Sunday 8 April 2012

The Last Egg-Free Easter

My partner Dave and I have had a hard time deciding what to do about religious holidays and their fantasy counterparts, such as the Easter Bunny. It seems a bit wrong to celebrate something symbolising rebirth and the beginning of Spring and Harvest, when here in the southern hemisphere, it's starting to get colder, and the leaves on all the deciduous trees are starting to turn golden.


Today was our last egg-free Easter. Indigo is ten months old, and thankfully doesn't yet understand that Easter equals chocolate for the vast majority of Australians, so we managed to dodge a bullet this year. Instead, we took the dog to the beach, and lazed around on our lawn in the sun. It was pretty perfect.


I love celebrating pretty much anything. I've been feeling physically and mentally drained recently, and all my ideas for hollowing-out and painting eggs then hiding them in the garden fell by the wayside. I've needed all my energy to just to keep up with Indigo and remember to brush my teeth. Watch out, Halloween and Christmas - prepare for a craft attack! Readers, prepare for a whole heap of DIY tutorials - I have grand plans.


We've come to the conclusion that it's too much fun not to have Santa and a giant rabbit in Indigo's life, so we'll cross the religious connotations when the questions come up! Being atheists makes these decisions difficult - neither of us want to be perpetuating Christan holidays over any others, so maybe we'll throw colour on each other during Holi, celebrate the Dia de los Muertos and Charles Darwin's birthday, and any other holiday that makes sense to us, or has really awesome traditions.


I'd love some ideas - what holidays, religious or otherwise, do you think would be worth celebrating?







1 comment:

  1. I struggle with this a bit too..we have been talking about the "real" meaning of Easter, along with eating our chocolate eggs! I think it is important for kids to know why we celebrate it, but not to let them miss out also..my youngest (7) also told me that she knows I'm the Easter Bunny and that made me a little sad xx

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