I’ve not begun typing in order to condemn the use of rabbits, eggs, ducklings, or chicks this Easter Sunday. In my book they’re acceptable for fun as long as they defer and not overtake the true celebration of Easter rather than become a distraction, besides, I love chicks, I had a yellow chick named Jack once. I have a fond memory of Resurrection Sunday in my mind right now. There was a time when I was about 4 or 5 years old and we spent Holy Week with my mother’s clan at a relative’s beach resthouse in Tali Beach, Batangas. At the crack of dawn on Easter morning I woke up alone on my mattress after a few days already at the beach to the sound of either my mom or aunt’s voice wide awake outside shouting “Hallelujah, Jesus is Alive!!” even before the rooster crowed I believe. That erased what would’ve been the common urge in mind to greet people “Happy Easter”. We also had a Grand Easter egg hunt that day made of beautifully painted real chicken eggs done by a lot of us, no plastic eggs and they were hidden in hard to find places around the beach house. We used white crayons on the eggs first to make our designs or patterns, then when the eggs were dipped in dye the patterns in crayon would resist the dye and you had a subtractive design. Here’s a photo of one similar summer but I think this wasn’t the same trip that formed the memory, this was around 1 or 2 years later but also in Tali, in another friend’s house. Uh, that’s me on the left edge of the photo and beside me is my first (as in first) cousin Paolo, Tito Gary’s eldest son, Tita Donna and Tito Anthony are behind us.
22 “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
1 Corinthians 15:22 New King James Version (NKJV)
We still made use of the eggs as part of the fun but we always had the Word and the Gospel preached or shared among us first by either my dad, Tito Gary, or one of the other uncles. The root word Easter ironically is not of Christian origin even, Easter comes from the name of Eostre “This mythical figure is said to have been the goddess of the sunrise and the spring. She is the Teutonic goddess of the dawn. The direction of the sunrise, East, is named for her. In Norse mythology, the name is spelled Eostare. Another considered the Norse/Saxon goddess of spring is Ostara. Eastre is believed to be an ancient word for spring.” Of course although it may be someone else’s form of tradition I don’t fully believe in the root of Easter because of that mythical figure. I’d rather believe in Resurrection Sunday which holds true power for me because of God’s changing, saving grace in my life. I found a video unlike most “Easter” videos. It contains some clips from the Nativity then mostly the Passion, not the violent parts, but the parts with Mary and Jesus in it, which I love. The song being sung is Perfect Love by Darlene Zschech of Hillsong, it’s inspired to be Mary’s loving, motherly song about her Son’s beauty and sacrifice. I pray God blesses and touches you personally tomorrow, Happy Resurrection Sunday! Here is the video that nearly moved me to tears even without much of the violence.
