It's been a low key kind of day in Streeterville. Had to run 8 miles with the running group this morning, picked up the dry cleaning, went grocery shopping, ate some lunch in there somewhere, took a short nap. It's 41 degrees under sunny, very windy skies at the Mini. The lake looks lovely and blue way out in the deep water, but churned up and brownish next to the shore. Big waves are breaking over the concrete barrier.
Tomorrow is Easter and that makes this, what, Easter Eve? Is there such a thing as Holy Saturday? Not really sure about that, but I do know for sure that tomorrow is the end of the long Lenten period. Not that it matters a great deal to me. I've never observed Lent anyway. It's an observation in the same way as I observe that this week was Passover, or that Elvis's Birthday is a big deal in Memphis. I wasn't raised Catholic and the idea of giving up stuff that I like for a 40 day period, well that just never appealed to me. I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions either. If I want to turn over a new leaf, I will. If I don't, I won't. Don't need a New Year to do either.
Easter is a really big deal to a great many people, though. It's a time of year when families get together to renew their bonds, to eat ham, to make all the little kids go out and hunt for hard-boiled eggs that have been dyed bright colors and subsequently hidden all over the yard. Man what a mish-mash of traditions and beliefs went into this one.
Now, as we all know, officially Easter is a remembrance of the day Jesus was crucified and consequently arose from the grave. As a kid, it was one of those days where people who never go to church, go to church. It was a day when little sisters always had new frilly dresses and new patent leather shoes and frilly little socks that folded down and usually a little girl's purse. There usually wasn't much in those little girl purses. What do you have to put in a purse when you're 7 years old? I can still hear the Easter Sunday church congregation singing, "Up from the grave he arose, with a roaring triumph o'er his foes. He arose! He arose! He arose!...." My wife and her brother and sister get the giggles when they have a couple of glasses of wine in them and they start reminiscing about this particular aspect of Easter. Everybody sitting and drinking and singing "He arose! He arose! He arose!" Ah that's the stuff memories are made of.
I realize that the big Easter dinner began as the end of the denial process that began on Ash Wednesday. Gave stuff up for 40 days. Now you get your reward. You get to indulge yourself with a feast. A worthy Catholic tradition. It somehow caught on with the Protestants too, however. Everybody needs a little celebration now and again. As a kid, I never liked boiled eggs, so Easter Egg Hunts weren't my idea of a good time. Pretty much a waste of time. I was always ready to go straight for the ham.
Then there was the thing that really piqued my interest about Easter. If Easter is about the crucifixion of the Son of God, what do eggs and bunnies have to do with it? The mish mash of traditions, right? Apparently, when the Romans made all of Europe become Christians, a great many pagans didn't like having their traditional holidays stolen from them, thus celebrations of Spring and rebirth and fertility (Eggs and bunnies, OK?) got blended into the Easter celebration just as surely as decorated trees and giving gifts and celebrating the Winter Solstice got blended with the celebration of the birth of said Son of God.
As a smart-ass teenager my friends and I always joked about the Easter Bunny that died for our sins. I think I would have enjoyed the Greeks and their Rites of Spring, the Rites of Dionysius. Wine sampling and theater contests. Now that's a celebration of Spring. I believe the Romans followed in this tradition and had some spectacular traditions of their own to celebrate the coming of Spring, that is until they got Christianized. Drinking to excess, sinful. Sex to excess, sinful. Eating to excess, sinful. Man, everything fun got to be sinful.
Now, if it were the Romans who blended pagan and Christian celebrations, and made everyone become Christians, it was the Americans who took it to a whole other level. Is there money to be made off this? Let's do it. Easter Baskets? A profit there. All the food for Easter Dinners? A profit there. New clothes to be seen in at church on Easter Sunday? A profit there. Eggs? Check. Egg dye? Check. Plastic eggs to hang on trees in your yard? Check. Chocolate eggs and chocolate Easter Bunnies? Check. Oh, and while the kids are hunting for Easter Eggs, there always has to be at least one prize egg. This is America after all. There's money and a profit motive involved in everything. Start 'em out young. Get 'em thinking about what's in it for me. Oh, and while you're at it, get the kids to the Mall to meet the Easter Bunny. Got to pay some dude to dress up like a giant bunny, but it brings 'em in. Pay to have the kids' picture taken with the big bunny. Then they'll spend more money on impulse buys while they're there. Is this a great country or what?
Babs and I have managed to avoid the big family Easter this year. We will get to sleep in and have a traditional Ray family breakfast with the Sunday paper, instead of shining our shoes and waltzing off to church. We can lounge about at home instead of driving 6 hours one way to watch kids wander around in the yard with baskets. I expect our presence will be anticipated about Memorial Day, though. In the meantime, if the spirit moves us in the morning, we can engage in a spirited round of "He arose! He arose!...." Happy Easter all.
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