Easter – Spring, Transformation and Miracles
I’ve been having a lot of fun lately doing research on “Easter”. I’ve shared in this blog before that I love etymology – finding out what the root meaning is of words. Often this will also take you to a better understanding of rituals and holidays and add to the richness of the celebration.
For example, the word “Easter” comes from a European Goddess of the dawn called Estra by the Anglo-Saxons and Ostara by other European peoples. Her name means “movement toward the rising sun”. One part of the lore surrounding this goddess is that during the festival of Easter, she entertained the children by performing a trick that changed her pet bird into a rabbit and the rabbit then laid colored eggs which she gave to the children. This practice of hiding Easter eggs for children pre-dates the Christian era by at least 2000 years but remains today an important part of the holiday.
Understanding the pagan root of the word also helps us understand why Easter is a different Sunday each year. Most of us are aware that the date we celebrate Easter moves every year, but not everyone is aware of the reason for this fluid timing. Easter is always the first Sunday after the first vernal equinox’s full moon – as in the early pagan rituals of spring. The vernal equinox signifies the astronomical arrival of spring and was the time for all people – not just Christians – to celebrate the rebirth and renewal as nature resurrects itself from the death it suffered in winter. Easter was originally a pagan festival co-opted by Christian missionaries starting in the second century after the death of Christ. It worked out great because it was close to the time of Passover, which it had to be given that the passion of Jesus began with the celebration of Passover with his friends.
But more important than the history of the holiday is the spirit of Easter. If you grew up in any Christian church you know that “Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and that he rose from the dead to break the bonds of death.” That’s what he did, but what are we supposed to do? The New Testament is “transformative” because in every Jesus event – the parables, the miracles, the sayings – we are supposed to learn something and change our lives today. So again, the message of Easter is not about what Jesus did, but about what WE are supposed to do BECAUSE of what he did.
Sometimes, when I pray and I spend the time to listen, I often hear an answer. Not so much as words but as a feeling. This year, as I was meditating on the passion and resurrection, the message that I heard in response was “get over it”. It was as if he was saying to me, “Hey, that happened 2000 years ago. Can we move on now?” If his dying, death and resurrection has any meaning it has to be in the NOW otherwise it was worthless. He didn’t die and rise so we could be just the same as we were before. That event then is meant to transform us now.
The reality is that there are things that I need to let die in my life so that there is room for new life – spring, resurrection. I need to let my prejudices die to make room for the new life of inclusiveness and love. I need to let my American idea of success die if I want to live the fact that “it is the life in the years and not the years in a life that is important.” I have to live in the fact that I am “a spiritual being living a physical life rather than a physical being living a spiritual life.” Otherwise my impending death is something to be feared not something to be accepted as part of the cycle of nature. Jesus wasn’t sent to die on the cross. He was sent to live and the way he lived led to the cross. I am supposed to live that radical of a life speaking my truth not just what is popular.
I wish you an Easter and spring filled with transformation, life and grace. I wish you a life lived in the now. Happy life!!
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