Easter has arrived
Seven a.m. wake-up and the kids scramble down the long halls of the house, looking wildly for their Easter baskets. Candy, stuffed animals, toys — the Easter Bunny always brings the works. He/She/It is a kind of Santa Claus Lite, without the red suit or the stretch marks.
For me, the first order of business is to check the weather ... Mostly sunny first thing in the morning, contrary to the forecast, which calls for mostly cloudy skies today leading into rain tonight. Maybe the egg hunt will be on after all.
Of course, I am firm believer (as all Humboldters must be) in getting the hunt on no matter what. As a child, I remember one particularly wet Easter when my brother and I, with some cousins, spent Easter afternoon in the dirty and oily garage, crawling around on our hands and knees, looking for eggs amongst burnt out carburetors and old weed whackers.
It was a white trash Easter, for sure. But as kids we felt we were getting something over on Mother Nature. Give us your best, Ma Earth, and we'll still find a way to conduct this silly tradition of ours.
Question of the Day: How did the story of Christ's resurrection evolve into a giant bunny hopping around the planet and giving away old boiled eggs?
The answer, of course, lays in marketing. Early Christians realized that the best way to convert the pagans was to adopt their rituals and holidays and adapt them to the Christian tradition.
"In second century Europe, the predominate spring festival was a raucous Saxon fertility celebration in honor of the Saxon Goddess Eastre (Ostara), whose sacred animal was a hare," says the article. "The colored eggs associated with the bunny are of another, even more ancient origin. The eggs associated with this and other Vernal festivals have been symbols of rebirth and fertility for so long the precise roots of the tradition are unknown, and may date to the beginning of human civilization."