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Jacques Torres' Easter-themed chocolate shop expects to sell 5,000 kilos of chocolates this holiday season. Chocolate eggs, lambs and bunnies are everywhere in his famous Manhattan shops.
"Easter has a long tradition and Easter is birth, Easter is Spring," notes Torres. "Eggs are a symbol. The rabbit is a symbol also - reproduction - eggs, the same. So making them in chocolate became very big. Everyone loves chocolate."
Chocolate bunnies look similar around the world, he says, because there are a limited number of molds. This Easter, Torres worked with a sculptor to re-invent the rabbit.
"The body of the rabbit is oversized, really fat, and then we oversized the ears," Torres explains. "So now you can break the ears and actually can share the ears - this is the best part."
Genevieve Meli Demonstrates Making of Chocolate Easter Bunny
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Easter Bonnets
In the fashionable Soho neighborhood, The Hat Shop is busy selling bonnets and hats for spring.
Local milliners handcraft the hats that shop owner Linda Pagan has been customizing and fitting since 1995.
While hats are popular in New York year round, Pagan says Easter is the perfect excuse for more flamboyance.
"At the Easter Parade, you'll get people dressing to the nines. It's not necessarily about everyday fashion. It's about fashion for Easter," she says.
Historically, Easter services and the parade set the stage for dramatic hats. Feathers, flowers and ribbons are everywhere - in abundance.
"Easter is the ultimate holiday on the Christian calendar," notes Pagan. "At a time when women would dress to impress at church, Easter was the time to pull out all the stops."
Brief Hat History with Linda Pagan
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These hallmarks of the holiday speak not only to Easter, but to the rebirth and renewal of Spring.
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