Eostre & the Chocolate Bunny
Posted by Hallee on Apr 2, 2010 in apologetics, Christian Faith, Creation, Family, holiness, Life, Parenting, Raising boys, Raising girls |
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Gregg & Hallee
Chris and I do not celebrate Halloween at all. We do not hand candy out, we do not decorate. It’s by choice, and one that most do not agree with. I have had my fair share of arguments on that one. I just don’t even bring it up anymore. It always leads to someone becoming hostile over it. Honestly its my belief, why get all bent out of shape over it. Most other years I have been tempted to by the Easter decorations in the stores. This year I saw a rather cute flag to hang on my door that said “Happy Easter”. It had absolutely nothing about Jesus Christ on it. Not one thing. Just a bunny hopping through grass that had eggs in it. It was cute, but not worth my hanging it up (and it was only $1!). So I applaud you and Gregg for handing out the chocolate cross versus the bunnies. And kudos to you about the hats this year. How awesome. I hope you have a wonderful trip :)
I have to admit I had NO clue regarding the pagan influence of Easter. I WILL be praying about this also. U have striked alot of thoughts lately! Good ones. Maybe God bless ur weekend!
Bless you for this blog and information!
I have been struggling with this Easter bunny thing for years! I don’t focus on the bunny, and I don’t even let my kids think the bunny brought them baskets, even when I have to explain that grandma is kidding when she said the Easter bunny brought them last night… ugh!
Thank you for this information. I hope to have the bunny, Halloween, Santa (which we don’t emphasize either) and those other pagan rituals out of our home in the very near future! Now I have a good ground to stand on and explain this to my kids! (you ARE a wonderful minister!)
My oldest son (22) was trying to tell me about Eostre yesterday, and I just didn’t know what to say, that I don’t like this Easter bunny thing, but not sure how to eliminate it without the kids being too “weird” to their friends. Life is hard at times! But it’s wonderful to know, he has the goodness in his heart, to learn about ridding the pagan rituals in spite of me and my confused approach. “o}
2%, that makes me so, so sad.
Thank you, Hallee.
IMO, it is about whether those moments in celebrating Christmas with stockings or Easter with eggs are made to spend and show the love that Christ would have us do and whether or not we make sure to place Christ at the center of those holidays. The decoration of eggs or the egg hunt might come from a Pagan holiday but we use it as something fun to do. When we ask our kids can they tell us why we celebrate the holiday? Is the holiday about coloring eggs or about the bunny? Doing those things doesn’t negate or lessen what Easter is truly about unless we let it. Christ died, Christ IS Risen and Christ will come again! Awesome!
We try to celebrate the Holy days (holidays) in lifting up God’s name. Our mission is to give, give, give. We open our home many times and really focus on the reason for the season. Now with our young son, we did take him to an egg hunt at a church where they told the real Easter story. We also did the Resurrection egg story with him and sing songs to him as well as learn a Bible verse. We will not be doing baskets or candy in our home. I taught Kindergarten at a Christian school and every year I would really emphasize the true meaning especially of Easter.
I believe that God redeems everything and is working in our world to make all things new. Even though easter bunnies and Christmas trees may have had pagan roots, if it helps us remember the real reason for the season, I don’t see why we should rid ourselves of them.
thanks for sharing this Hallee….it provided a lot of food for thought! 60% saddens me as well….hard to believe that almost half of people out there don’t know the true meaning behind Easter! I forwarded this article to several of my friends and family because I found it so interesting.
Perhaps you could call it ‘Pascaltide,’ in the way so many Europeans do! Almost everywhere but Germany refers to the Resurrection Day by some name derived from the word ‘pascha.’
On the Halloween issue, however, you might like to read this article: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/Catholic/2000/10/Surprise-Halloweens-Not-A-Pagan-Festivalafter-All.aspx
There is some very good information in it about what is and isn’t Christian about Halloween. And, of course, you have to be careful about getting to hung up on names; everyone calls it Christ-mas, whether they go to a mass, or to another kind of service! It is true, however, that all of our holy days have gotten too commercial. That is why I love blogs like yours! Keep it up!
Thank you so much for that link!
Hi, Hallee!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. It is definitely a topic worth considering by all Christians. You are right when you say that many of our Christian festivals and customs are polluted with paganism. I have often thought how the devil must laugh at us as we go about our different celebrations throughout the year, unwittingly participating in customs and rituals that do not elevate Christ whatsoever.
