In Your Easter Bonnet
This Sunday, of course, is Easter. For Christians, this is the highest Holy Day of the year. For Americans, it’s a chance to dress up, hide goodie bags and eat those foul marshmallow Peeps.
The clash between the religious and the secular is central to American culture. We are a repressive religious nation by birth (the Pilgrims were Puritans, who left England because the Anglican Church was too soft – too “impure” – for their hardy hides), an embracing culture by law. We’ve made Christian holidays into national celebrations, then dressed them up in pretty colors and squeezed out the Christ, to make everyone feel welcome. We love Christmas, which we abbreviate as Xmas and pronounce “kriss-mus” to avoid the Christ. We much prefer celebrating Baby Jesus’ birthday by giving each other presents, rather than celebrating his death and resurrection by going to church. In America, Easter has returned to its pagan roots as a ritual honoring the coming of spring. Easter parades give people a chance to shrug off the long, cold winter and put on something frilly. Not your average funeral wear. Even the song “Easter Parade” was written by Irving Berlin, the Jewish composer who also gave us “White Christmas” and “God Bless America.” How cross-denominational can you get?
Growing up in a Greek-American home, I was particularly aware of this clash. My family celebrated both “Greek Easter” and “American Easter.” American Easter – or Catholic Easter, as it is more properly called. (Sorry Protestants, but the split was between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. You guys have been around for less than 500 years.) Anyway, on American Easter we hunted for baskets and ate chocolate bunnies. On Greek Easter – which is to say, Orthodox Easter – we went to church and engaged in rituals and cracked red eggs. Even as a child I understood the dual nature of Easter, and got to pick and choose between the two as I wished.
This is the American way.
[By the way, as happens every so often, this year Greek Easter and American Easter are on the same day. It all has to do with the Ecclesiastical Calendar and the Paschal Full Moon (that gorgeous full moon we had just a few days ago) and how both are affected by the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. To complicate matters, the Ecclesiastical Full Moon is not always on the same date as the Astronomical Full Moon, and the Paschal Full Moon is not the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon following the equinox, but the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon following March 20, which was the equinox in 325 AD, when these dates were set. I’m not making this up, you know.]
Whether we like it of not, Easter is about resurrection. All the good stuff in Christ’s life merely leads up to this point. In the words of Shakespeare, “What’s past is prologue.” The Crucifixion puts nasty end to all that. And by the way, notice how we don’t allow the word “fiction” in “crucifixion?” Without the resurrection (“resurrexion?”) and ascension Christ is just another prophet, just like the Muslims say.
Christianity gets its big boost from the resurrection three days later. Or two days. Or a day and a half. I can’t seem to make sense of Christian math. He’s arrested on Holy Thursday, crucified on Good Friday and rises on Easter Sunday. Now today is Friday, and if I have plans for Sunday (and I do), that’s the day after tomorrow. Not three days. But the Gospels don’t actually say “three days,” they say “the third day.” So I guess Friday is the first day. It all has to do with the mystical power of threes, and to say he rose a day and a half later just doesn’t have the same oomph.
Just as important as the resurrection are the numerous sightings afterwards. Jesus is like Elvis: sightings continue long after his purported death. First he appears to Mary Magdalene (but says, “Don’t touch me!”), then to The Two on the road, then to the assembled disciples, then to Thomas, who does get to touch him. Then he goes fishing, then he goes to Galilee, then he goes to Bethany. The risen Christ puts in more personal appearances than Adam West on the shopping mall circuit. Though he tells Thomas, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,” he goes out of his way to make sure everyone sees. Faith is all well and good, but a close encounter of the third kind goes a long well to dispelling doubt.
In Christian countries, the faithful go to church and beat their breasts and eat salted fish or a paschal lamb. In America we watch the Pope on TV and eat ham and yams. Some channel is bound to be showing “The Robe” while another airs “Easter Parade,” and I believe ABC has scheduled a telecast of “The Ten Commandments,” though what that has to do with Easter I haven’t the slightest idea. [Things ain’t what they used to be. Granted, TCM is showing a lineup which includes “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Easter Parade” and “King of Kings” (both the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille and the 1961 Nicholas Ray versions). But everyone else has dropped the ball. HBO is showing “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Groundhog Day,” TBS “Total Recall” and AMC “Capricorn One.” Well, Jesus was a Capricorn.] It will probably be a nice day for shopping, and you might catch a movie or even stop in at a church and see all the kids in their holiday finery.
