Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Atheist Alternative To Easter

Yes, I'm not only a fan of the winter solstice or Yule celebration, but also love Easter. No, I am not talking about the barbarical celebration of a poor fellow being nailed to a cross, falls into coma and somehow lives to tell about it. I am talking about the spring celebration that's happening between the end of March and mid-April.

Yes, I am serious. Besides going to church (sometimes several times) during those last days of the "Passion of Christ", most of today's Easter traditions are more Pagan then Christian:

Easter is scheduled around the start of spring (March 20), but also encorporates a lot of beautiful Pagan traditions to welcome spring. Even though I am an Atheist, I still enjoy a lot of Pagan traditions year-round. Most of all, because the reasons for these celebrations can be clearly explained by science; besides that, I feel very connected to nature, and therefore love to celebrate the seasons as they change.

The Easter egg and Easter bunny both stand for fertility and are the symbols of the Nordic goddess Freya, whose domain is love, fertility, and family. (Please forgive me if it makes me smile if I see churches decorated with Freya's eggs during Easter!)

Thus, I am looking forward to preparing Easter baskets, coloring and decorating eggs, and hoping for some nice weather to have a Easter egg hunt outside in the garden!


Fun fact: Violet was almost 13 months old when she got to celebrate her first Easter; she was born the day after Easter in 2010 and 2011 had an extraordinary late Easter.

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