Easter 2009 Searches: Jesus, Food, Shopping, and a Certain Dog

As someone who enjoys seeing what's on the mind of people all over the U.S. (and the world), I often check out Google Trends to see what the most searched-for terms are. This exercise is particularly interesting around holidays or other major events, and Easter 2009 is no exception.

Today's top searches are a mishmash of things related to different aspects what people do on Easter, and what the holiday means to them. The religious tradition of Easter is of course prominent, with search terms like "Easter Bible verses," He is Risen," "Easter scripture," and "meaning of Easter" in the top 50 search terms, along with non-religious items related to the day: "Easter parade New York," "Happy Easter comments" (for MySpace and other Web sites), etc. And one odd item: "dirty Easter jokes" ... huh?!

Eating is a big part of Easter, so there are plenty of anxious cooks online. "How long to cook a ham," "ham glaze," "deviled eggs," and "leg of lamb cooking time" all show up, along with queries looking for the locations or hours of supermarkets such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, etc. And some people are clearly planning to have a good time on Easter; one term in the top 30 searches is "mimosa recipe."

Speaking of shopping, that seems to be almost as popular an Easter tradition as eating and going to church. In the top 25 trends there are more shopping-related than religion-related searches, with people looking for "Is Target open on Easter," "Target locations," "Walmart Easter hours," "Nordstroms," and even "Home Depot Easter hours" (maybe people are deciding to fix or replace broken fixtures before company comes over?)

One non-holiday topic is occupying people's minds, and that is the long-awaited First Puppy. Appearing in the top 50 trends are such terms as "Portuguese water dog," "Obama dog," "Obama puppy," and "first dog."

And some folks are clearly not used to dressing up: the search term that has remained in the number-one position on Google Trends is ... "How to tie a tie."

Happy Easter, everyone.