TOW: Easter

Easter is a special time of year for most people. Now, granted, some people think Good Friday is synonymous with three-day weekend. A rather tongue in cheek comment caught my eye in the CBC forums: "They want to officially rename Easter Sunday to .."Cadbury Weekend "....Preceding Nestle Friday.." While I find this cute on certain levels, it's also a little sad. (Not just because the CBC forums are full of people with nothing better to do than sit around making fun of each other. But really, that's what that site is for.) The real meaning of Easter isn't in the candy, or the easter bunnies and chickens, it's in the renewal of the season, both literally and figuratively.

Easter is always around the beginning of spring. There are many reasons for this, many of them church-political, but the reason for the festival of Easter is the same for all Christians. Easter represents the birth of new life, from death. In the literal sense, this means that we start from one season--winter--into a new season--spring. Animals, plants, even humans begin to breathe a little easier. It will soon be time for summer fun.

Figuratively speaking, Easter has a more human meaning than just the change of the seasons. Easter is about human rebirth, and rebirth in the sense of personal renewal. Catholics, like me, (although thankfully they aren't all like me. Eh heh.) work our way through Lent. Lent is meant to be a period where we try and strengthen ourselves and Easter is the time where we celebrate the fruits of our labour before spring breaks the silence of snow and ice.

Easter is special because is marks not only the beginning of a new season, but the true beginning of a new year. Easter means there is hope again after a long struggle. For myself, I always think of Easter as the real start of a new year. This is the time when we take all the experience, all of the things that have happened to us in the last eight months, and we begin to apply and understand. (At least before we all head camping or to the beach, respectively.) Easter is a time to wake up to the events that are happening in your life, and respond positively, with an open heart for change.


Make this a season for change, for the better.