Baskets filled with jellybeans, marshmallow chicks, chocolate bunnies, foil wrapped chocolate eggs, and more—yes, another sugar season is upon the American love of candy. We have chocolate santas, peppermint bark, and candy canes at Christmas; chocolate hearts on Valentine’s Day; boxed bon-bons on Mother’s Day, and Halloween is an epic sugar overdose – not to mention personal events like birthdays, anniversaries, and I’m-sorry-I-was-a-jerk offerings. We certainly keep the candy industry pumping out sweets.
According to Brandon Marketing Experts, Americans spend an average of $8 billion dollars a year on treats and the average American eats 25 pounds of candy every year (50% is chocolate). The sweet scent of chocolate, and the colorful mountain of goodies are seductive. It takes considerable fortitude to push the grocery cart past the specialty candy aisle. If you go down that aisle, you are doomed! Pink and yellow peeps and jellybeans are guaranteed to appear on the checkout belt and probably on my kitchen table before it’s over.
Can Easter/Resurrection Be Controversial?
We all know that bunnies do not lay eggs. No controversy there. Bunnies, chicks, and eggs come from traditional symbols of newness of life in Spring, a time associated with the Easter/Resurrection holiday. These can be traced to European roots from which a large American population derives its origin. Instead of getting all uptight about having colored eggs and chocolate bunnies, can we just have some fun and enjoy the fact that these are special for a special time.
We can be so focused on familiar traditions that we assume the rest of the world scours the marketplace for the same goodies associated with a holiday. But no, not so. When it comes to Easter, Christians in other places have their traditional foods and activities as they celebrate the Resurrection. We have infused and integrated some of them into American culture, even forgetting their origins or meanings. How about we share them and enjoy one another’s culture and traditions instead of condemning them to paganism.
One of the controversies I find particularly annoying is the claim that the word Easter derives from the ancient goddess Ishtar, and therefore, we should not be calling the Resurrection by a pagan name. How ridiculous! English is essentially a Teutonic (ancient Germanic) language, (closely related to modern Germanic languages).
Okay, so follow this. The modern German word for resurrection is auferstehen. The ancient Teutonic words for first is ester and the word for stand is stehen. Combined it would be erstehen—the first rising. The German word for east is Ost, and for Easter it is Ostern — combination of rising in the east. It’s not hard to see that the word Easter morphed from these Teutonic forms. Personally, I don’t care what you call it so long as you understand what it is. We celebrate Easter (clearly an English word) in which we rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus, who was the first raised from the dead, ascended, and who will return on the Day of the Lord east of Jerusalem. See—it’s really simple.
Happy Resurrection Day! Happy Easter! Frohe Ostern!
In a few days we will greet each other with a phrase where we wish one another happiness on such a special day of remembrance. That’s the real point. Have a wonderful holiday celebrating the Risen King, Jesus. Save some jellybeans and peeps for me.
Copyright 2017 by Eva S. Benevento. All rights reserved.