Farm Fresh
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0Ah Easter, that central holiday in Christian belief where the miracle of Jesus’s resurrection is celebrated. Every year in April, Christians gather in churches to recognize this important moment in the timeline of their savior’s life.
But there is another miracle here that we don’t discuss. A miracle so profound and so mind blowing that it reveals divinity such as we have never seen before.
How does that easter rabbit get around and hide eggs all over the world?!
How does he even pick those eggs up? He doesn’t have opposable thumbs!
Move over Jesus, there’s a new miracle worker in town.
The dichotomy of Christian holidays has always struck me as being sort of hilarious. On the one hand you have these very serious holy days marking important events in Christian history. On the other hand you have the secular side of things mostly driven by consumerism and pleasure. Somehow a celebration of the resurrection of the savior of all mankind turns into a festival with rabbits and eggs. I guess that’s cultural metamorphosis at its best.
What’s really interesting is that the holiday, chosen at this time of the year to help ease the transition of pagans into Christianity, has been slowly moving toward its roots. Back in the day, the many European pagan traditions held spring celebrations at this time of the year. There are accounts from one medieval historian of a germanic festival celebrating Eostre, a particular pagan goddess, at the end of April. There’s some controversy over this account, as it appears to be singular. Nowhere else do we have information about this celebration.
Nowadays, to large portions of the population, Easter is a holiday that in some ways celebrates spring, much in the same way that it did a thousand years ago. Not to say that its Christian implications are dying out, it’s just that some of those spring festivities are having a bigger impact on how the holiday is celebrated. With more and more people identifying as Atheist, Agnostic, or non-Christian in America and Europe, national holidays become more public domain. They shift and change to fit the needs of the people and become what we could never really predict. For those of us that aren’t terribly interested in celebrating the Christian side of the holidays, there is always something else to turn to and that’s pretty cool.
For those that celebrate the Christian meaning of the holidays, there are profound thoughts that come at this time of year with regard to the life of Jesus. At this time of more openness about religion and beliefs, it’s important for Christians to recognize that they are not a persecuted minority. At these times of the year there is usually some discussion about a “War on Easter” or a “War on Christmas” but the reality is that people are now simply more open about their particular set of beliefs. There is room in this world for all of us, we can all celebrate together even if we celebrate for slightly different reasons.
I think it’s safe to say that whatever your spiritual beliefs, a magic rabbit, pastel coloured eggs, and sugar induced comas are an incredible and appropriate way to appreciate the coming of spring OR the death and subsequent resurrection of your savior.
I know it’s late but I hope everyone had a good Easter or, if you don’t celebrate, a great late April weekend.
I’m going to shoot for doing a few Anime Boston wrap up comics for Friday!
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I’m pretty sure that Easter Bunny is filling in for someone else. Possibly something more frightening, a la Donnie Darko?
Well, in my country (Poland, in the middle of Europe) we don’t have any bunny related eastern habits. There are some people who try to initiate it, but, like with halloween, they’re still a minority. So your dilemma never really came to my head as I don’t even understand how to connect Jesus’ resurrection with magic rabbit and eggs. Not that we don’t use bunnies and eggs as symbols, but not in that way and now I feel a need to read and try to learn about this more
Yeah the secular Easter, like Halloween and Christmas, is really big in America. I think it’s largely due to the fact that our population is so diverse. These are national holidays and a majority of people here identify as Christians but for those that don’t, there’s still a compulsion to celebrate at these times of year even if they don’t celebrate the religious festivals themselves. Candy, eggs, and rabbits are things everyone can get behind and that everyone finds pretty non-offensive so we all run with it.
Not to mention that it’s profitable for the corporations who sell these things to us with commercials and whatnot.
So, I was curious about the easter bunny myself. I looked it up. According to the unreliable internet, the idea of the easter bunny comes from germany. I think it mostly had something to do with celebrating spring like you said.
But apparently, the original tradition is that kids were supposed to build little nests, and the easter bunny would give you eggs if you had been a good child.
I like how both the easter bunny and santa claus were probably created in part to discipline kids.
I wrote a blog post on Easter where I was partially complaining about the commercialization of holidays. I’ve always wondered where the Easter rabbit/egg tradition came from, but assumed it had roots in pagan traditions. Most holiday traditions do, even if they’re claimed to be Christian holidays now, because of what you said; most Christian holidays were aligned with pagan holidays to ease pagans into Christianity.
Is that Easter bunny wearing an Easter bunny ears headband? I love it. Now I need to find tiny bunny headbands for my rabbits.
“Why does that Easter bunny have bunny ears on it?”
Ditto.
That struck me as somewhat… different!
Haha, is there a reason?
Easter bunny seems to have less work than santa claus. all because he’s less popular.
Doesn’t happen in Mexico either… pretty weird if you ask me, since we’re right below America and unlike halloween, i haven’t seen anyone trying to initiate it
Man, that bunny – what a lazy bastard. I bet the eggs aren’t even hardboiled either!
I, as a Christian, celebrate the pagan holidays for what they are, and don’t actually believe in such a thing as a “Christian holiday”
That said, everyone I know celebrates Christmas… so by association, you could say I end up doing it anyways
A belated “Happy Zombie Jesus Day!” to all of you!
I’m atheist but I still celebrate Christian and some Jewish holidays. Just the fun ones, that involve gifts for me or candy for me.
Same thing happened at my house.
Easter is like a Christmas without a tree, and you only get a stocking.
Hello, I remember you saying that as a child, you went to a Romanian orthodox church. I was just wondering if you ever went to church the night before Easter, so you could light up a candle, take it for a walk or three around the church, and then assist a sermon until the wee hours of the morning.
I thought that the significance of the Easter Bunny was adequately explained by South Park, in their Hair Club for Men episode.
GUY WHO READ NEIL GAIMAN’S “AMERICAN GODS TO THE RESCUE! http://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=eostre&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%25C4%2592ostre&ei=VwqYT-LyCsiy0QXVzpyDBg&usg=AFQjCNHy4610rMvKOncoQrFJxY0o79WeVw
I swear the zipper gets bigger slowly with each comic. By the time I catch up I expect it to be as big as his face o________________o