My parents emigrated to the US before I was born from a country with a large population of voodoo adherents. Because of the prevalence of this non-Christian belief system, Christians in my parents country of origin are very careful to live a life of clear separation from their voodoo countrymen. For me as a child born and raised in the United States, this meant that the Easter bunny did not visit our house as children and Jesus brought us our gifts at Christmas, based on the scriptural belief that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1: 17). I could go on and on about how unscriptural (and downright creepy) the idea is of an old fat man breaking into your home under the cover of night to drop off God knows what into your living room, but I won’t. And honestly, I have always felt it such a shame that we resort to invoking the tale of the historical Saint Nicholas every year in order to justify this tradition. Why it is not enough to accept that all we will ever have that is good in this world comes from Jesus is beyond me? Why are we so resistant to give credit where credit is due? After all, is not the point of Christmas to celebrate him who gave us the gift of eternal life? Halloween was not celebrated in our home at all. What a dark and nasty holiday for the children of the “Father of heavenly lights” to participate in! What on earth could possibly be godly about witches, ghosts, demons, zombies, skeletons, and scaring the living daylights out of anyone? Not to mention the sheer hypocrisy within Christian culture to shun, for example, a movie/book series such as Harry Potter, but happily don a witch’s hat on Halloween. What’s that about? My siblings and I were sent to school with clear instructions not to participate in any Halloween activities (and my parents were very good about making sure the administration did not place us in compromising situations) and all the kids in our neighborhood knew not to come by our house asking for candy on that day. You could come over to play as usual, but don’t come over for trick or treating. You won’t find any candy here. October 31 was simply regarded as yet another day the Lord has made. As usual, we simply rejoiced in its creation and were glad to have had another day of life to be a part of it. When every other kid went back to school the next day with stories of the nightmares they had last night, my siblings and I came in bright and perky as usual after having a night of peaceful sleep, and sweet dreams.
I am extremely grateful for the gift of clear and uncompromising focus on Christ in our celebrations that my parents gave to me and my siblings as a child. I sincerely believe that this focus is what gave me a happy and secure childhood, and preserved my faith during those very critical teenage/emerging adult years when so many Christian youth begin to doubt the very existence of God. After all, if the Easter bunny and Santa Claus (those whom we cannot see) aren’t real, who is this Jesus anyway? Am I even saved at all? Do I even need to be saved? These and other questions plagued my high school and college classmates, while I never doubted Christ’s existence, nor my salvation. I never had a reason to do so.
The “happy ending” to my testimony is, of course, whether or not I will have successfully passed these ideas on to the next generation. The challenge here becomes the faith walk of one’s spouse (after all, if both parents aren’t on the same page when it comes to matters of faith, it will be extremely difficult to teach these ideas to one’s children), and how deeply held is one’s own conviction to celebrate Christ alone. My husband and I began exploring these ideas shortly before our eldest child celebrated her first Christmas: as a Lutheran, my husband had absolutely no concerns with introducing our daughter to the idea of Santa Claus, but I on the other hand having been raised Pentecostal by immigrant parents, had the proverbial “cow”. Needless to say, this and other matters have become the focus of numerous discussions over the years, allowing for opportunities for my husband and I to examine our beliefs in regards to such issues. Compromises (on both our parts) have been made for the sake of family harmony (eg. although my children are not taught about the Easter bunny, they are allowed to participate in egg hunts at church). Somewhere in the very back of my mind, I continue to grapple with the idea of this one concession, but considering that my husband has been very gracious over the years to support me in raising our children in a spirit of “Christ alone” for the most part (ie. no Halloween, no Santa Claus, etc), it’s an issue I am happy to leave in God’s hands as I submit to my husband’s authority as high priest of our home. Besides, if the hunting of eggs does present itself to be a problem, I simply trust that the Lord will bring that to my husband’s heart and he will either move away from this tradition or our children will electively put away such childish things as they grow older.
I do not have the time right now to consider here what is left in these holidays once we remove all that is pagan within them (these pagan traditions and ideas seem to comprise a large portion of these celebrations), but if my experience is of any value, believe me there is so much more to Easter and Christmas when our festivities are focused on Jesus.
What an exciting journey of discovery is in store for you, Hallee! I very much look forward to future postings regarding what new things God will reveal to you as study his word in light of these issues. God bless!
God bless you, too, my friend. Thank you for this response!
My husband and I recently decided to start observing the Feasts of the Lord and stop celebrating Christmas and Easter. We saw a three part series called “Truth or Tradition” by Pastor Jim Staley (Messianic/Hebrew Roots) and he really drove the point home that we as believers in Christ should not mix the holy with the profane. The very night we saw the series, we threw out all our Easter and Christmas decorations. How much joy there is in obedience to our Father! We are looking forward to celebrating for the first time all the Feasts of the Lord starting with Yom Teruah this next Thursday. I know God spoke to my husband and I about this because He wants us to walk in holiness through obedience.
When Gregg comes home for good, we will observe the Feasts. I’m looking forward to it, but I honestly don’t want to undertake something so new an unfamiliar alone.
You know that a traditional dish for Yom Teruah is blackeyed peas? How neat is that? I was thinking about writing a post about a meal plan for the feast and discovered that the New Year begins with blackeyed peas just like the tradition for the New Year in the south begins the same way!
I was just wondering where you and Gregg are a year later on this topic?
I’m actually writing about that right now.