Easter, Bunny Rabbits and Jesus
The last two blogs that at the time of this posting had been religious in topic. This one is partially an attempt to change directions while, at the same time, answering a question that occurred to me this week, and that question and answer does have religious implications.
My friend, Marla, recently added a bunny to her household....a bunny that she thought orginally was a cat, and which upon learning was a rabbit wanted to protect and ended up mading a part of her life. The only problem being that being a "rabbit whisperer" and getting a bunny rabbit to stop chewing on electrical cords and other sundries has proven to be a challange. BTW, the picture presented today is my attempt to get the same angle picture of one of my cats, that she did of her rabbit. The fact, at least to me, is that there is a general similarity in appearance from this particular angle of Marla's bunny and my cat..
The bigger question brought up sometime during the week was "how did we get from Jesus on the cross and his resurrection" to Easter Bunnies with colored eggs. Somehow, I doubted a recent South Park storyline that presented a sort of satire of the Davinca Code wherein the first Pope, Peter, was actally a Bunny and was Jesus choice for the first pope to get around the human tendency to get too rigid was the right answer. Also knowing that there is definitely a story, how historical it actually is is up for conjecture, for St Nicholas/Santa Claus and his role in Christmas, I thought there might perhaps be a story behind the Easter Bunny as well.
A relatively short period of research on the internet yeilded an answer. The Easter Bunny and the colored eggs are a hangover from pre-christian Western Europe and its focus on the fertility of Spring. Both the bunny (or Hart), with its rapid reproduction, and the eggs (from which life hatches) are good respresentatives of that focus. So concisely, the history is that Christianity came to western europe and surplanted the earlier religions, but retained this particular element, perhaps because of its adaptablity to the idea of new life that the resurrection represents. The fact that they are both in the spring adds credance to this.
I am sure there are those who would use my line of argrument to say that Easter Egg Hunts etc are a sin, and should be discontinued post haste. I am not, however, suggesting anything of the sort. I am presenting a bit of history, and with it, my belief that eggs and bunnies, while not being the central message of christianity, are in fact good representation of what the message is...ie new life, new opportunity and hope for productiveness (however one defines it). In a word happiness.
I have been going thru what some call a "dark night of the soul". Very depressed and not really wanting to do much in the way of living. In many ways this is good, because it has made me look closely at exactly what is important, and what I want from life. I will NEVER have a relationship like the ones I had before Roy, or in many ways the kind of relationship I had with him. I sometimes have the sense of the chaff being burned away and me entering a new portion of my life. Different but not less than that which has been before it.
My dreams reflect that....last night I dreamed that for some reason I was still trying to do the job I have at the Telecommunications company, but in addition, was the head of a hospital. What that means, even symbolically, I have trouble understanding. However, it is my hope that that along with everything else I have gone through for the last couple of years (and more intensely for the last 6 months), I am being "set up" for a new life, perhaps more meaningful than any part of my life heretofore.
And isnt that what Easter, eggs and bunnies all three tell us as human beings? I think so.
My friend, Marla, recently added a bunny to her household....a bunny that she thought orginally was a cat, and which upon learning was a rabbit wanted to protect and ended up mading a part of her life. The only problem being that being a "rabbit whisperer" and getting a bunny rabbit to stop chewing on electrical cords and other sundries has proven to be a challange. BTW, the picture presented today is my attempt to get the same angle picture of one of my cats, that she did of her rabbit. The fact, at least to me, is that there is a general similarity in appearance from this particular angle of Marla's bunny and my cat..
The bigger question brought up sometime during the week was "how did we get from Jesus on the cross and his resurrection" to Easter Bunnies with colored eggs. Somehow, I doubted a recent South Park storyline that presented a sort of satire of the Davinca Code wherein the first Pope, Peter, was actally a Bunny and was Jesus choice for the first pope to get around the human tendency to get too rigid was the right answer. Also knowing that there is definitely a story, how historical it actually is is up for conjecture, for St Nicholas/Santa Claus and his role in Christmas, I thought there might perhaps be a story behind the Easter Bunny as well.
A relatively short period of research on the internet yeilded an answer. The Easter Bunny and the colored eggs are a hangover from pre-christian Western Europe and its focus on the fertility of Spring. Both the bunny (or Hart), with its rapid reproduction, and the eggs (from which life hatches) are good respresentatives of that focus. So concisely, the history is that Christianity came to western europe and surplanted the earlier religions, but retained this particular element, perhaps because of its adaptablity to the idea of new life that the resurrection represents. The fact that they are both in the spring adds credance to this.
I am sure there are those who would use my line of argrument to say that Easter Egg Hunts etc are a sin, and should be discontinued post haste. I am not, however, suggesting anything of the sort. I am presenting a bit of history, and with it, my belief that eggs and bunnies, while not being the central message of christianity, are in fact good representation of what the message is...ie new life, new opportunity and hope for productiveness (however one defines it). In a word happiness.
I have been going thru what some call a "dark night of the soul". Very depressed and not really wanting to do much in the way of living. In many ways this is good, because it has made me look closely at exactly what is important, and what I want from life. I will NEVER have a relationship like the ones I had before Roy, or in many ways the kind of relationship I had with him. I sometimes have the sense of the chaff being burned away and me entering a new portion of my life. Different but not less than that which has been before it.
My dreams reflect that....last night I dreamed that for some reason I was still trying to do the job I have at the Telecommunications company, but in addition, was the head of a hospital. What that means, even symbolically, I have trouble understanding. However, it is my hope that that along with everything else I have gone through for the last couple of years (and more intensely for the last 6 months), I am being "set up" for a new life, perhaps more meaningful than any part of my life heretofore.
And isnt that what Easter, eggs and bunnies all three tell us as human beings? I think so.