Easter Is Not A Fun Holiday

Another uneventual Easter has come and gone.  Since my child is grown and I am more of a heathen than a devout Catholic Easter was a minor event for me again this year. It's not just that Easter is a religious holiday that turns me off. It's some of the weird aspects of it. The idea of a holiday centered around the crucifixion of someone is bizarre enough.  Those creepy old movies like 'Ten Commandments" appear on TV around Easter Day and we get to see a crazy account of Christ being crucified . Then there are all those crosses with Christ, blood and all...uh, do we need to see that while we eat our chocolate rabbits and peeps? And why do we have to dress in fancy clothes never worn any other time of the year to sit in a church for two hours and listen to some guy speaking Latin about things more medieval than modern.  That's not fun. And that "Good Friday" holiday actually says Friday when Christ was crucified was a "good day". Maybe for theological reasons, but not for those crucified.

Maybe the Church should redesign Easter, more in line with some of the fun kiddy events like Easter egg hunts that function on the periphery of Easter. Anyway, Easter is not serene everywhere.  In some other places they have a more secular, fun Easter time. Here are a few.
Australia- Australians are the largest consumers of Easter eggs in the world, but as the Easter bunny is known to have a bad history of destroying their vegetable crops, the eggs the Aussies eat are provided by the Easter Bilby (an endangered Kangaroo kind of species of Australia). I'll eat any chocolate you give me, endangered or not.

*Ethiopia- Those Ethiopians know how to dress. Every Easter they have a dress up day, the kind we used to have fun with when we were kids. They dress in white, with headbands created from palm tree leaves that supposedly symbolize the palms Jesus walked by on this way to being murdered. And just to make sure they have a big feast that is centered around that Dabo bread African restaurants keep putting before their customers.

*France- The French make huge omelets at Easter in big public displays. In  the city of Nantes last year they made one out of 12,000 eggs.

* Germany- In the city of Saafield in East Germany there is a decorated tree with more than 9000 Easter eggs. This tradition reminds the pagan among us us of the pagan ideas of sacrificing animals on trees, the egg is connected to the ideas of rebirth and resurrection associated with Easter.

*Greece- The Greeks are bloody broke these days, so they dye their Easter eggs all in one color.... RED  Red is the symbol as a symbol for Jesus’ blood.  The eggs are used in making Greek Easter Brioche bread.

*Hungary- The Hungarians have an Easter tradition that would be great fun for we men, but might result in unpleasant consequences.  A bucket of water is poured onto a woman of the Paloc minority, dressed in her traditional clothing, in Holloko, 100 km north-east of Budapest, Hungary. Actually, most men everywhere have had water poured on them Easter or any other day by their ladies after a night of too much drinking. Finally, we can go to Hungary and get revenge!

*Swizterland- The Swiss have an old Easter tradition of decorating water wells in order to celebrate the gift of water: life. They decorate wells with beautifully painted eggs and spring flowers.  Since the Swiss are not exactly the most fun-loving people, this is a big deal, and it does sound better than celebrating a crucifixion.

I hope your Easter went well and you didn't have too many thoughts of crucifying me for writing this kind of nonsense.