Thank You Very Sweet

Now that I have your attention, I’ll share that I have been very intentional about calling this holiday Easter this year.  I always remember it being called Easter until I became an adult and my Christian friends started telling me that I had to call it Resurrection Sunday only.

“Easter” was a holiday before Christianity existed.  It was a time to celebrate the Spring Equinox, the end of a long winter and the beginning of Spring.  In some places this holiday was also associated with fertility.  This is how we would later get to the eggs (bunnies and eggs came later, admittedly I don’t really vibe with bunnies who lay eggs).

But a new beginning after a long winter? A new birth?  These themes don’t seem so far off from Resurrection to me.  It’s a celebration of life after death! I can understand why early Christians would associate the Resurrection of Christ with a holiday that celebrated new beginnings. Can’t you?

My heart wonders if the people who told us that we couldn’t call it Easter anymore were men.

I am reminded today that women were so very present with Jesus during these Holy three days- the last to be with him in death, the first to rise early to anoint his body with oil and spice , and the first to discover the empty tomb.

Lady this is not the time to hide your light or conform just because someone said so.

We are emerging from darkness to light.

This is a fertile time.

He is Risen.

Happy Easter!!