This morning, I asked my kids what they knew about Easter, testing the waters to see if I still needed to make a thing out of Easter while we’re under stay-at-home orders.
My son, 8, was hard pressed to say anything. Finally, he said, “You collect eggs and you get, like, toys and stuff. And you eat chocolate.”
His older sister, 12, gave a much more verbose answer, which still amounted to the same thing. “You know, you get together with your whole family and there’s eggs and toys. It’s always on a pretty day and you’re outdoors.” She went on and on about what we’ve eaten for brunch in years past. “The point isn’t candy — but I really enjoy the candy.”
“But do you know the story of Easter?” I asked.
“What story?” she said, then went back to bingeing Grey’s Anatomy on her laptop.
In some ways, I’m not terribly surprised. While they’ve both attended church here and there with their grandparents, we don’t attend services at all. Our family is firmly of the 23% of Americans who claim “none” as our religious identity. In a survey from last year, “none” topped “Catholic” and “Evangelical” for the first time.
Last year, we were on a road trip on Easter. No bunny. No eggs. No problem. (There was candy, however.)
Even though they no longer believe in the Easter Bunny, and we don’t believe in any specific religion, I felt it was important for them to be culturally literate. We should know the story of Easter, just as we learn the story of Passover, or the meaning of Nowruz or Holi and any of the holidays the people we know embrace. But as I tried to recount the story of Easter, I had to check my facts and consider what’s age-appropriate.
What is Easter?
Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s the most important day in the Christian calendar — more important, even, than Christmas.
“As a Christian, you're basically obligated to teach your kids the Biblical Easter story. Which is, lest we forget, terrifying,” Gwynne Watkins wrote for Mom.com.
Does a young child need to know exactly how Jesus, the person whose life and teachings form the basis of Christianity, was persecuted, nailed to a cross, and left to die? Does my 8-year-old?
Probably not.
But we can give them a tops-of-the-trees understanding of the chronology of Holy Week.
What is Holy Week?
I had to look this up myself. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. This is the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, and where the story of his betrayal, his death, and his resurrection begins. Jesus was cheered on that day, palm fronds laid at his feet, but over the course of the following week, he would be betrayed by his followers.
Thursday of Holy Week (sometimes called Maundy Thursday) is the day of the Last Supper, a Biblical moment that older kids might already recognize, if only from the famous painting. Jesus is arrested on this day, which is followed by Good Friday.
What is Good Friday?
The name “Good Friday” is almost misleading if you’re not familiar with the story. It is not good as in awesome, but good as in deeply holy. (Some believe the name evolved from “God’s Friday.”) Good Friday is the day Jesus Christ was tried and crucified. Traditionally, it’s a somber, mournful day of fasting and penance.
At sundown, after the crucifixion, Jesus’s body was sealed in a cave tomb, with guards. On Easter, he was no longer in the cave. He rose from the dead — a miracle seen as proof of God’s love.
So, when did all this other stuff come in?
How do we get from Holy Week to candy and a giant bunny hiding colored eggs? In the great mixed-up melting pot of human history, we’ve borrowed from pagan holidays and other ancient spring traditions, as well as Christianity — and then we threw some capitalism on top for good measure. The eggs, for example, are an ancient symbol of new life. The bunny, explains Heather McDougall in The Guardian, is “a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare.” Hunting eggs dates back to the 1700s and a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition known as Oschter Haws, which involves an egg-laying rabbit.
And Sunday brunch? Well, that’s just delicious.
