Tuesday, March 15, 2016

EASTER – crucifixions and marshmallow bunnies



Easter is a Christian and cultural festival. It’s called Easter because Wester would sound really weird. As far as I understand, within the limits of my religious ignorance, it is to commemorate the crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ. I’m told that this day is called Good Friday. Maybe I confuse easily, but what’s so good about a day involving nasty crucifixions and death? In Denmark, Good Friday is actually called LangFredag (Long Friday) which makes more sense, especially when things are not going well, including crucifixions and death.
 
But luckily, as the story goes, Jesus resurrects the following Sunday, so all is quickly back to normal tidings. The commemoration of Jesus’ crucifixion and of course more importantly, his resurrection, is packed into the cultural festival we know as Easter – and did you know that the Easter Season is a total of seven weeks? Imagine how much weight we could gain if we took full advantage of that?

Growing up in Denmark and not using that as an excuse for ignorance (the art of not knowing), religion was not part of my life at all. Sure we acknowledged religious holidays, especially if there was candy, presents and days off from school involved (I was ignorant, but not stupid).

Christmas was and still is a major holiday for me. The awesome idea of getting presents for free, no matter how badly I behaved the previous year, has always pleased me; I mean how could Santa possibly check on everybody, huh? And then all the days off school, the great food and we even got presents on Lille-Juleaften (Little-Xmas Eve – December 23rd). Religion coming in handy, I’d say…

The religious part of Easter was always a bit confusing, as it stretched out over several days, actually weeks, if you are really counting. We’d normally get about a week off school and later on, days off from work – so that was a big positive and something to look forward to, thinking of Easter. But I never got into what it was really all about, the significance of telling the story of Christ and the times back then. I would certainly never have put the crucifixion of Jesus and Good Friday together – ever. Would you?

I blame commercialism for ruining my holy curiosity. Instead of intellectual advise concerning this significant religious, Christian and cultural festival, they gave me jelly beans, greeting cards, marshmallow bunnies and chocolate eggs. Not that I’m complaining, but really… And what is the deal about all this candy?

 

It seems as ‘eggs’ are a main feature in this ‘candy-festival’. We are talking all kinds of eggs, from plastic, chocolate, decorated, painted, papier-mâché (I speak foreign as well), and so forth. I can only assume that these eggs are symbolizing ‘fertility’, as in the rebirth of Jesus or something. I’m all fine with that, though I’m puzzled by the lack of hens in the Easter picture – we see and eat cute chicks, but no egg-laying hens. Don’t get me wrong, I keep stuffing my face with edible eggs, hens or no hens.

 

I’m even more mystified concerning the presents of bunnies. Again, this is not a complaint. But are they represented in this scenario because of their famous multiplying abilities – as in ‘fertility’? While you contemplate this question, I’ll catch up on the marshmallow bunnies in front of me, no matter how disturbing a thought it is eating cute things you could easily name Fluffy or Buttons (sigh).

 

I remember my mother handing over all kinds of candy surrounding a large chocolate egg, wrapped in colorful foil or not. The Easter goodies continued with the Easter hunt, consisting of small hollow plastic eggs stuffed with more candy, hidden in the garden and around the house. Greed popped up its ugly head and the race was on – at times the search turned nasty, with unfortunate casualties and melted chocolate all over the place. And seriously, why egg hunts? Was it something Jesus started Easter Sunday, just for the heck of it?

In all seriousness, I have never had anything against religious holidays of any kind; I have the greatest respect for people’s beliefs and the trust some find in faith. The unfortunately part of these spiritual days, is how they more so left the church and became overly commercialized. I honestly wonder how many Easter candy-inhaling people can actually give you a somewhat sane explanation why they are stuffing their faces with chocolate eggs, marshmallow bunnies named Fluffy, egg-shaped jelly beans and so easily get caught up in hunting eggs with a vengeance; all in the name of Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine that many will know…

 

As a gratis reminder: remember that the Easter Season is more like seven weeks and not just a few days. This gives you the legal, as well as religious right, to stock up on massive quantities of candy, while (legally) forgetting about any form of diet – at least for seven weeks. It might actually be a Federal law, come to think of it. 

WOW, was that a flock of marshmallow bunnies hopping by? Fluffy, is that you? Sorry, gotta run…