Traditions can be funny things. I say this because the Spring Holiday is on its way. Easter. It might be our weirdest holiday of all. What with all the big rabbits laying colored eggs. And ham dinners. And Peeps.
It could have gone much differently if left up to other people, in other places, setting down these traditions. As it turns out, most of those conventions don’t have a thing to do with Jesus rising from the dead at all.
The bulk of them come from pagan times and their ways of doing things. The ham dinner, for instance. This dates back to those early rituals honoring Spring and the goddess Eostre.
Well, let’s talk about that Eostre first. She was the beautiful goddess of fertility. And the season of Spring was all about fertility, from flowers blooming to little creatures being born everywhere. So Eostre, it was.
But the ham? Well, they had banquets in the Spring to celebrate the goddess’ arrival. And this tradition goes back to at least 6th-century Germany — according to Bruce Kraig, the founder of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. And he should know.
Anyway, hunters often slaughtered hogs in the forest in the fall, before the cold winter set in. Then, they left them to cure all during those winter months. By Spring, pork was one of the only meats ready to go for spring celebrations. Ham dinner.
As with other pagan rituals, it rolled over to those Christians who adopted the tradition for their own celebrations and meal. Ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans. Peeps.
Eostre is responsible for that big bunny too. Of course, fertility goes hand-in-hand with rabbits. So the bunny became the poster child for the fertility goddess, the mascot, the sidekick. So from the pagans, down through the centuries, the story of the Eostre Bunny was born. It’s thought that German immigrants brought their tradition of an egg-laying hare called Osterhare to the U.S. in the 1700s.
As I mentioned above, things could have gone much differently. What if the pagans had focused on “protection” for the Spring crops? What if they went to another god and found another way to represent Spring.
We could have had the Easter Armadillo, for example. They roll up in balls at times, when they go into protection mode. There could have been colored-armadillo shells. I could mention here that armadillo shells are bulletproof, but I live in an area where a lot of people own guns and like to shoot at just about anything living.
Anyway. Instead of hollow chocolate Easter Bunnies, there could have been chocolate armadillos.
Regardless of how you do or do not celebrate Easter, the holiday is hippity-hoppity, right around the bunny-tail corner. Laying colored eggs along the way. Easter, the time of new life.
Just remember this about life. It is a different world out there. In the spirit of the armadillo and protection — get your vaccines, wear your masks, and protect the ones you love. Your Peeps.
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“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
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“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
― Isaac Asimov
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“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
― Anne Frank
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Hollow bunnies, and other habits.