But if some guy tells you to stick your hand into the wound in his side – don’t.
The clash between the religious and the secular is central to American culture. We are a repressive religious nation by birth (the Pilgrims were Puritans, who left England because the Anglican Church was too soft – too “impure” – for their hardy hides), an embracing culture by law. We’ve made Christian holidays into national celebrations, then dressed them up in pretty colors and squeezed out the Christ, to make everyone feel welcome. We love Christmas, which we abbreviate as Xmas and pronounce “kriss-mus” to avoid the Christ. We much prefer celebrating Baby Jesus’ birthday by giving each other presents, rather than celebrating his death and resurrection by going to church. In America, Easter has returned to its pagan roots as a ritual honoring the coming of spring. Easter parades give people a chance to shrug off the long, cold winter and put on something frilly. Not your average funeral wear. Even the song “Easter Parade” was written by Irving Berlin, the Jewish composer who also gave us “White Christmas” and “God Bless America.” How cross-denominational can you get?
Growing up in a Greek-American home, I was particularly aware of this clash. My family celebrated both “Greek Easter” and “American Easter.” American Easter – or Catholic Easter, as it is more properly called. (Sorry Protestants, but the split was between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. You guys have been around for less than 500 years.) Anyway, on American Easter we hunted for baskets and ate chocolate bunnies. On Greek Easter – which is to say, Orthodox Easter – we went to church and engaged in rituals and cracked red eggs. Even as a child I understood the dual nature of Easter, and got to pick and choose between the two as I wished.
This is the American way.
[By the way, as happens every so often, this year Greek Easter and American Easter are on the same day. It all has to do with the Ecclesiastical Calendar and the Paschal Full Moon (that gorgeous full moon we had just a few days ago) and how both are affected by the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. To complicate matters, the Ecclesiastical Full Moon is not always on the same date as the Astronomical Full Moon, and the Paschal Full Moon is not the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon following the equinox, but the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon following March 20, which was the equinox in 325 AD, when these dates were set. I’m not making this up, you know.]
Whether we like it of not, Easter is about resurrection. All the good stuff in Christ’s life merely leads up to this point. In the words of Shakespeare, “What’s past is prologue.” The Crucifixion puts nasty end to all that. And by the way, notice how we don’t allow the word “fiction” in “crucifixion?” Without the resurrection (“resurrexion?”) and ascension Christ is just another prophet, just like the Muslims say.
Christianity gets its big boost from the resurrection three days later. Or two days. Or a day and a half. I can’t seem to make sense of Christian math. He’s arrested on Holy Thursday, crucified on Good Friday and rises on Easter Sunday. Now today is Friday, and if I have plans for Sunday (and I do), that’s the day after tomorrow. Not three days. But the Gospels don’t actually say “three days,” they say “the third day.” So I guess Friday is the first day. It all has to do with the mystical power of threes, and to say he rose a day and a half later just doesn’t have the same oomph.
Just as important as the resurrection are the numerous sightings afterwards. Jesus is like Elvis: sightings continue long after his purported death. First he appears to Mary Magdalene (but says, “Don’t touch me!”), then to The Two on the road, then to the assembled disciples, then to Thomas, who does get to touch him. Then he goes fishing, then he goes to Galilee, then he goes to Bethany. The risen Christ puts in more personal appearances than Adam West on the shopping mall circuit. Though he tells Thomas, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,” he goes out of his way to make sure everyone sees. Faith is all well and good, but a close encounter of the third kind goes a long well to dispelling doubt.
In Christian countries, the faithful go to church and beat their breasts and eat salted fish or a paschal lamb. In America we watch the Pope on TV and eat ham and yams. Some channel is bound to be showing “The Robe” while another airs “Easter Parade,” and I believe ABC has scheduled a telecast of “The Ten Commandments,” though what that has to do with Easter I haven’t the slightest idea. [Things ain’t what they used to be. Granted, TCM is showing a lineup which includes “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Easter Parade” and “King of Kings” (both the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille and the 1961 Nicholas Ray versions). But everyone else has dropped the ball. HBO is showing “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Groundhog Day,” TBS “Total Recall” and AMC “Capricorn One.” Well, Jesus was a Capricorn.] It will probably be a nice day for shopping, and you might catch a movie or even stop in at a church and see all the kids in their holiday finery.
But if some guy tells you to stick your hand into the wound in his side – don’t.
posted by John Bliss at
9:00 AM
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