Happy Easter! So what is Easter these days?

Hello my faithfull blog-readers! Happy Easter!

THE UPDATE: Well, things have started to get back to normal around here. We're settled into this new apartment and we love it! It is starting to feel like home. Already we've enjoyed the company of many of our beloved friends and family who have come to visit and dine with us in this wonderful place! It's been fun!

THE POST: I guess what I was really wanting to write about, what I've really been thinking about is this Easter holiday. Not in an excited or festive kind of thinking, but more of a curiosity. I was wondering when Easter, this holiday supposedly dedicated to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, became some kind of bunny and colored-egg holiday instead? I mean, what is Easter? Is it really a celebration of a Christian victory or is it the celebration of cute bunnies, chocolate candies in baskets, and beautifully colored eggs? This wonderment goes beyond Easter for me. I'm wondering about Christmas, too. Like, isn't Christmas supposed to be about the birth of Jesus Christ rather than cut-down trees that have been brightly decorated and have many wrapped presents underneath supposedly put there by a great jolly fella named Santa?? When did these Christian holidays become retail fantasies? When did they become about showering kids with candy and spoiling them with gifts? Is this what we celebrate now? Is this what the holidays are now?

There's a lot to be said for traditions. I think that somewhere along the way these good-intentioned, faith-driven holidays turned into traditions of bright things and sweets that spread like wildfires across the globe. I'm not saying, by any means, that there is anything wrong with traditions! In fact, I treasure these holidays that I get days off from work to spend time celebrating just being together and eating together with my family and friends. But to me, that is what these holidays are about. They are about the warmth of family, the comfort of dear friends, and the good food we all love to share. That is what I look forward to celebrating. I love just being together.

So do these things take away from the original meaning from the holidays? Well, you tell me. Personally, I do. And I say that honestly because when I am getting together with family to celebrate these holidays I've known to be for the family, I am not thinking of Jesus and his birth or resurrection. Honestly, I'm thinking about and enjoying my family. And somehow I have a feeling that is the case for so many families that celebrate these holidays. I think that only because if the case were any different, people wouldn't be so caught up in the gift-giving, basket-making, candy-swapping, tree-decorating, and dinner-planning that we all seem to be so captivated by. If we were really celebrating just the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ then that would be our focus. That would be our motivation, our dedication, our reason. When faith became scorned, the holidays became the merriment of the retail industry. It seems to me that we place more of our faith in the things that we see, that we know, that we are comfortable with, and that we are used to. If things were any different, these holidays would be about faith. Just faith. Maybe still family, but definately not the Easter baskets, the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, etc.

I could see how this might be a controversial topic. Please understand that I am in no way condemning either celebration. I am interested in how people come up with their own traditions and ways to celebrate. I don't think there is any wrong way to celebrate. In fact, all I am doing here is making an observation. This is how I observe the goings on of Easter and Christmas. What is important to me on these holidays is totally irrelevant. But I am trying to put this out there, in my blog of those thoughts and curiosities that spring up at random and not-so-random times. I will say that I am looking forward to Easter tomorrow. I am looking forward to being with family and I will celebrate the love that we share when we're all together! So, I wish you a happy Easter, in hopes that however you celebrate will be all that you want it to be! Enjoy!