Spirit of the Season

Holy happy hot cross chocolate bunnies – it's that time of year again!

I've stated earlier my position on the ludicrous festivities that go on at Easter in the name of Jesus, but you'd have to admit, it is a bit confusing, isn't it?

I mean there's fruit buns and you can't eat meat, and there's some people that haven't eaten at all until now, and there's chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and then there's chickens thrown in there somewhere as well, candy eggs, chocolate covered candy, just plain chocolate and a giant invisible bunny rabbit that hops around the world handing out all these treat. Oh yeah, and Jesus I guess. I'm sure there's a message in there about something but I'm not really sure what it is.

What I love the most at any of these times of year is when devout Christians come out and say, 'Oh, everybody is forgetting the real meaning of Easter (Christmas too).' At which point they proceed to remind you of the guilt you should feel. Well, come to think of it, chocolate is a great remedy for guilt so maybe that's where it all came from. And to be honest to those devout Christians, if it all went down the way they said it did, then what do we have to feel guilty about? It was God himself who chose to go on this suicide mission, he knew the score. And didn't he do it to absolve us all of sin, including that passed down original sin caused by the two original inhabitants of the earth, who cast us from paradise even though they didn't exist? Wait, I'm getting confused again.......right I know where I was. I was talking about how we forgot the true story of Easter (how could we??!!).

Well, let's talk about it for a second. Unfortunately, it seems Easter doesn't find it's origins with the death of Christ – far from it actually. If you were living in Ancient Babylon around 2000 years before the birth of Christ for example, you would be celebrating something very similar. There would be painted eggs, rabbit symbols to represent the rebirth (in this sense the rebirth of the season, being Spring) and buns baked to contain a cross upon them. This cross would represent the God Tammuz, who was crucified for the sins of mankind and brought back from the dead by his Goddess mother Ishtar (whom the festival was named after), whose name amongst some of the dialects in the region was pronounced “Easter”. And this is a story that is repeated amongst almost every culture known to man. The celebration of Easter was in it's origin, a pagan festival for the birth of the new season. The fact that early Christians were still celebrating the festival long after Jesus' death meant that the church had to find a way to legitimise the festival in a Christian view. Meaning that hot cross buns became the representation of Jesus, the eggs of rebirth and the bunny rabbit ….. well, that's a tough one – it is a symbol of fertility that has been worshipped since the beginning of time. It's actually more of a celebration of our history as humans rather than on of our salvation. So the church changed the facts a little, let the people keep doing what they wanted, except now they were doing it in the name of Christ. The fact that Jesus did not die on a Friday, nor was reborn on a Sunday (if that happened at all) doesn't even seem to come into it. This is why Easter is so confusing – because it's actually an ancient tradition that's just been forced to fit around a Christian ideal – and it doesn't fit very well.

Since then, it been used as a way into the church, and a sacred, celebrated, and seemingly magical part of the year that keeps people coming back for more, much to detriment of any real theological gain. See the thing is devout Christians sold Easter off in the first place – they are the ones that made it a commercial gargantuan. And they did it, of all reasons, to try and bribe kids to believe in their religion. It's the practice, still used today, of offering them treats to make them attend church services (this is true) because if you get them while they're young, you'll have them for life. It is possibly the worst thing a church does. Honestly, schools don't do this to get kids to attend class – they just try and make it interesting. And to be honest, I understand why kids like Easter, and in particular why they latch on to the idea of the Easter Bunny – because it's a better story. I'm sorry, excuse me if I'm offending you, but you can't tell me if you had the choice between a fantastic story of a giant invisible bunny that travels around the world at the speed of light delivering chocolate treats to all the good kids in the world; and a story of a man who, although being incredibly generous and a great moral philosopher, in the end was beaten and tortured and crucified to death? Regardless of whether he rose again, I think you may have lost them in the first half of the story – it's a bit of a downer. I mean, come on – did anybody actually see The Passion of the Christ – it was like three hours of torture porn, attempting to be uplifting. The thing is, kids like fantasy – they like incredible things – they cling to the magic and get caught up in the wonder of the moment. It's an amazing thing to see really. At some stage, though they grow out of it. They leave magic with their childhood and never really get it back the same way. I've commented on this to my wife before – that it's amazing to see the wonder in their eyes, because it gives you a glimpse back to a simpler time and a feeling of absolute wonder that you remember having, but cannot really remember feeling. The problem with leaving the magic behind is that in doing so, a Christian is still supposed to believe the rest, and with two stories that both talk of grand deeds amidst impossible events, it's a hard sell.

So the kids liked the first story, they liked the idea of a giant rabbit that rewarded them because,as history has taught us, they respond better to positive reinforcement. And everybody was happy for a while - everybody made a quick buck, kids were going to church and from their point of view, they were getting free chocolate. It was win-win. And then, of course, it got a bit out of control, I guess you could say. And now we're at a point where the devout Christians want to go back to how it was, but there's no stopping the corporate machine they sold their faith to. As we can see, though, there's nothing really to go back to anyway.

If we think of it this way, Easter is actually the most open and free celebration of all, because it is not in it's essence religious at all, and because it really belongs to no-one. Anyone in the world, from any country, or any religion, even if it's none, can celebrate this festival freely. We can give each other eggs, we can eat hot cross buns, we can celebrate the rebirth (even if that's autumn here and not Spring) without needing to bow down to the religious devotes and thank them for giving it to us. It gives our child magic for a brief time in their lives, which I think is essential for their progression as human beings (including the creation of an amazing imagination) before they have to give it up forever, plus it's a great chance for a public holiday. And we shouldn't clutch to longingly to religious ideals for the sake of supposed “morals” - it is proven we can pass on “morals” regardless of these stories. And as a large portion of the population seems to care more about drinking than Jesus, I think we have more to be scared of from Christian apathy than intelligent atheism. In the end, I think this is the position most Australians find themselves in, and how they actually view Easter. It's time out from work. Time with the family. Time to be free and do what you want. And whether you believe that this is a celebration of Christian life, a testament to our ancient traditions, or just a time to be with and celebrate the ones you love, then Easter, through it's glorious ridiculousness, is actually a wonderful, wonderful time of year.

So whatever you chose to believe (I don't really care anyway - I really hope I haven't offended you), have an awesome couple of days and a happy, happy holiday!