THE PC POLICE don’t know it yet, but they may have done the Christian church a big favor.
For those of you who missed it, it seems a California community (of course) has decided that it’s time to get rid of the Easter bunny. Or at least, to get rid of the prefix. For Walnut Creek, Calif., that well-known rabbit is now the “Spring Bunny” and the search for his multi-colored treasures is the “Spring Egg Hunt.”
Walnut Creek’s actually been doing this for five years. But it got national media attention last week after an outraged resident wrote a letter to the editor.
“First people can’t wish ‘Merry Christmas’ at a store, and now they’ve taken Easter away from the Easter Bunny,” Michael Runzler told reporters. “... If you’re offended by an Easter Bunny or an Easter egg, then maybe you should not participate.”
Go get ‘em, Mike! And bring me back some Cadbury eggs while you’re at it!
Frankly, I don’t see the point of getting all hot and bothered about it. In my mind, this doesn’t even rise to the level of the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays debate (which I devoutly stayed on the sidelines of while wondering if anyone else remembered that “holiday” comes from “holy day”).
I don’t mean that Easter’s not important. Far from it. For a believing Christian, Easter is the single most important holiday in the year. It’s the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Of pain, salvation and wonder.
But the last time I looked, there was a notable absence of bunnies in the Gospels.
Peter Cottontail wasn’t there rolling the stone away from the tomb.
Chocolate eggs weren’t being served at the Last Supper.
And when Mary arrived that first Easter morning, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t with a basket in hand.
If anything, the bunnies and rabbits are a pagan tradition, a fertility symbol that somehow got commercialized. They have as much to do with the real meaning of Easter as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer does with Christmas — maybe less.
Spring bunny? Why not?
“It’s really not a big deal,” Notre Dame theology professor Lawrence Cunningham told a reporter. “I don’t see any intrinsic value to the rabbit to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Amen.
All this reminds me of something that C.S. Lewis once wrote. He said that he sometimes wished there could be two Christmas holidays with two different names so that the secular and religious aspects didn’t get confused. Maybe the same could be said of Easter.
I don’t have anything against bunnies, or egg hunts, or chocolate for that matter. They’re fun. But they’re not essential parts of Easter. It might not be the worst idea to remind people that the holiday is about a message, not a marshmallow chick.
No offense meant to Peter Cottontail, of course. But I’m sure he’ll understand.
He’s always been a pretty good egg.
hjcary (anonymous) says...
Well put Scott. I agree with C.S. Lewis. I also wish there could be two holidays. Because the Rudolph part of Christmas is so far from the Christmas Holiday we do not do the whole "Santa" thing with our kids instead focusing on what Christmas is, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then Easter rolls around and we have chosen not to do Easter baskets Easter morning for our kids because they in no way symbolize the death and resurrection of Jesus. But they do go to their Aunts house and have a hunt and baskets etc. The secular activities of those holidays retract from the true reason for the holidays. It is hard being a parent and trying to teach your child the history behind each holiday and then see the confusion on there face when trying to understand what a flying reindeer or egg hiding, candy bearing bunny have to do with Jesus.
March 14, 2007 at 2:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )