Egg hunting is a sport. Yes, that’s right, a sport that comes only once a year. It takes skill, determination, and perseverance, especially if one wants to earn the title as Egg Hunt Champion. After careful placement of all the eggs, the gatherers are all called out to the field, backyard, or whichever location site has been chosen. Then the countdown begins: one.two.THREE! And the gatherers are off, the egg hunting ground becomes a battlefield; war cries are heard for miles as they all scramble to find and basket the most eggs. Many first timers usually get injured from colliding with one another, or being annihilated by the pros of the game.
In the end, when it’s assured that all the eggs have been found, the adults go through each gatherer’s basket and tally up all the eggs. After all the counting, a winner is declared, and a feast to celebrate the hunt takes place. This is how it goes down on Easter Sunday.
Well, almost. In actuality, Easter Sunday for Christians is about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It said that after Jesus Christ was crucified, He was placed into a tomb and rose on a Sunday. There is some controversy over this, however, because others say that it wasn’t a Sunday when Jesus Christ rose, but a Saturday. The pagan origin of Easter talks of a goddess, one of her names is Eastre, giving birth to a child god named Attis who was born from a virgin mother. He died and was resurrected each year.
Traditionally, Christians eat unleavened bread and drink grape juice in remembrance of the Passover, “.For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). Most pagans in the Mediterranean hold their own spring festivals.
When looking at Easter Sunday as a whole, many Christians argue that the meaning of Easter has been forgotten. And frankly, they just might be right. There seems to be more focus on what new outfit to get, because no one certainly wants to be caught dead wearing the same thing they wore last year, and even more attention has been given to those pink, yellow, and blue marshmallow chicks and bunnies and assorted Easter candies than to the true meaning of what Easter really stands for.
Admit it. A lot of time was probably spent shopping around for that nice dress that just HAD to be in another color, because there’s always a new theme, and of course a new suit to that would’ve made Jesus do a double take. And then there’s that lovely egg hunt for the kids; the hunt they’ve been training and waiting for all year. After the kids tire themselves out, everyone heads home and then it’s time for the feast of all feasts. Cream corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, home made macaroni and cheese, banana pudding, pound cake, corn bread dressing, smoked turkey, and ham-can’t forget the ham. Oh, and mustard greens, collard greens, broccoli and cheese and finish it all off with a glass of Alka Seltzer.
This is usually what might pop into someone’s head, too, if they were to hear the word Easter: eggs, food, candy and now, money as well. With those plastic eggs that allow parents to stick dollars inside, the race to get the most eggs has gotten even more brutal, causing younger kids to guard their baskets with their lives. They may get egg-jacked, where they look inside their plastic eggs and find their money and candy gone.
But when does Jesus ever get some props for giving his life? Or was that so five minutes ago? Next Easter, can He get at least one thank you?