Comments on: A Secular Easter

By: Christophe Thill

Christophe Thill — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:52:32 +0000

What’s the problem with Easter? It really is a celebration of rebirth. Look around you and open your ears too! Birds are singing everywhere. The cherry tree in my garden has just had its first blooms. Everything is coming back to life. Of course, all this doesn’t have much to do with Christianity. Actually, isn’t that a bit suspicious that Jesus chose that day precisely to be reborn? There were springs, flowers and birds nests before him, right? It didn’t appear at that time of the year just to pay homage to him, right? Hmmm… think about it…

By: stogoe

stogoe — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:25:58 +0000

My family’s pretty religious, so we hiked it out to the suburban megachurch and sat through some tepid pablum. For their sake.

Afterwards, though, we went to a restaurant that had an amazing buffet, with neverending mimosas and a chocolate fountain with Peeps. It was crazy delicious.

Also, I got mountains of clearance chocolate on Monday. I forgot all about clearance chocolate in October and February, so this haul makes up for it.

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:04:09 +0000

Two words: Chinese Food. It’s not just for Christmas anymore!

By: miller

miller — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:35:15 +0000

One of my favorite parts of Easter is all the deviled eggs we get to eat in the following days. I’m sure there’s a pun lurking somewhere in there.

At one point, my mother mentioned that Easter was the day when Jesus was rose from the dead. And then she added something like, “or that’s how the myth goes,” as if to show her tolerance of other views. If I cared one way or another, I might have told her it was unnecessary.

By: Chaim Krause

Chaim Krause — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:18:17 +0000

Oh!

I forgot to mention the drinking!

Lots of drinking.

Well, at least that’s what the pictures on my cellphone claim happened.

By: Louis Doench

Louis Doench — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:16:32 +0000

Heh, I forgot it was Easter until my wife got Friday off…

My mom made Easter baskets for the kids and 3 year old Abby was all excited about coloring eggs, but we did not once mention the dead carpenter on a stick.

By: Alycia

Alycia — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:05:21 +0000

I had someone tell me that it was so sad that her husband didn’t know about Jesus dying for our sins and coming back to life. You know, the “real” meaning of Easter. Instead, he thought it was just about candy, eggs and the Easter Bunny. He wasn’t raised in a religious family, you see.

So I asked if he knew about the origins of Easter, about how it is a celebration of spring, life, and all things reproductive (hence the eggs) a la traditional Pagan rituals. That even Easter Sunday itself is chosen according to the spring equinox, a full moon, and all that jazz. No, and she’d never heard of that before, either, and sat there rather shocked after I told her as much.

I told her that maybe she needs to watch the History Channel to learn more about her religion’s holidays. I said it in a polite way, of course.

By: Bjorn Watland

Bjorn Watland — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:27:18 +0000

Many popular holidays are so secularized now that is a great excuse for everyone to get together and have fun, without having to worry about any religious divide.

By: Onyeka

Onyeka — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:53:19 +0000

Great, great blog! I’m a staunch atheist and a strong one living in a Christian society. My mom is a Lay Reader in the church and my father is the Treasurer of his cathedral and a Knight of St. Christopher. Still, I stand to my atheist beliefs.

Check my blog soon, thanks!

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:52:57 +0000

celebrating easter without religous context is quite easy. It’s all about eggs, hares and small gifts, occasionally even large fires. Oh yes, and snow, of course.

Additionally it helps to remind oneself that easter derives from ancient celebrations of spring, new year (celebrating end of winter) and fertility stuff (Hares and Chicken are fast breeders…).