Easter – Life and Fertility

As a child growing up in a home with some rituals and traditions, yet not strict in religion gave me a sense of belonging, and freedom with safety. Weeks before Easter, my grandmother would start preparation for a week long family gatherings. Huge basket filled with colored eggs, baking her traditional ‘Kahka’ (form of cookie) and hours of making ‘Kouftah’ (traditional Lebanese food) with one ‘silver coin’ hidden in one – for good luck!

Today, the meaning of the many different customs observed during Easter Sunday have been buried with time. In one way or another all the customs are a “salute to spring” marking re-birth. The white Easter lily has come to capture the glory of the holiday. Some say the word Easter is derived from Eostre (also known as Ostara), an ancient Anglo-Saxon Goddess. She symbolized the rebirth of the day at dawn and the rebirth of life in the spring. A festival was held in her honor every year at the vernal equinox. People celebrate Easter according to their beliefs and their religious denominations. Christians commemorate Good Friday as the day that Jesus Christ died and Easter Sunday as the day that He was resurrected.

Today on Easter Sunday, many children and some adults (rituals) hunt for the decorated eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny. Neighborhoods and organizations hold Easter egg hunts, and the child who finds the most eggs wins a prize. The Easter Bunny is a rabbit-spirit. Long ago, he was called the “Easter Hare”, hares and rabbits have frequent multiple births so they became a symbol of fertility. The custom of an Easter egg hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that “All life comes from an egg.” Christians consider eggs to be “the seed of life” and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why we dye, or color, and decorate eggs is not certain. In medieval Europe, beautifully decorated eggs were given as gifts.

We now know that many of our patterns, behaviors and habits are formed due to our past, family history – foods we ate or songs we sang. They are ingrained into our subconscious mind, where they are held intact for recall (the good ones, as well as the not so good ones). How and what we keep, modify or change, is very much a conscious choice! May You celebrate all that you are!

Live Prosperously – You matter

Liza

Post #3 of Symbols and Renewal: the Armenian Genocide – 100 years ago