Regarding Easter Eggs (per Wikipedia)...
My mom called me last night and apologized for not giving me huge Easter baskets full of chocolate bunnies and jelly beans when I was a little girl. Most of our Easters were spent at my family’s condo in Palm Springs, California and although we had an occasional egg hunt, candy and bunnies were never the focal point of the day (although my mom often made my sister and I matching dresses with rather large lace collars). In retrospect, I really appreciate their approach, whether deliberate or not. I certainly don’t object to pagan traditions (Christmas, etc). I’m grateful, though, for my parents teaching me the reason why we as Christians celebrate each spring. He is risen, and for this we celebrate. It makes me happy. Today... Mike and I didn't take any pictures, we didn't wear matching outfits to church, and we didn't even have an Easter Egg hunt. We did, however, have a nice dinner with his family in Connecticut and attended an amazing church service full of good music and great talks. That works for us.
“Decorated Easter eggs are much older than Easter, and both eggs and rabbits are age-old pagan fertility symbols related to Ostara [a modern neopagan holiday of fertility and rebirth].
The Passover Seder service uses a hard-cooked egg flavored with salt water as a symbol both of new life and the Temple service in Jerusalem. The Jewish tradition may have come from earlier Roman Spring feasts. The ancient Persians also painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration falling on the Spring Equinox. This tradition has continued every year on Nowrooz since ancient times.
In Christian times the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection. It can also represent the darkness inside the tomb inside a hollow egg. Over the years it progressed that the egg, representing spring and fertility, would be merged into an already pagan springtime festival. Connecting this symbol to Christ’s Resurrection in the spring required much creativity and human reasoning.”
The Passover Seder service uses a hard-cooked egg flavored with salt water as a symbol both of new life and the Temple service in Jerusalem. The Jewish tradition may have come from earlier Roman Spring feasts. The ancient Persians also painted eggs for Nowrooz, their New Year celebration falling on the Spring Equinox. This tradition has continued every year on Nowrooz since ancient times.
In Christian times the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection. It can also represent the darkness inside the tomb inside a hollow egg. Over the years it progressed that the egg, representing spring and fertility, would be merged into an already pagan springtime festival. Connecting this symbol to Christ’s Resurrection in the spring required much creativity and human reasoning.”
2 comments:
I had an easter egg hunt with my nephews and nieces. They aren't all that they are cracked up to be. (pardon the pun). I'm a dork.
happy easter! you should have taken easter pictures...even if it was in the black and white dress.
your easters growing up sound perfect. relaxing and large lace collars. we were so born in the wrong era.
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