Gary Clayton wonders why Easter in the West appears to have so little to do with the season celebrated by Jesus
Many years ago, shortly after I became a Christian, I took part in an evangelistic sketch showing the difference between various religions. One actor quoted from Mohammad, another from Buddha, Confucius and so on. Finally, it was my turn.
‘And Jesus said…’ I began. But, being extremely nervous, I froze. I tried again, but nothing came out. Eventually a fellow Christian, seeing the look of panic on my face, whispered: ‘Well, say something…’ But I couldn’t!
My brain whirred, my lips moved, but – like a silent movie – no sound! ‘Well, make something up,’ he hissed. But I couldn’t do that – it just didn’t seem right!
My friend’s inappropriate suggestion does however provide an insight into one of the problems fostered by institutional church structures throughout the ages – the apparent need to ‘make something up’.
It helps explain why Pesach, the Jewish Passover celebrated by Jesus and his disciples, eventually became what we in the UK call ‘Easter’ – a season most people in the West tend to associate with the sugar rush of an expensively-wrapped chocolate egg rather than the miraculous events following the Last Supper.
Later, thanks to the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the original date on which Passover was held was changed in an attempt at separating the church from its originally Jewish roots.
Faith in Jesus, the one ‘worthy of greater honour than Moses’, became increasingly removed from the faith of those who originally celebrated Passover with Him and commemorated the miraculous escape God wrought for Moses and His people.
The chicken or the egg?
But why, rather than focusing on what Jesus did for us on the cross, do we in the West appear to go mad as March hares when it comes to Easter bunnies, fluffy chicks, colourful eggs, and chocolate confectionery?
The answer goes back to the ancient Persians and Egyptians, who celebrated their new year by colouring and eating hen, duck or goose eggs because they viewed them as magical symbols of rebirth, fertility and Spring.
Eggs were apparently buried under the foundations of buildings to ward off evil, stepped on by brides before crossing the threshold of their new home, and painted with bright colours.
So, although eggs are said to be symbols of Jesus’ resurrection – either representing the gift of new life or the stone rolled away from the tomb – the origin of the Easter egg is hardly Christian! But, because the ancient pagans used eggs to symbolise fertility, it’s no wonder that their emphasis at Easter makes things a little scrambled.
In England, King Edward I’s 1307 household accounts even contain an entry of ‘18 pence for 459 eggs to be boiled and dyed or covered with gold leaf and distributed to the Royal household’. I wonder who was lucky enough to get a gold-leaf one! Centuries later, egg-shaped toys were given to children.
Although the first chocolate Easter eggs were made in France and Germany in the early 1800s, Tsars Alexander III (1845-1894) and Nicholas II (1868-1918) received something even more desirable from the jeweller Carl Fabergé. One contained a golden yolk that contained a golden hen which contained a golden crown. Another, celebrating the opening of the Trans-Siberian railway, was made of solid silver, contained a gold clockwork train, and employed precious jewels to indicate the various stations along the route. Though Lenin’s ruthless Marxist dictatorship brought all this to an abrupt end, people in the Eastern Orthodox Church are still said to dye their Easter eggs red ‘in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at the time of his crucifixion’.
In the sweet-toothed UK, the chocolate Easter-egg market is now worth more than £220million. Though church numbers decline, the sale of eggs, unlike the unleavened bread required for Passover, continues to rise.
But eggs aren’t the only problem – we have chicks and Easter bunnies too! Although Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), the Bible makes no mention of the ubiquitous rabbit – except in Leviticus 11:6 and Deuteronomy 14:7, where they’re described as ceremonially unclean.
So, to quote Bugs Bunny: ‘What’s up, Doc?’ Like coloured eggs, rather than being a fairly modern phenomenon, the Easter Bunny predates Christianity and is also pagan. Because rabbits and hares are prolific breeders, they too were seen by pagan societies as symbolising fruitfulness.
Interestingly, it wasn’t until the 1690s that the Easter Bunny was introduced to America when German Lutheran immigrants, settling in Pennsylvania, shared the story of an egg-laying hare. The tradition went that, if the immigrants’ children were good, the Easter Hare, known as ‘Osterhase’ or ‘Oschter Haws’, would give them a coloured egg.
So, anticipating the bounty of the fecund bunny, the youngsters made nests in caps or bonnets, so it could lay its colourful eggs.
A harebrained idea
Of course, the gift of an egg had less to do with the generosity of the apocryphal rabbit than the kindly actions of an indulgent adult. Then, once Easter was over, the whole ‘Have you been good?’ process repeated itself in December. This time, however, the presents were generally more expensive and less edible. They are also ‘delivered’ by reindeer rather than a basket-carrying bunny!
As the largely Protestant custom spread across America, the mythical rabbit’s Easter morning deliveries expanded to include chocolate, candy and gifts. In some houses, children left carrots out in case the hare got hungry – an idea almost as harebrained as laying out mince pies, sherry or milk for Santa.
Sadly, while secular Christmases focus on a red-suited man in a sky-borne chariot rather than the manger-born King, Easter provides us with the unseemly spectacle of a cartoonish creature carrying all its eggs in one basket. Every year, the season’s true focus on an empty tomb and a risen Lord becomes dangerously upstaged.
At Mission Aviation Fellowship, the Christian charity for which I write and edit, light aircraft deliver ‘goodies’ such as Bibles, food, medicine, vaccines, educational resources, building supplies and humanitarian aid to developing countries in Africa and Asia, whatever the season.
Paganism vs Protestantism
The command of 1 Corinthians 5:7 (‘Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed’) would appear to have been largely ignored. Forgotten too, are the warnings of Galatians 5:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:6 that ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough’.
By disregarding Scripture and coming up with one’s own traditions and practices, it’s but a short hop, skip and a jump for the Easter Bunny to supplant the Passover Lamb and for expensive hollow chocolate to replace the empty tomb.
In our conversations with unsaved friends and our celebrations with family at home, let’s ensure that the season which commemorates Jesus’ last supper with His friends escapes dumbing down through its unhelpful association with animals and eggs.
Rather than feed the body and starve the soul, let’s share the message about Jesus’ anguished prayer in Gethsemane, painful betrayal, rigged trial, agonising crucifixion, and glorious resurrection – nourishing those around us with food for thought and something to chew on.
Let’s stick closely to the script Scripture provides for us in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last hours and, unlike the evangelistic sketch I mentioned at the beginning of this article, let’s avoid making things up or trying to add things that ought to be left out. Happy Easter!
