Easter - Bunny, Eggs and All

My friend refers to the annual Easter egg hunt and visit from the Easter bunny, that I organize, as the pagan ritual. She may have a point. There are no colored eggs or white rabbits involved in the telling of the resurrection in the gospels. Christian authors and greeting card writers try their best to tie the miracle of Easter to the egg and bunny traditions; it is a stretch.

While other ladies of the church are placing Easter lilies in the sanctuary and changing the altar cloths to white, I am hiding 800 plastic eggs filled with candy and making sure we have enough sidewalk chalk. Last night, Good Friday, as I stood with my hands in a hot, soapy bleach water scrubbing the fake, white fur of the bunny costume, I considered the pagan comment. I wondered if Jesus is displeased with our tradition, is it sacrilegious?

I don’t want to be the one to lead our children astray, but I don’t think the games of the Easter party will hurt them or lead them away from the beauty of the resurrection.  Jesus wants us to build community with one another and he didn’t prescribe exactly how or how not to do it. Just being together seems to build community in incremental steps and the egg hunt is one of the many steps in that process.The activity isn’t the point. The point is the love and fellowship we can share at the activity.

Running around grabbing up eggs full of candy does not make a child a pagan any more than putting a cross around their neck makes them a Christian. It is the life we lead and the faith we nurture before, during and after the egg hunt that will lead our children to the fulfillment of following the resurrected Lord. We are fulfilling our duty to our children when we show them the love of Jesus and the peace of a life with him, whether it is at church or home or a party or at dinner around the Easter ham, which I am pretty sure isn’t in the bible either.


Michelle