A few things to note about chocolate eggs and rabbits

Let me ramble for a while. It’s been Easter these past few days, a Christian holiday apparently usurping a Pagan fertility tradition, celebrated by the mass eating of chocolate rabbits and eggs. Now I can understand why it was so hard to decide upon fixed dates for events that happened (or possibly happened) 2,000 years ago, for which there were few records that actually make any sense, but why settle on this strange pagan equinoctial timing thing? First Sunday (a day named after Sun-worship after all) after the first Full Moon (surely worshipping the Moon) after the northern hemisphere’s Vernal Equinox, a date everyone celebrated anyway because it heralds the good times we know as spring. OK, so it was effective marketing, and I have no qualms about supporting religions that preach social orderliness, compassion and peace. But I do find it hard to accept these somewhat arbitrary and cynical celebration dates. Christmas is similarly blighted by Christian church pragmatism. And both Easter and Christmas are noteworthy for excess – as in excessive spending on food and presents. It’s not a good look when we Westerners go on a consumption binge to celebrate a man, or an idea, or a prophet who fairly clearly preached the opposite to what we are actually doing. I guess this is what happens when humans get control over spiritual things. They get carried away with the smoke and mirrors, the colour and the movement.

Whilst I have no special affiliation with any particular organised religion and will happily consider any belief, I do especially enjoy researching the history of these things, trying to work out why particular messages are presented in these somewhat arcane ways. And I enjoy the search for truth and explanation that’s inherent in all religions or faiths, from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. And good luck to anyone who has found that trust and belief in any one faith.