Easter
Don Coldsmith
Monday, April 2, 2007
IT WILL SOON be Easter Sunday, complete with eggs and rabbits and many unrelated traditions, involving a wide spectrum of cultures and customs. Basically, it’s related largely to Christianity, but even there, the various branches have never agreed on the dates of the celebration. It varies, falling usually between March 22 and April 25 each year. The Eastern Orthodox date is sometimes later than other branches.
The name is said to be derived from a Teutonic goddess of spring or possibly from her festival of spring, Eostur.
The symbol of the lamb is traced back to Judaism, and the sacrificial Pascal lamb, in the story of the Passover, taking away the sins of the world. I’ll stay away from arguing. Everyone is responsible for whatever makes them feel nearer to God and harms no one else. It’s not up to me to make their decisions.
The association of eggs with Easter is, again, an ancient custom with several possible origins. It represents new life. An ancient Persian legend tells how the earth hatched from a giant egg. (Eggs do represent new life, of course, but who laid THAT egg?) Egypt has had similar ancient accounts. From Egypt also comes the connection with the rabbit, known as a symbol of fertility and new life. Resurrection! The date of Easter is also determined by the moon’s travels. As far as I can learn, all or nearly all other events that we celebrate are related to the sun, not the moon.
In some cultures the moon and the rabbit are intimately connected. To some, the shadows which we perceive as the “man in the moon” are perceived as a rabbit in the moon. There has been an endless variety of interpretations of the shadows on the moon’s face. It’s always the same side that we see, of course, but the intrepretations really run wild: The Man in the Moon, of course, but others have seen it as a woman with long hair, or as a “Great Bear,” and the ever-present rabbit. Is it only a coincidence that the gestation time of a rabbit is identical with the moon’s cycle?
At Christmas time I always marvel at the variety of customs and beliefs that we encounter. If anything, however, there is an even wider assortment connected with the mystical feel of the full moon at Easter.
But, back to my story. Quite a few years ago, I spent a year as a minister in a small town, at a Congregational Church. I’m a Methodist and had served as a traveling pastor for a while, with limited authority. In this residential situation, I was really part of the town. There were several other churches of several denominations. They all related well and often held joint worship services at special churchly occasions. One of these was an Easter sunrise service at a beautiful site just outside the town. The ministers from each denomination took turns supplying the sermon.
The year after I had moved on, I received a phone call. I guess I had made a pretty good impression. The Ministerial Alliance asked me to come back to preach the Easter sunrise message as a guest speaker. A real honor!
I really studied the scriptures involved and concluded that it must have been a pretty tough decision, even for Jesus, to turn himself in. We don’t often have to make such a choice. The response to my presentation was good and I was pleased to have been well accepted with my talk.
A few days later I received a letter with no return address, mailed from a Post Office which gave no clue as to its origin. Inside was a newspaper clipping and note which said only: “I hope this helps your mixed-up mind!” The clipping was presumably Easter-oriented, but it seemed to have no relationship at all to anything I had said. I never did understand what this person was trying to tell me and it didn’t change my mixed-up mind very much.
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.