Bermuda was once known as the “Easter Isle” for a million or so good reasons.

From the late 19th century until the early 1960s, that was the number of lily blooms and bulbs the island exported to North America and other parts of the world every Easter.

The demand for the locally grown Easter Lily — or Bermuda lily, as it is still known in parts of the United States and Canada — ensured the island became closely identified with this season of rebirth and renewal in the popular mind.

“At Eastertide, the far-famed lily carpets the ground in Bermuda by acres and perfumes the air an emblem of purity, serene and fair, a pleasing substitute for snow,” commented one American observer in 1933. “Its pure white blossoms seem to be trumpeting a celebratory salute welcoming back the sun after its long winter absence ... ”

Introduced to Bermuda by an English missionary returning from Japan in 1853 and commercially cultivated here for more than 135 years, the elegant white flower has long been synonymous with the spiritual meaning of Easter and the promise of spring.

Christian tradition is, of course, replete with stories that celebrate the lily as a symbol of unsullied goodness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Often called the “white-robed apostles of hope,” lilies were supposedly found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Jesus’s crucifixion — a belief that has cemented the flower’s association with Easter and the season of new life in Christian lore for almost 2,000 years.

By the end of the 19th century, Bermuda dominated fully 90 per cent of the Easter lily market in the US, with much of the island’s 4,000 acres of arable land turned over to what would become its most long-lasting export crop.

“How many lilies are grown in the Bermudas is a difficult question to answer,” marvelled a Baltimore newspaper in 1896. “The figures run way into the tens of millions. They grow like weeds.”

Today, of course, the island grows only a relatively small number of lilies for the local market — with the exception of the traditional bunches that are shipped to Windsor Castle annually for the Royal Family’s Easter celebrations.

The Easter season is associated with more Bermuda customs and folkways than at any other time of the year. Most famously, perhaps, there is the construction and flying of kites on Good Friday. The tradition is believed to have stemmed from an inspired exercise in creative teaching on the part of a frustrated churchman.

When he was unable to interest a Sunday school class in the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, he encouraged his young charges to fly kites one Good Friday — saying the cross-sticks were symbolic of Christ’s ascension into heaven (while the story may well be apocryphal, it deserves to be true).

The activity has been established here for more than a century and the annual kite-flying festival at Horseshoe Bay is now one of the most popular community events on the Bermuda calendar, drawing thousands of participants and spectators.

When the South Shore skies are filled with dancing, multicoloured and multisided kites, and the distinctive singing of hummers, you witness not just an aerial spectacle but a particularly vibrant affirmation of the Bermudian spirit.

Codfish cakes, hot cross buns, beachfront sunrise services, the re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross along the alleys and lanes of St George’s all add to the ambience and atmosphere of a Bermuda Easter.

And even though the old Easter (or Floral) Parade, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1960s, is only a fond memory to a dwindling number of older Bermudians, it has left an imperishable worldwide legacy. This annual springtime procession of flower-bedecked floats, bands and equestrians was conceived originally as an elaborate and festive showcase for the Island’s lily crop.

In 1933, legendary American composer Irving Berlin, accompanied by playwright collaborator Moss Hart, visited Bermuda during the Easter season to work on the songs and book of an upcoming Broadway revue eventually titled As Thousands Cheer. Among the local influences the partners absorbed and incorporated into their work during the Bermuda sojourn was the idea for a sketch to be staged around a newly written Berlin number. Both the skit and the song were called Easter Parade.

This enduring show tune has long since entered the Great American Songbook, spring’s counterpart to Berlin’s festive season classic White Christmas.

Of course, there’s more to a Bermuda Easter than just its customs and cultural practices: it is a celebration of new life, second chances and fresh beginnings; a holiday that appeals to the religious and the secular alike.

The overriding message of Easter is hope — a renewal of confidence when things have otherwise appeared to be hopeless. And after recent events, Bermuda needs to renew confidence in itself and to restore hope as a matter of urgency. Bermuda very much needs to become an “Easter Isle” again.