By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
SOHO — While Easter has been a daily preoccupation for the past month at the Hat Shop in SoHo, the rest of Manhattan has a full weekend of bunnies, eggs and elaborate caps to look forward to at Easter events across the borough.
The Hat Shop, a boutique on Thompson Street that sells handmade hats mostly made in New York City, began getting orders for custom Easter hats over three weeks ago. Since then hundreds of custom orders have been placed.
“We get a lot of new stuff in for Easter, which then parlays into the Kentucky Derby, so this is definitely one of the busiest times of the year for us,” said store manager Marla Cook.
In preparation for Sunday’s Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival, many Manhattan women ventured to the Hat Shop with notions of grandeur.
"Lots of people have been coming in with grand intentions of some over-the-top hats, but many of them wind up leaving with something much more demure that they can wear to church instead," Cook said.
Nevertheless, many extravagant bonnets are sure to be worn in the Easter parade up Fifth Avenue between 49th and 57th Streets Sunday afternoon, which is just one of many events going on throughout Manhattan to celebrate the holiday.
There are Easter egg hunts galore, beginning 11 a.m. Saturday at the annual Great Easter Egg Hunt on the Lower East Side. The free community egg hunt for toddlers through third-graders also includes games, prizes and photo ops with the Easter Bunny, all organized by the Lower Manhattan Community Church.
Another hunt will kick off at 11 a.m. on the other end of the borough, at the Easter Festival sponsored by Friends of St. Nicholas Park at the park's 135th Street plaza.
A similar event will take place in Morningside Park on Saturday between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. The free Spring Celebration organized by the Friends of Morningside Park will feature an Easter egg hunt, face-painting and games.
The celebrations continue on Sunday with an egg hunt and an Easter Bunny meet-and-greet at the Stuyvesant Town Oval starting at noon.
The Upper West Side Children's Museum of Manhattan will run egg-related programming on Easter Sunday, where kids can learn the meaning behind the Easter egg and have an opportunity to make and decorate their own papier-mâché eggs.
For those who haven't gotten their chocolate bunny fix by Sunday, Walking Tours Manhattan will be running a chocolate-themed tour starting at 11 a.m. from Union Square to the East Village, hitting up shops such as LA Burdick and Max Brenner.
