Hmmm…in my childhood the bunny brought the eggs, he/she didn’t lay them. We painted hardboiled eggs but used candy eggs for the hiding and hunting. The painted eggs were always eaten, either “straight”, as deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, in potato salad, etc. for the picnic we always had with old friends the day before Easter.
We never rolled eggs as so many here do - and which still mystifies me. Is the purpose to roll an egg down a slope, then roll others after it, trying to hit and crack it?
Yeah, I know that the bunny brought them. It just sounded funnier, the other way. But it still was a weird connection…for the brief period that I believed in the Easter Bunny…
I never heard of the “roll” until the White House thing, either.
PS Editing this in. I have the radio on and they just did the “top of the hour” ABC news headline thing. Just in: “The Passion of the Christ” edged out “Hellboy” at the box office…I just had to share that one.
We eat stupid amounts of chocolate at a stupid hour in the morning then feel sick all day until turkey, then forget we feel sick and get sicker after a couple hours of stuffing our faces.
Like Brewerpaul stated so well you can’t condemn the message and life of Jesus because so many people have missed the point or used it for their own agendas. The resurrection of Jesus is central to Christianity. Without it you don’t have anything on which to hang your hat. I’m Catholic but I certainly don’t think that the people (read humans or sinners) "in charge"are without fault or misguided ambition. Just like I don’t condemn all Jews for the circumstances around Jesus death.
Jesus’ purpose (if you are a believer) was to save each and every one of us one at a time. Not just good people, Catholics, white, black or green people or even just Christians.
I am not a Holy Roller but just an wretched ordinary soul like everyone else. The take home message is follow him or his message as you desire but follow the true message. All of the failings of people and Churches (created by people) that others have discussed should make the case for Jesus all the more important and relevant.
I wish all a Happy and Blessed Easter especially those who have not heard or rejected the message.
Heck, yeah, we did the hunt this AM and I had 2 of the eggs for breakfast. In the next couple of days we’ll have some egg salad sandwiches, maybe even some deviled eggs.
One thing that’s changed over the years is the egg decorating. We started out with the traditional “Mom”, “Dad”, etc. Somehow it became traditional to have an “evil bunny” egg, decorated with a scowling bunny with fangs. This year the bunny was joined by “evil baby chick” and “evil baby chick’s mother”. Probably over half the eggs are joke eggs now. I don’t know where these kids get their sense of humor.
I’ll take your good wishes but please leave the proselytising out (there’s a word and a half for you!) I’m just fine - whether I’ve heard or rejected some message someone else thought up for me is an irrelevance.
Oh and isn’t the egg rolling meant to symbolise the stone being rolled away from Jesus’ burial chamber.
It makes me laugh to see how completely un-Christian the whole Easter thing now is ie materialistic and acqisitive. Wonder what himself would think of the shopping carts/trolleys piled high with pseudo-chocolate eggs at your average supermarket this last week?
Quite right, of course, which is why I wish Christians a pious Easter rather than I happy one. (No, I’m not kidding.)
I’ve been told that in the U.S.A., Easter Sunday is the big day. If so, that would puzzle Australians of all major denominations for whom Good Friday is far and away the most important day in the Christian calender.
Really? That’s interesting. In North American, Good Friday is seen as fulfilling scripture, sort of a lead up to the big show. Easter Sunday is the big one, as far as my family and friends are concerned, because Jesus rising is the celebration in the church, the defeating of death and proof that JC is the man.
BTW, sorry to anyone I might have p’d off earlier.
And actually, in our tradition, it’s the Easter Vigil that’s the “big” thing…the service that ushers in Easter after sundown on Saturday night (this being one of the feasts in which the church follows the Jewish tradition of the new day beginning at sun down). It’s as big as midnight mass at Christmas…with Gregorian psalms, a huge anthem and as many baptisms as possible. Good Friday is definitely observed, often with Stations of the Cross, and there’s also a major service on Maundy Thursday evening, with the washing of the feet and the stripping of the altar.
I find our stories (all of the human race, not just your and mine) fascinating. I was an atheist until 3 years ago and am now a Christian. We passed each other in the opposite direction. In any event, thanks for the good wishes and happy Easter to yourself as well.
And still another story – as a result of the Presbyterian church that I grew up in, I was proud to call myself “agnostic”. But later I experienced a peace beyond any possible description when I was introduced to a risen, alive Christ. I could never doubt the meaning of Easter again. Happy Easter to you all! (As I munch on the goodies left over from stuffing my kids’ Easter baskets – yumm )
My mom didn’t get an orchid this year either. I remember it used to be a tradition. You could even buy them at Kmart.
Don’t see any Easter bonnets either. Why somewhere at my mom’s is a picture of me from the 1st grade in a bonnet made of tissue paper roses that we made at school. Not that I actually wore that to church. No siree. Every year I got a brand new Easter hat with a nasty elastic chin band. But I was proud to wear it even though I was turning blue from lack of oxygen!
Is it not possible for someone who does not believe in God, to follow the moral sincerity of the teachings of Jesus.
The sermon on the mount, for example, outlines a way of life in much the same way as the works of Lao-tzu does in Taoism.
Taoism is however regarded as much as a philosophy as it is a religion - Taoist teachings encourage the individual to explore themselves, to act in a way that does not unbalance themselves or the society in which they chose to live. That way the individuals within a society will be caring and concerned for each other as well as for themselves or alternativley:
‘To do unto others as they would have done unto themselves’
Yes, it is, and I know many good people who do exactly that.
The sermon on the mount, for example, outlines a way of life in much the same way as the works of Lao-tzu does in Taoism.
Taoism is however regarded as much as a philosophy as it is a religion - Taoist teachings encourage the individual to explore themselves, to act in a way that does not unbalance themselves or the society in which they chose to live. That way the individuals within a society will be caring and concerned for each other as well as for themselves or alternativley:
‘To do unto others as they would have done unto themselves’
As a matter of curiosity, after all these years I discovered that Maundy Thurday was observed by devout Roman Catholics while on the phone to one of my Catholic cousins last thursday. He remarked that they’d just been to mass. I made a joke about it being a bit early to free up Good Friday (as I imagined midnight mass might do) for other activities and he replied ‘Oh no, we’re going to mass tomorrow as well.’ So I did a bit of digging to find out why thursday mattered, or rather remind myself of something I’d forgotten.
