Celebrating Easter

I HAD NEVER, to the best of my knowledge, attended church on Easter Sunday, until yesterday. If I am wrong, my Easter attendance occurred when I was was a preschooler, really had no idea of what the holiday was or meant, and was probably carted off to a church service in an attempt by my parents to placate my grandmothers, both of whom were very much women of the nineteenth century who could not possibly conceive of anyone not attending church on Easter Sunday, nor any other Sunday. All religious considerations aside, I thoroughly enjoyed coloring Easter Egss up until I reached the upper levels of grade school, by which time the fun had mellowed into lack of interest. Mom hard boiled about a dozen eggs, and my sibling and I had at it. A good childhood memory... Since I had a free ride to the Presbyterian church, I went. I was one of eleven people in the building, clergy included, about normal for "our" congregation. This congregation has been congregating for two hundred years in the same building, and somebody told me that thirty and forty years ago the attendance on an average Sunday was about thirty or forty, and that one hundred years ago, it was a much as one hundred. I'm just guessing that in the entire two hundred year history of this little church down in the valley, valley so low, this was the smallest Easter congregation ever assembled. The sermon was in keeping with the Easter theme, rebirth, rejuvenation. Easter is arguably a far more important holiday than Christmas from a purely religious standpoint, even though in the United States we place far more importance on Christmas. The resurrection of Christ is the central theme of the Christian faith,a miraculous event which sets the stage, so to speak, for the resurrection of believers in heaven after their wordly demise. Just recently I was made aware of the apparent fact that long before Jesus appeared on Earth, thousands of pre-Christian religions celebrated essentially the same process, the process by which a messiah or savior appers on Earth, delivers a message of love and reconciliation, and is sacrificed on a bloody alter for his trouble. The archetype of a messiah, god come to Earth in human form to deliver humanity from darkness beyond death is amazingly consistent throughout human cultural history. It is something that people very much need to believe and embrace; the idea that their creator truly cares about them,loves them, and is willing to offer them salvation vicariously. It is not possible to examine closely the Christian religion, it history or doctrines, without being confronted with this ancient archetype, of a savior become sacrificial offering to God. For those of us whose religiosity has no traditional roots in organized religion, we are on our own. My entier life, Christmas has aroused great excitement within me. When a five or six year old sits beneath a sweet smelling Christmas tree, with that delightful pine needle fragrance, wondrously imaging what could possibly be inside those beautifully wrapped packages, he or she has captured the Christmas spirit. Brightly painted hard boiled eggs, eggs as symbolic of rebirth, suffice nicely for Easter. I have never seen any reason to deprive myself of the joy and fun of religious holidays merely because I am not religious. I have neighbors who are Jehovah's Witneses, and who don't acknowledge or celebrate any holidays. I respect their approach. But since I am a pantheist, why deprive or limit myself? I accord myself the luxury of cherry picking religious holidays. because,after all, I owe it to myself to not miss out on all the fun over something as trivial as personal beliefs.