Sunday, April 8, 2012

America doesn't really like Easter

Easter. What does the name even mean? I mean, when we celebrate Christmas, the name itself indicates something. But the reference to Easter as Resurrection Sunday is rarely done. Additionally, when you consider the number of traditions that the average family (and society at large) has for Easter, it pales in comparison, if it even registers at all. And while I am a huge believer in not making any tradition a habit without doing so thoughtfully, Easter is neglected altogether.

The first factor in this is that, for most people, there is no additional time off as compared to a regular weekend. This makes it difficult to plan to do anything repetitively unless that thing is in town. I addressed this when talking about a different variation of this argument about the Super Bowl.

Further, most of the country attends at least one church service over Easter weekend, which further bunches the schedule. Nevertheless, I've seen people make time to create traditions for things as random as St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, and their own birthday. Therefore I know that if it were a priority, most people could put something together, yet most people have no (or very limited) non-church-related traditions for Easter.

We must consider the holiday itself, in my opinion. While many people attend church on Easter, we don't have the general consciousness as pro-Christ as we do at Christmas. I submit that is because a baby coming to Earth is not that offensive. On the other hand, the centrality of Christ being God and defeating death is very offensive. To also realize that the reason He had to defeat death is because we cannot stop committing sin is a very harsh realization. The introspection required is intimidating!

I guess I am coming to the conclusion that we have created a holiday that is surrounded by an inability to make it culturally special, just as we have created a Christmas holiday, where contrary to the rest of culture, we slow down. We create a holiday where the name is so generic and meaningless that it doesn't point to anything. And I think we do it because the holiday itself is so convicting that we'd rather it pass by in our general busy-ness than actually slow down to introspectively consider the reason it had to happen or is so important. That is why I think America doesn't really like Easter.

2 comments:

  1. The people of New Smyrna Beach seemed to care for Easter. I was impressed with the huge crowd for the sunrise service on the beach, Easter morning.

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  2. 1) Call me about this blog when you see this comment.
    2) You have effectively inspired me to start an Easter tradition. My initial thought is a potluck at our house where people bring instruments, and we have a laid-back worship time. What do you think?
    3) My fave sentence in THIS post was, "Nevertheless, I've seen people make time to create traditions for things as random as St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, and their own birthday." It really isn't because it was a weird sentence; it's because I have a Facebook friend who put her gift wish list on Facebook as a status this year and asked people to put in the comments when they got her one of the things so she didn't get duplicates. This sentence reminded me of that. :-)

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