What is Easter?
Easter is a christian vacation which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Some of you may know why the resurrection began in the first place. Basically it all started on Shrove Tuesday when Jesus ate his last meal known as a pass-over meal consisting of bread and red wine; the bread represented his body and the wine (the reason why it was red) represented his blood. He shared the meal with twelve apostles of his after he arrived in Jerusalem. The occasion; he was greeted by cheering crowds once he entered Jerusalem, but he ended up in a debate with some money men regarding their use of the Temple for commercial reasons. Soon his authority was questioned and his roguish disciple known as Judas Iscariot decided to betray Jesus for money. This led to the Romans arresting Jesus and nailing him to a large cross. He then died and was buried in a cave. However as his relatives visited his grave, the body disappeared. It then appeared behind them; Jesus was alive! He had this one last chance to say goodbye to them before returning to heaven. It is no wonder he was the son of God.
Now I may be an agnostic, but we learned this story when I was an elementary school student. Each time we neared to Easter, we would receive lectures based on Jesus and the association with Easter. It was also the same with Christmas. One exception is that Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday, because Jesus’ resurrection occurred on a Sunday. This means that dates change year by year, so nobody knows what date Jesus died or regained life, nor can I remember what year this happened.
In fact, during that age, a lot of families, including ourselves, often celebrated the vacation with products known as Easter eggs. Why eggs? My guess is, Easter occurs during Spring time and Spring is the season where most animals (wild, farm, whatever) are born; some of them from eggs. The egg-part is probably a contrast between Easter and Spring. In fact, most families still follow this tradition. There are still some people, especially children, who take on these activities known as Easter Egg hunts; the basic rules are to find as many eggs, planted in your garden, as possible and whoever finds the most eggs wins. Unfortunately, I cannot recall any times I took part in such an activity.
Now I had one egg this Easter, but after all, I am in my twenties and as we get older, our bodies become sensitive to certain fattening foods, and as Rimmer from Red Dwarf once said; ‘When you’re younger, you can eat what you like, drink what you like and still climb into your 26 inch waist trousers and zip them closed. Then you reach that age… 24, 25,… your muscles give up they wave a little white flag and then without any warning at all, you’re suddenly a fat…’ and I won’t say the word, because this is a public website, but all I can say is that it begins with b’. The fact is, none of us are getting any younger, so sometimes, we all have to watch our diets. It does not mean that we cannot still give each other at least small treats.
Like Christmas, Easter, apart from its religious purpose, is about sharing, caring and giving, and not just getting. Otherwise if you get something, who gives it to you? I always wonder if there are any charities related to Easter, i.e. the children’s hospitals, because they obviously occur during Christmas and I would have thought donating Easter eggs to the children would treat them to something nice, since their joy is often limited.
As for the Easter bunny, the existence is rather debatable. First of all, if the Easter bunny was to deliver eggs to each neighborhood, there are over a squid-zillion residential areas to cover and it would take hundreds of bunnies to cover all the areas. One bunny could not possibly do all the work alone, unless of course he/she had a high speed aircraft (like the ones in Thunderbirds) or even a time machine (just like the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 in Back To The Future). The Easter bunny (or bunnies) is sort of the Santa Claus of Easter.
In conclusion, Easter, like Christmas and Diwalli and Ede, always has a point whenever it occurs. I still celebrate Easter and I think some people do, no matter what religion they are. After all, there is no law against Jews, Hindus, Buddhists or any other religious groups celebrating Easter. Note that even though most people believing in Jesus Christ are Christian, Jesus Christ was Jewish.
Happy Easter to all of you.
Jon Ellison 