20 April 25

 Butterflies are a traditional symbol of resurrection! Happy Easter 2025.

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9 April 23

Butterflies are a traditional symbol for Easter. My tie bar shows a Celtic cross. Our flag has a Latin cross, a dove and floral motifs.

6-7 January 23

My butterflies tie is making a special appearance on Epiphany to help celebrate Rae Beatty's birthday tomorrow (7 January)! Rae is married to my nephew Matt Lang, and they live in Asheville, NC. Rae has taught college English composition classes and now creates photographs for Light in the Attic Estates. Rae loves buttterflies as awesome examples of total transformation (metamorphosis).

24 April 22

 Happy Orthodox Easter! Butterflies have long been associated with resurrection, due to the wonders of complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to adult butterfly. This year the Orthodox churches celebrate Easter one week later than the "Western" or "Catholic" churches. Here is one explanation for the different dates every year:

"The formula for Easter? 'The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox' is identical for both Western and Orthodox Easters, but the churches base the dates on different calendars: Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar for much of the world, and Orthodox churches use the older, Julian calendar."

"That much is straightforward. But actually calculating these dates involves a bewildering array of ecclesiastical moons and paschal full moons, the astronomical equinox, and the fixed equinox, and that's in addition to the two different calendar systems."

As a result, the dates for Easter frequently either coincide or differ by 7 days, but every few years the Orthodox celebration is five weeks later.

13 February 22

 Today is the birthday of our son-by-inclusion David Anderson. He works in student services at Vanderbilt University. He chose butterflies to celebrate this day!

9 February 21

Happy Birthday, Gloria Rae Kleppinger Huizenga! My sister (who lives near Philadelphia, PA) suggested this tie for today, saying "You know how partial I am to butterflies as a symbol of Resurrection; and this season I am particularly looking for a measure of restored grace and HOPE after the struggles, sorrows, and detour of the past year. As the snow melts and icy winds cease, may new life emerge in nature and in spirits." Glo gave us a beautiful butterfly ornament that has topped our Christmas tree every year since 1989.

21 April 19

For what is probably the longest tradition in my tie history -- predating my 11-year-long tie blog -- I'm again wearing butterflies for Easter! The complete metamorphosis from the land-crawling caterpillar to the free-flying butterfly has a long tradition as a symbol of the resurrection (although I haven't uncovered the earliest references).

1 April 18

Today is the tenth Easter since I started my tie blog! This is the eighth time I've worn my butterflies tie; there's no record of what I wore for Easter in 2012 or 2013. Butterflies have been a symbol associated with Easter from early Christianity, because of the complete transformation from the lifeless chrysalis into the beautiful butterfly.

16 April 17

Joyous Easter! Alleluia! Butterflies have long been used as a symbol for resurrection because their complete metamorphosis demonstrates "new life" in completely new dimensions.

27 March 16

Joyous Easter! Butterflies have long been a symbol of resurrection. I have worn this tie each Easter for several years, getting a fresh look by changing the shirt!

5 April 15

Happy Easter! Butterflies have long been an Easter symbol, due to the complete transformation from the crawling caterpillar into the beautifully winged butterfly. Ted Olsen has created a nice history of research into the complete metamorphosis, including a link to recent 3D imaging that monitors the changes.

20 April 14

Happy Easter! Butterflies are associated with Easter because of the complete metamorphosis from the caterpillar into the finished product.

17 August 13

We are helping Clyde David and Susan Burberry celebrate their 50th anniversary today! Beth helped me choose to wear my butterflies tie, and I'm also wearing a gold hair tie. We have known the Burberrys (sometimes misspelled Burberries) for 27 of those 50 years!

2 September 12

Today's tie honors the birthday (tomorrow) of Clyde David Burberry, family friend and "adopted" brother. He loves butterflies for their natural beauty and "resurrection" symbolism.

24 April 11

It's Easter! Butterflies have a long association with Easter as a symbol of the re-creation of life.

15 August 10

Though it is not well documented, today is celebrated as National Relaxation Day. I am wearing a tie covered with relaxed butterflies, on a relaxing green background, with a relaxed dove-of-peace pendant.

4 April 10

It's Easter! Butterflies are used as an Easter symbol because the metamorphosis from caterpillar to adult butterfly is so astounding. My own awareness of how incredible (in the true sense of "completely unbelievable") the original Easter experience must have been for the disciples grows every year. Some of the stories say that they did not remember Jesus' words that he would rise again, but I think their memories of the events leading up to his crucifixion, death and burial were too fresh and vibrant to let them recall any "hopeful" statements. [The religious leaders got Pilate to post guards at the tomb, because they told themselves that the disciples were likely to try to create a fraud. They "remembered" Jesus' words better than the disciples did!]

12 April 09

Butterflies are one of the lesser-known symbols of Easter. Our sunrise service today at Nicholasville Presbyterian Church was on time, but getting there required us to rise VERY early on the first day of the week.

26 August 08

Butterflies on the tie, with a butterfly bush barely in the picture . . .