet named Little Eggle. His mother grabs him and the basket full of eggs and candy, requiring Skye to go after her and retrieve the basket despite her phobia of eagles.
- In "Pups Save a Sweet Mayor", Mayor Goodway is planning an Easter festival and receives a golden egg from the Princess of Barkingburg. Mayor Humdinger seals himself within a chocolate bunny so that he can steal the egg when she isn't looking. Unfortunately for him, he gets captured by a family of raccoons, so the PAW Patrol has to save him. During the festival, Humdinger finds out that the egg isn't actually golden and just has a chick-shaped marshmallow inside it, and he's irritated that he went through all that for nothing.
- Peanuts: In "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown", the gang prepares for Easter.
- Linus attempts to convince the others that the Easter Beagle (c.f. the Great Pumpkin) exists.
- Marcie tries making Easter eggs by cooking them in a multitude of ways before learning that she needs to boil them.
- Lucy hides eggs for an Easter egg hunt so that she can find them all herself, but Snoopy gets them first.
- On Easter the Easter Beagle (Snoopy) shows up and distributes the eggs he got from Lucy to everyone but Charlie Brown, who gets the basket instead.
- PJ Masks: The Season 2 finale "Easter Wolfies" is set during Easter. In the episode, the PJ's have to prevent the Wolfies from stealing the Easter Eggs hidden for next day's Easter egg hunt at their school.
- Rugrats: In "Bow Wow Wedding Vows", the Finsters hire a party planner named Ralph for their Easter brunch. Spike also spends more time with Fifi, causing Tommy to wonder if he's forgotten about him, so he pretends to be happy for him. On Easter, the brunch goes awry when many bees attack Howard and Stu. Tommy and the kids then discover why Spike has been with Fifi so often; Fifi's been pregnant and has given birth to a litter of puppies.
- The Simpsons:
- The episode "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" starts with the characters having an Easter Egg Hunt, with the main plot kick-starting when Homer embarrasses Marge at said hunt.
- "Simpsons Bible Stories" takes places during a sweltering Easter Sunday service, Homer puts a chocolate bunny in the collection plate and he and the family are punished by being forced to sit through a reading of the entire Bible, the family sleeps through the service and imagine themselves as various Bible characters.
- "Dark Knight Court" takes place during an Easter celebration in which the townspeople accuse Bart of playing an Easter prank involving being pelted with eggs and hold a mock trial with Janet Reno as judge and Lisa as Bart's defense attorney.
- South Park:
- "Fantastic Easter Special" revolves around Stan trying to find out the true meanings of Easter traditions.
- "Jewpacabra" takes place during both Easter and Passover. While the other kids are prepping for the Easter egg hunt, Cartman tries to get it cancelled, believing that the titular Jewish cryptid is going to kill the other kids.
- The second half of "Quintuplets 2000" takes place on Easter morning with Janet Reno taking the quadruplets out of Stan's house and have them returned to Romania to reunite them with their estranged father and the town of South Park and the boys protesting against the reunification.
- Special Agent Oso: In "Dye Another Egg", two kids named Gabriel and Kiara want to learn to dye eggs for an Easter egg hunt before bedtime, so Oso has to step in and teach them.
- Teen Titans Go!:
- In "The Teen Titans Go! Easter Holiday Classic", the Easter Bunny goes missing and it's up to the Titans to locate him before Easter is ruined.
- "Easter Creeps" has the Tooth Fairy try to take over Easter, requiring the Titans to stop her before she is successful.
- In "Booty Eggs", the Titans decide to track down and banish the Easter Bunny, believing him to be gross. When they do, they decide to create the eggs themselves for the egg hunt.
- In "Egg Hunt", Robin regrets not finding an Easter Egg that he was looking for when he was a kid, so the Titans decide to locate it.
- In "Feed Me", the Titans accidentally release a marshmallow ducky which had been locked up by the Easter Bunny, necessitating a search to relocate it and lock it up again.
- Tom and Jerry deal with an annoying duckling that pops out of their Easter egg in "Happy-Go-Ducky."
- Total DramaRama: "There Are No Hoppy Endings" takes place around Easter. The kids repeatedly blame their antics on a stuffed Easter bunny named Hoppy. Reaching the limit of his patience, Chef disguises himself as Hoppy to stop them from passing the blame, but the kids beat him up when they actually mistake him for Hoppy.
- True and the Rainbow Kingdom: A You Mean "Xmas" variant is in "Wuzzle Wegg Day". Bartleby still has to find a Wegg to paint for True, and he finds a huge Wegg, but the Wegg partly hatches into a baby Wuzzlebun and runs off. True, Bartleby and the Rainbow King look for the Wegg and warn the townspeople that there could be a monster that steals Weggs, but then they discover the baby Wuzzlebun and are touched by how cute he is. The Rainbow King notes that it's the first Wuzzlebun seen in over a million years.
- Uncle Grandpa: In "Uncle Easter", the Easter Bunny tells Uncle Grandpa that he has no time to prepare for Easter because he has to wait eight hours for premium sports channels, so Uncle Grandpa has to deliver eggs for him.
- VeggieTales:
- "An Easter Carol" is a Yet Another Christmas Carol version of this trope. Ebenezer Nezzer (played by Mr. Nezzer) is disinterested in Easter and plans on having the church demolished, only for an angel named Hope to visit him and have him learn the true meaning of Easter.
- "Twas the Night Before Easter" is a The Parody Before Christmas variation. Marlee Meade (played by Petunia) plans on starting a musical called Up With Bunnies to make people happy about the upcoming holiday. After opening night turns out to be a disaster, Marlee realizes that Easter isn't about commercialism, it's about God, so she helps the people in the homeless shelter see the sunrise for the church's yearly service.
- Wonder Pets!: In "Help the Easter Bunny", the Easter Bunny has a cold, so the Wonder Pets and Ollie have to deliver Easter eggs for him in a forest without waking the animals.
- Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: In "Eggs Over Easy", Widget makes the Egg-cellento 3000 in order to do all the work for the Easter egg hunt, but then she learns from Wubbzy (who is in charge of the egg hunt) that the real fun of Easter is doing the fun yourself.
