The Easter Bunny?

It is Easter Sunday 2010, and I am working (not right this minute, but still). I am not bitter about it because it was my choice to try to catch up with some things today. I live alone and really had no other plans today so I’m fine with it.

I was sitting here doing some research and started thinking about the whole Anglo-Christian celebration of the holiday and the odd traditions that have sprung from it. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the underlying purpose and lesson of the holiday…it’s the other stuff I can’t wrap my head around. I usually research historic stories that I write, but this time…what the heck…I’m going to wing it.

The Easter Bunny? Rabbits don’t lay eggs. And no species that does lay eggs, lays eggs filled with marshmallow or candy filling. The Easter Bunny?

As an aside it seems that we (Anglo-Christians) have a tendency to celebrate religious holidays with gift giving. I’m okay with that, I just have never figured out the association. As a child at Christmas time, I surely enjoyed receiving gifts, and learned the story of Christ’s birthday. Christ was born and spent his life teaching us to be good, loving, compassionate people…and I got gifts on his birthday. I used to think that if I was good, and got presents on Christ’s birthday, just think how incredibly good I would be if I got presents on EVERYONE’s birthday…a concept that never caught on…but I digress.

Back to the bunny. Rabbits don’t lay eggs! So where did this come from? Well, either a large group of chickens volunteered to give up their young as gifts to fill baskets…or a large group of chickens were FORCED to give up their young as gifts to fill baskets, and the bunny is responsible for a long standing atrocity. The only other explanation I can come up with is a gross misinterpretation of the tradition. It could be that the Easter bunny was in fact a platypus…the only mammal that actually lays eggs, but in any case given the multi-colored, tie-died appearance of the eggs I am left thinking that psychedelic drugs are involved.

As an end-note the basis of the holiday revolves around Jesus dying for the sins of mankind (for which I am grateful). A few days later, Jesus resurrected and ascended to heaven to continue watching and guiding human kind (for which I am thankful). To that end in the context of modern thinking, Jesus dying and resurrecting…is the ultimate, extreme re-gifting.

Now, don’t get mad, and by all means I’m not looking for comments that start religious debate. Think of it this way. God has a sense of humor. He created a being that could somehow turn the birth, life, and death of his son into a holiday that includes psychedelic eggs…and he created the platypus…look at life from their perspective!

I’m just saying.