It’s Easter today. I think Jesus was a human religious leader with valuable moral teachings. But, I don’t believe he was immortal or a deity or resurrected; so, in that sense, Easter isn’t a special day for me. However, I am not made of stone, I am happy when winter passes. The symbolism of spring and rebirth resonates with me; and I can certainly see why so many cultures had celebrations on and around the vernal equinox.
And, you know, my kids like easter bunnies and eggs and the like. I know some Christians find it distasteful when non-believers (or insufficiently devout believers) take the secular aspects of Easter and disregard or minimize the death and rebirth of Christ. And, I get that; but such distaste is only justified if you disregard the history of non-Christian celebrations upon which Easter was built in the first place. For the Germanic peoples, the bunnies and eggs pre-date celebration of Jesus.
The core message of Easter and other spring celebrations is that life beats death. And that’s a powerful, powerful thing regardless of the underlying details about the why and the how of life beating death.
My views of Jesus align with you. He was a great moral teacher, but not a deity. And although he was crucified just before passover, the Easter celebration aligns well with spring fertility and rebirth themes.
Tomorrow is Dyngus Day, an obscure Polish holiday. It is big in South Bend, LaPorte, Cleveland and Buffalo. Many Polish communities do not celebrate it. It is a dating/mating/spring festival. It is a big day where celebrated, however.
Yep, I’ve celebrated Dyngus Day for 20 years (counting this year). As a non-Indiana native I enjoying it. Initially for the bacchanalia but now for just hanging out and grilling.
gizmo
Amen.
…none of this explains me getting an unwanted bag of jelly beans every year.