We had lots of laughs writing secret saying on our eggs before dipping them into the colored water. The Dad had, by far, the most original comments and had The Boy giggling most of the evening.
The Boy wanted to know why people use eggs and bunnies because it didn’t seem to logically go “with all that Jesus nailed on a cross and empty cave stuff”. Pretty bright question, if you ask me. So we talked about the winter, spring, summer and fall festivals that celebrate the circle of the year, the fears of early societies and how they gave thanks for the simple things, which we unfortunately sometimes now take for granted. Ancient things like: that the sun would return even though the winter days got longer, that the earth would warm itself sufficiently to allow the plants and baby animals grow, that the rain would come to water plants and animals alike and, ultimately, their thankfulness at having had enough food to eat, enough water to drink and enough daylight for hunting and gathering.
That led into how early followers of Jesus had a hard time convincing people to give up their spring rebirth festivals and celebrations, so they simply re-worked and re-fashioned these same traditions to fit their own Christian beliefs (thereby the local non-Christians could keep their festivals while also becoming Christians). Eggs, chicks and bunnies naturally remind us of new life, of re-birth. Christians believe they are “born again” because of their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. So…since, to non-Christians, eggs represented new life, Jesus could now equal new life.
The Boy said, “Hmm. What other festivals did the Christians do this to?”
So that led to a talk about how Christmas was placed around the winter solstice, Thanksgiving was (originally) placed around the time of the harvest festivals (before it became little more than a carb-loaded opening to yet another season of excessive shopping and debt), and All Saints Day and All Soul’s Day were created to co-coincide with (and hopefully replace) the Celtic tradition of All Hallows Eve. Pretty interesting stuff. Who ever said history was boring?
An important lesson. Not the least of which is the lengths people will go to discourage the beliefs of others. Ultimately it didn’t work, though. In each example, many components of the pre-Christain festivals endure.
I thought it was a pretty important lesson too, Jason. It seemed especially relevant with all the emphasis on evangelizing that certain religions and denominations are pushing today. My favorite part of this experience was that he wanted to know about the topic himself – it wasn’t me bringing it up as a scheduled “history lesson” – it was natural and comfortable, so I’m sure he’ll retain the information much better than if he had been told, “Today, you’re going to learn about the pre-Christian traditions of many current festivals that are now officially considered Christian holidays.”