The current edition of my local Parkhill newspaper, The Gazette,
has nicely juxtaposed the conflicting approaches to Easter that exists in our
culture. Although the culture in and
around Parkhill is quite traditional in many ways there is a conflicted and
conflicting approach to how Good Friday should
be celebrated. The front page had a
large colour picture of the Procession of the Cross celebrated in a joint
service of Parkhill United Church and St. James Anglican Church. The tradition
of a joint service was started about ten years ago when I was the rector of St.
James (prior to my retirement) along with the United Church minister, Rev. Doug
Wright, who is still serving that church.
The service begins at one church and midway a large wooden cross is
processed to the other church where the service concludes.
This is a service that is appreciated by members of both
congregations. In past years we used an
adaption of the Stations of the Cross at various points between the two churches. This is very appropriate for the solemn
occasion marking the crucifixion of the founder of our faith; all well and
good. However, the interior of the paper
reveals a competing celebration. The
caption over a picture of a group of little children and supervising adults
read, “Chocolate galore as Parkhill youngsters enjoy Easter Egg Hunt”. Of course tradition of the Easter Egg Hunt
has been long established in Canada and elsewhere. The Easter bunny leaving eggs has been a part
of Easter celebrations which with its symbol of new life and breaking the
Lenten fast and other symbolic aspects tied to Easter. Some
of these include the Eastern Orthodox tradition of abstaining from eggs during
Lents and there was (according to Wikipedia) an ancient belief that the hare
was a hermaphrodite and “The idea
that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led
to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ
Child”. I could go on but the point
is that The Easter Egg Hunt is a well-established Christian tradition.
Now the problem
with the ‘Easter’ Egg Hunt in Parkhill is that it occurs (I won’t say
celebrated) on the morning of Good Friday.
This of course is completely in opposition to the meaning of Good Friday
when Christians celebrate the death of Jesus Christ and Easter Sunday when the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Celebrated and where the symbol of new life belongs. Now only that but with Good Friday services being
celebrated the same time as the Easter Egg Hunt it means that families must
choose between the celebration and the activity. The secularization of Christian symbols is
well established with the materialistic excesses of ‘Christmas’ gift frenzy so
I should not be surprized that secular ‘Easter’ celebrations occur. However, it might be considerate on the part
of the organizers at least to celebrate it at a time which doesn’t conflict
with the traditional Christian celebration.
The Gazette notes that a neighboring community holds its Easter Egg Hunt
on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I believe that it would be
a good idea if Christianity separated the celebration of Christmas from the
secular in some more specific ways. This
obviously applied to Easter as well. Just
a reminder of how secular and Christian Easter differs from secular Easter, we
are still celebrating Easter as we Christians are in the season of Easter which
celebrates the period in which Jesus Christ was on earth following his
Resurrection. I will end with the Easter
acclamation which is used during the Easter Season:
Celebrant: The Lord
is risen!
People:
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Celebrant: May his
grace and peace be with you.
People:
May he fill our hearts with joy.
New life indeed! Alleluia!
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