Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nelson on April 5, 2009 at 10:20pm

my family was never religious-- i was raised by a nonpracticing episcopalian mother and a nonpracticing reformed jew-- so we never really celebrated easter at all. sometimes my mother would cook a nice dinner but that was more just an excuse to have the family altogether for a nice dinner. there was never any mention of any religious underpinnings or reason for the meal.
having never celebrated it as kids we don't now as a family do so- not even as an excuse to have dinner together. if my mom wants us all to have dinner we all arrange a night to do so and we do. no excuse needed.

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Permalink Reply by Morgan Matthew on April 6, 2009 at 1:09am

the Christians stole the idea from the Pagans.

This is true.

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Permalink Reply by Pam on April 13, 2009 at 11:05am

Those are great eggs! I always loved coloring eggs as a kid. My family did a secular Easter with candy and eggs, and we'd often go do something outdoors, like walking a nature trail or going to a state park. I don't do anything at all now that I'm old :-P except for eating a few Cadbury eggs.

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Permalink Reply by Whispers on April 10, 2009 at 10:03am

We always do Easter, and even at large family Easter gatherings Jesus and that whole mess is never brought up. Its a reason to get together, eat, and get free candy. (Well now I am buying the candy, but it gives me a reason to buy it.)

I have a 2 year old now and we plan to keep up the easter celebration as well as xmas. Once he gets older we will explain the zombie jesus part of it and those crazy xtians, but for now its all good fun.

Love the T & P eggs:)

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Permalink Reply by Christoffer Andersson on April 12, 2009 at 1:37pm

Me and my friends noted that Easter, Midsummer and Christmas have pretty much the same basic foundation here in Sweden. I.e, gathering family and friends around the dinner table, eat pickled herring and drink schnapps. Sure there are an assortment of other dishes too, but these change depending on which holiday it is (and sometimes also with the region).

But yeah, it's all about family, food and alcohol.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Will on April 12, 2009 at 2:00pm

I love coloring Easter Eggs and eating them too with friends and family. Also eat a big dinner, mostly to be with loved ones like my brother.

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Permalink Reply by Rayven on April 13, 2009 at 2:37am

Well we do the commerical/secular Easter. We call it Easter, but we don't go to Easter egg hunts we do those in our own home, and I put a little extra effort into dinner. It's really weird though, because I think our oldest is already starting to figure out that it's all bull (he is only 4 1/2!). We went to see the Easter bunny and he pointed to the giant bunny and goes "Hey mom there is a person in an Easter bunny costume", I made sure not to make eye contact with any of the other parents who had their kids decked out in their Sunday best.

So to my kids it's just a day to get candy and toys for no real reason other than someone puts on a bunny costume. We don't make a huge fuss about it, because it has no real meaning to us. We just pig out on all the colorfully wrapped chocolates, dye some eggs, and just chill.

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Permalink Reply by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on April 13, 2009 at 10:56am

We're a decidedly atheist/humanist/UU family - my wife of 24 yrs and our five kids. Now, the rest of our family is either Catholic, or Evangelical, and there's even Muslim extended family (talk about extremes!). We go over to my wife's sister's house (Evangelical), and we have dinner, and socialize. They do have a prayer - always mentioning/"praying for" us - and then we simply have food and good company.

My family personally just got out of the Easter Bunny stage (youngest is 10 now), so we simply call it "Happy Fertility Day!". We talk about how old the real holiday is, how the xians typically aligned their holidays with the pagans so that they could celebrate without much notice, and that the symbolism of the bunnies and eggs has to do with rebirth, fertility, and life.

So, I guess you can say we make compromises to stay connected with the family, but we do not "pretend" or compromise our beliefs (or lack thereof).

Oh, and we do color eggs too! And my kids get a kick out of writing "Happy Fertility Day!" on the ones we take to the family gathering for the Easter Egg Hunt for the younger ones. LOL

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Permalink Reply by Rev. James Thomas Hicks, D.D. on April 13, 2009 at 11:20am

My wife & in-laws have a dinner & an egg hunt for my two sons. I'm not particularly thrilled with the celebration but it's in no way religious. Just the egg hunt. I think I get just as excited by watchin' my older boy look for eggs as much as he does lookin' for 'em.

But this kind of thing can be done all the time if one chooses. I plan on havin' a treasure hunt with all my ol' money & foreign money that I've collected over the years. Have to draw a map & get a nice pirate chest first.

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Permalink Reply by Crissy Lee on April 3, 2012 at 1:17pm

We celebrate spring, the changing of seasons. We may do eggs or paint pictures, draw with sidewalk chalk etc... We don't call it anything really. My daughter knows of easter from her friends at school, but she knows we don't practice it. Shes fine with that. She never bought into the whole jesus thing.

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Permalink Reply by Tobie Barb on April 18, 2012 at 9:41am

Any reason for chocolate eating is worth celebrating.

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Permalink Reply by Dylan Martin on April 18, 2012 at 10:39am

lol...

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