Easter and Passover looks from Long Island's past eras

For a certain generation of Long Island girls and women, Easter wasn’t just observed, it was styled. The day meant stepping out in patent leather Mary Janes, white stockings, lace gloves and, of course, a bonnet.

Boys were no less buttoned up, in suits and, sometimes, a clip-on tie. Today, the Easter dress code leans more casual, but for the faithful the meaning endures: the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Still, this collection from Newsday’s photo archives —spanning the1950s through the late ’70s — offers a glimpse of a more formal and ritualized era.

Our photographers were also there to capture scenes of Passover seders across Long Island, where families gathered to mark the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. In photos from the 1980s, tradition meets the style of the time, for example, with big hair peeking out under a yarmulke.

Step back in time and enjoy this time capsule of spring holidays of the past.

MORNING PRAYER Easter worshippers are bundled up for the dawn service at Salisbury Park in East Meadow in 1968. The park was renamed Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Park the following year.

FLOWERS FOR MOTHER John, Joanann and William bring blooms home for their mom after  attending an Easter service at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bay Shore in 1953.

EASTER PARADE Marianne Lawrence and Mary Bancroft, both of Babylon, took part in the fashion promenade in the village on Easter Sunday in 1954.

DRESSING THE TABLE Shahin, Matatia and Susan Shahin, Matatia and Susan Teherani prepare their Teherani prepare their Passover table in the Persian Passover table in the Persian tradition at their home in tradition at their home in Great Neck in 1984. 

PLAID, FLOWERS AND FUR Sisters Linda and Lois Paradiso flank their mother, Mrs. James Williams, at Easter Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre in 1973.

JUST SO Alice Shannon adjusts Margaret Hoffman’s outfit on Easter Sunday in Bay Shore in 1953.

HAND IN HAND Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Ciambriello, of Rockville Centre, walk to St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre for Easter Mass in 1973.

MAXI-STYLE Lacier Jackson, left, wore a green coat and black feathered hat to Easter services at Ruth African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Bellport in 1973, while fellow worshippers. Alvin Allen looked sharp in a suit and tie, and Tracy Maynes wore a cotton floral maxi-dress.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS Barry Lubov, of Lawrence, stands on a bench to be heard as he asks the question that begins the Passover seder at the Brandeis School in Lawrence in 1980.

MY MATZO Steven Rubenstein, of North Woodmere, breaks a piece of matzo during a Passover seder at the Brandeis School in Lawrence in 1980.

TO THE BRIM Thelma Burge, of North Merrick, wears her Easter hat to a service at Jackson Memorial AME Zion Church in Hempstead in 1974.

POISE AND SHORT PANTS Young worshipper Kathleen King, left front, looks like one of the ladies, while her brother, Christopher, still looks like one of the kids. The Rockville Centre family was outside St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre on Easter Sunday 1973.

WILLOWY SPRING STYLE Vivian Beaver and Theresa Tillman, both of Hempstead, stand in front of the Jackson Memorial AME Zion Church in Hempstead after Easter services in 1974.

READY FOR THE HUNT Holly Spink, front, awaits the Easter egg hunt with her family at Church of the Advent in Westbury in 1974.

DEVOUT (AND PROBABLY READY FOR BREAKFAST) The congregation at Hauppauge Methodist Church leaves after Easter morning service in 1952.