Friday 21 March 2008

Easter Hypocrite?

As crazy as it might sound, Easter has some kind of religious thread running through it. Those hot cross buns and Easter eggs all have some relevance to biblical stories but as only 2% of Brits actually go to church regularly, the question could be asked should it still be classed as a religious holiday?
I'm an atheist but i have no qualms about giving and receiving Easter eggs as i don't give it a second thought when i wrap up Christmas presents but i am aware that i am wide open to the shouts of hypocrite. That's fair enough although i could argue that i am keeping with tradition and not 'celebrating' anything. I could even claim to be a pagan which seemed to have had its celebrations hijacked by Christians but that's another story.
So should people who spout off about not believing in God or Jesus for the other 363 days be able to join in the Christmas and Easter thing just because we get a bit of chocolate and a present out of it?
Maybe one way to get around it would be to go along the route of Christmas where in some cases it has been de-religionised and is just plain 'Winter Holidays' or 'Festive Season' but i do have some reservations about that.
My solution is to pretty much ignore all the religious aspects and just enjoy the 4-day weekend and the chocolate that sits in my refrigerator.

8 comments:

Jodie Kash said...

I'm just in it for the Peeps.

Paula said...

Cadbury Creme Eggs are God.

Falling on a bruise said...

I like the chocolate buttons ones but for some reason, someone always gets me a white choc one and they just taste weird to me.

Anne said...

Dark chocolate Dove Egg-hold the religion if you please! Yum.

Anonymous said...

It's part of tradition so I join in - I like the marshmallow eggs :-)

Anonymous said...

Lucy,

I choose to believe in God and Jesus. It isn't about the candy for me.

Q

The Fez Monkey said...

Actually -

Your being a pagan celebrating "easter" rituals like giving eggs makes you far less a hypocrite than christians doing so, since "easter" is actually yet another pagan ritual (celebrating the Spring Equinox) co-opted by christians.

Giving eggs and the easter bunny are no where in the bible. The baby jesus never said "and ye shall anoint eggs with many colors, boil them until hard, secret them away beneath piles of wood, hay, or pottery, so thine children may wander and collect them."

So, don't be too hard on yourself about enjoying the eggs. It's a non-xian thing, after all.

And may God bless those pagans!

Ook ook

Anonymous said...

fez,

did the christians co-opt it or did society adopt both and blend the two?

Q