Easter is weird

Vitalogensia

I’ll start by saying I think any mass celebration, from antiquity to now, is going to have people looking to sell stuff, whether it’s a holiday, or a sporting event, or a PJ show. In that sense commercialization doesn’t bother me too much; it is what it is, as they say.  

I found this brief history video I thought was interesting: https://youtu.be/EvUJvq_i7zQ?si=Y_rp1_GzPrjohv-L

While I think the importance of the references by Josephus and Tacitus to JHC are overstated, the video is a good overview of Easter’s origins, Easter eggs, chocolate, and bunnies. 

mace1229

HughFreakingDillon said:

Man, reading through the 13 year old responses here makes me cringe. 

It’s insane how often groups label someone as “angry” when all they are doing is being inquisitive. The OP had zero anger behind it. 

In my opinion easter traditions with the bunny and chocolate came to be for one reason: indoctrination. Exact same as xmas. You create/steal a story from an older religion, make it cute and cartoony and BAM: kids are invested. It isn’t until later they understand the real reasons behind the holiday, and by then, it’s already been their “belief system” for a decade or two. 

If you waited until people were college age to teach them religion, you’d have a fraction of believers you have today. But probably more MAGATS. Some people need to believe in SOMETHING. 

Christmas and Easter are like many other holidays, they have deviated from their original intent over the generations. Halloween 100 years ago was nothing like Halloween now.
Commercialization is probably the main modern reason. There's money to be made by commercializing Christmas, selling decorations, holiday themes and presents. Pretty much anyone who isn't a strict non-christian religion will celebrate Christmas. Easter is similar, just not as strong commercially, but still very commercialized.

But to answer PJ's question from 13 years ago, it still is rooted in religion. Eggs and rabbits represent fertility and new life, which, as what she said, is really what Easter is about.. Businesses don't make money selling ideas. I've never taken a deep dive into the history of Easter, but always believed generally eggs and images of rabbits had been used somehow to represent the new life from the resurrection. And slowly over hundreds of years, and probably more rapidly the last 50 or 100, its turned into egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, etc, to be more inclusive to those who might not believe in Christianity and also a business in making and selling.

I read an article somewhere not too long ago talking about the seasons of stores. I forget the exact number, but there were like 6 or 7 cycles. First of the year you get stores filled with valentine/s day supplies. Then starting February 15 they flood the stores with Easter goods, then backyard goods until memorial weekend and have a big sale. Then more sales for 4th of July. Then august comes and they start selling fall/halloween supplies, then Christmas. And repeat.  
Easter fills one of those gaps between seasons and one of the reasons it has been so commercialized. 

As a Christian I don;t get offended by the commercialization of it. Yes, Good Friday was gruesome, but easter is supposed to be a celebration of new life, and that is what a lot of the symbolism comes from.
The only time I've been offended was when I had a supervisor (an assistant principal) say "Happy Zombie Jesus Day" in a mocking tone in a staff meeting. It wasn't;t just that he said it, I've heard it before and it didn't bother me, it was coming from someone above in, in a professional setting and in a mocking tone. The guy was a total dick and no one liked him anyway. 
Not too long before that we had a severe storm with temps -15 in the morning, we were literally the only school not closes for at least 100 miles. In another meeting he said "If parents ask about xxxx, tell them this..." (I forget what he said). I responded and said "I feel like more parents are going to be asking me why we didn't cancel school today than that, what should we tell them?"
He got real angry with me and shouted "Stop watching Fox News, you're just as bad as all the moms on Facebook! (took me a minute to remember what he said)"
Fox News doesn't report local weather, I knew he was mocking me and trying to associate me with fox, even though I've never brought it up, because I was conservative and religious. A couple weeks later is when he said that zombie thing. 

PJ_Soul

HughFreakingDillon

haha, I always wondered this, so prior to the day I looked it up. It's because in old english the word "good" is meant as "holy" or "pious". NOW that finally makes sense.