We have an Easter tree in our living room. It's actually some branches that my mother-in-law collected on a walk with Alina, decorated with little wooden bunnies and eggs, with some little nests and fake little chicks around the base of the vase they're in. It's very cute, although it's been there about a week and the leaves are starting to fall on the floor. I guess this is a German tradition that she picked up when they lived in Germany when Thomas was little.
In looking at this little arrangement last week, I became aware that it bothered me, but I wasn't quite sure why. Then, two things came to mind. I've heard my dad say, "The world that doesn't know Jesus has no problem celebrating Christmas. Anyone can rejoice at the birth of a baby, but they have a harder time with Easter. I mean, you don't normally celebrate someone's death, and if you don't believe in the resurrection, then there's nothing to celebrate." That and the fact that I think my parents purposely kept our family celebration of Easter centered on church activites and relatively egg-and-bunny free.
I'm not from a liturgical background. But it's true that liturgical churches celebrate Lent before Easter. The purpose of that is to prepare for a true remembrance of the sufferings of Christ. Lent and the memory of the suffering necessarily precedes the joy of the remembrance of the resurrection. Somehow, these little bunnies and eggs hanging in my living room the week before Easter seemed almost to be saying, "Hey, let's skip the suffering part, and go straight to the celebration of life." That made me think about how, as Christians, we believe that there is no life without the suffering of Christ and that Easter without Good Friday is nonsensical. It's true that for someone who doesn't believe Jesus was God, his death is meaningless, and Easter goes back to its pagan roots. It becomes just a celebration of springtime and the cycle of the seasons. But for me, it's more than that. Eggs and baby bunnies as symbols of new life can be appropriate at Easter. As long as we have remembered that death necessarily precedes resurrection.
I think next year, we'll save the bunnies and eggs for Easter morning.
1 comment:
Yes, exactly. I grew up not celebrating Easter as any thing religious. The more I enter the season now though the more bunnies and chicks make no sense at all. Maybe only on Easter morning, like you said, but not while we are looking at the suffering and the death of Jesus in preparation.
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