For most all of my life, I

have experienced Easter as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus

Christ, as a Christian commemoration of victory over sin and death through

the blood sacrifice of God's Son. Easter was always a family affair, with

cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents all decked out in their Easter

finery gathering on the front lawn for Easter pictures as our tummies

called out for ham, potato salad, casseroles, and desserts. There was

an Easter egg hunt after dinner, and gobs and gobs of candy from our Easter

baskets that were filled in secret by a rabbit while we slept the night

before.

To this day, our family carries

on each of these traditions. But how was it that these two events, a visit

from a candy-bearing rabbit and the anniversary of Christ's resurrection,

came to be celebrated on the same day? We may never know, but here's a

general theory that seemed to emerge from a variety of sources.

It seems that in the times

prior to the emergence of Christianity, the Saxons celebrated the emergence

of spring by holding an annual feast in honor of the ancient Teutonic

goddess of spring, Eostre (spelled Eastre in some accounts). The hare

and the rabbit, who were known to be very fertile animals, were seen as

symbols of the new life that emerged each spring.

The feast of Eastre happened

to coincide with the time of year that early Christian converts observed

their holy days of Passover and the resurrection of Christ. At a time

when Christians were mortally persecuted for their religious beliefs,

it was unwise to celebrate publicly, so the early missionaries encouraged

Christians to celebrate in conjunction with the pagan feast of Eastre

so as not to draw attention to themselves. The Christians used the term

Easter, and transformed the holiday for believers from a pagan observance

to a religious observance of Christ's resurrection.

The tradition of the Easter

bunny seemed to originate in Germany, first appearing in German writings

in the 1500s. The Easter bunny represented a celebration of spring. The

Easter bunny, or "Oschter Haws," would lay a nest of brightly

colored eggs in the hats and bonnets of good boys and girls as a symbol

of new life and the colors of spring.

The tradition was introduced

in to American folklore by German settlers in the 1700s, but was not widely

practiced by Christians until after the Civil War, an apparent product

of our unique cross-cultural assimilation process.

The feast of Eastre and the

Christian observance of Easter both represent the celebration of new life,

the former an earthly, temporal life and the latter a spiritual, everlasting

life.

For me, one is a tradition

and one is a belief; one is a cultural practice and one is a system for

living. Whatever your view, it is difficult to wake up in the spring time

and hear the birds singing, smell the plants and trees flowering, and

"feel" your own sense of rebirth as you cast off all that is

dead to embrace all that is living, and not think that these things are

the handiwork of our Creator. Happy Easter.

[Your comments are welcome

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