Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 02:28:26 EDT
From:         Knight of the Wolves <DL20@LAFAYACS.BITNET>
Subject:      Reflections on Easter

To the born-again Christian, Easter is a time for rejoicing in the
resurrection of Jesus, for celebrating the assurance we have of
forgiveness from our sins.  Millions come to churches on this Sunday who
never step foot in them except at Christmas.  Like Christmas, Easter is
a time for evangelism--people volunteer to hear Good News during this
time of year.
     Yet just as Jesus must share the spotlight with Santa Claus on
Christmas, He has a popular companion on Easter as well.  Christian and
non-Christian children at this time of year eagerly anticipate the
arrival of the Easter Bunny with his baskets of candies and colored
eggs.  Like Halloween, Easter is a children's delight--they have the
opportunity to gorge themselves on chocolates and other food normally
off-limits.
     Just as the Church christianized the druid festival Samhain into
All Saints' Day and converted the birth of the sun-god Mithras into
Christmas, it also adapted Easter from a pagan festival meant to honor
the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre.  Although the Easter Bunny easily
degenerated into children's amusements, he is actually a carry-over
from the pre-Christian Easter, in which she was viewed as a symbol of
fertility due to rabbits' multiplicative properties.  Coming as it
does in the spring, Easter was a festival to honor Eostre so the land
and people might be fertile in the coming year, as the cold of winter
slowly gave way to spring.  The Easter egg was similarly associated with
reproduction and fertility.
     While Easter egg hunting is a harmless game, we should not tell
our children the Easter Bunny has brought and hidden eggs for them to
find.  Although this is amusing to us as adults and provides children
with enjoyment, it -- like the belief in Santa Claus -- can work
against a child's belief in God once she discovers that the Easter
Bunny, like Santa and the Tooth Fairy, is not real.  Simply omitting
Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets from the child's life may seem
appropriate, but children often feel a need to be like their friends
who are also finding these things.  Instead, getting children in on
the fun, by having them hide each other's baskets, enables them to
enjoy the festivities of Easter, while showing them that the "Easter
Bunny" is simply another way of saying "one of the family."
     In the end, we must be careful to guard our children from the
distractions chocolates and the Easter Bunny provide.  While there is
nothing wrong with these things in a godly context, we must always
remind our children and ourselves to look beyond these frivolities to
a very real cross, and even further, to the grave out of which our
Savior rose.


Any comments regarding this post should be carboned to dl20@lafayacs.
bitnet, since I do not presently subscribe to CHRISTIA.


Dave Learn, Knight of the Wolves     "Maddest of all: to see life as it
                                      is, and not as it should be."
dl20@lafayacs.bitnet                                         - Cervantes
learnd@lafcol.lafayette.edu, learnd@lafayett.bitnet
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