They’re called Easter Eggs, People – Get Over It!

It's an Easter Rant!

I read this article last week and I’m still fuming. An elementary school in Seattle has changed Easter eggs to “Spring Spheres.” Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? This got me to thinking about Easter, spring and traditions around the world.

The world over the egg is a symbol of spring and new life. Here in America, it’s no different. You don’t have to believe that Easter commemorates the resurrected Christ three days after crucifixion to hunt Easter eggs. I don’t see what children with baskets looking for eggs filled with candy and trinkets have to do with Christianity. I doubt Billy Graham or Mother Theresa attribute their religious zeal to a particularly great egg hunt. The word “Easter” actually comes from a word from Anglo-Saxon paganism. I wonder if the Seattle elementary school that?

The United States has a Judeo-Christian heritage - meaning that we have a secular government based on religious values. Our founders believed in the Hebrew Bible and the God of Israel. This is our history. It’s who we are. We can’t and should not want to erase this by the watering down the religious significance of our holidays. See just there – the word holiday comes from Holy Day… But I digress.

That’s one think I can say about “The Greater Tri-State Area.” Here in the veritable buckle of the Bible belt, elementary school students enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt on school property in the middle of the school day. This occurred as the final activity of the day before Easter break began. Yes, here we have Good Friday and Easter Monday off from school. It’s called Easter break and not April break or something else. My kindergartener has been bringing home sheets bedecked with Easter eggs and bunnies for weeks. Of course there was no mention of Christ.  We've got that covered at home. 

Most of our holidays have a religious component to them. Here are a few.


• Saint Valentine’s Day

• Saint Patrick’s Day

• Mardi Gras

• Easter

• Independence Day (Jefferson evokes God throughout the Declaration of Independence)

• Halloween

• Thanksgiving (Sure the Pilgrims want to thank the Indians, but mostly they wanted to thank God)

• Christmas (Don't even get me started)

I wouldn’t want to remove every mention from God in our public society. I don’t want people to bask in the success and exceptionalism of America and then deny the very reasons for it. I’d prefer you just said nothing – and let your children hunt Easter eggs.