The Symbols of Easter

At its foundation, Easter is designed by and for rural folk. The imagery is immediate, culled directly from their surroundings. Spring is the time when farmers plant seeds -- winter is over and the days are growing long enough and warm enough to bring forth life-sustaining crops (Spring break was conceived to excuse children from school so they could help their parents with the sowing). The seed became a symbol for the triumph of life over death as the means by which nature regenerates itself, life from life. This mystical dimension was also attached to eggs as the animal equivalent.

In the Middle Ages, Catholics were prohibited from eating eggs during Lent, and the uneaten chicken eggs laid during this time were decorated and saved for the Easter feast, celebrating the resurrection. German immigrants to the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children the eggs were deposited by the "Osterhase" or Easter Bunny. Jakob Grimm testifies that a similar legend dated back to at least the 7th century in Europe . Rabbits, which had long been a symbol for fertility due to their rapid reproductive capability, may have been inserted into the story of Easter by German Protestants who wanted to emphasize the feast, not the rite of fasting. Or, perhaps it was simply placed by creative parents animated by the spirit of celebration and their own fecundity.

Easter is what's called a moveable feast, since it falls on a different day each year. The date of Jesus' death was a controversial subject in the mid-second century. Most groups put the crucifixion at or near the Jewish celebration of Passover, calculated by the lunar-based Hebrew calendar. The Roman church, however, eschewed any attempt to set an exact date for Jesus' death and instead found a suitable compromise that would capture the spirit of the event by calculating Easter through facets of both solar and lunar calendars. Thus, the Catholic Easter is always the first Sunday on or after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. Through this formula, Christians arrive at a time when nature reflects in itself an appropriate balance of Sun (spirit) and moon (body).

If this mystical rather than literal dating seems odd, it is important to note that none of the Catholic dates for the life of Jesus are founded in historical certainty, but all are symbolic. In 345 A.D., Pope Julian II moved Christmas from March 25 to December 25, three days after the winter solstice, to bring it in line with the much more popular, solar-based customs of Mithraism and Bacchanalia. Placed here, the birth of Christ occurs at the moment the growth of night stops and begins to reverse. In the fourth century, however, there was still a deeply-rooted pagan, or nature religion, holiday that fell in springtime, during the lunar period called Eostermonath (Eostre's month), that threatened the Roman holiday marking Jesus' death. While the pagans were exchanging gifts and consuming liquor, Christians were instructed to fast and give to the poor. No complete conversion of the pagans was ever effected, as evidenced by the name the Catholic celebration of Jesus' resurrection bears to this day.

Anglo-Saxons called their fertility goddess, Eostre, which is most often translated as 'dawn servant' from the Old Teutonic aew-s, meaning illumination, especially of daybreak (their name for Venus, the morning star, shared this same origin). Related goddesses of other cultures are the Egyptian Isis, Ishtar of the Assyrians, Astarte of the Babylonians, and Tara of the Irish. The name Easter underscores the very reason why Jesus? birth was celebrated in Spring before it was moved to December. The birth of Christ is not some literal event in history, but the bursting forth by day of your spiritual being.

Pagan religions celebrate nature's divinity as the pinnacle and purpose of being. Monotheism takes the signs of a pagan festival and fills them with new meaning for the spirit of the individual. Christianity, uncorrupted, places transcendence within the self, not in a tribe, an institution, a messiah, or a collection of laws. Over centuries, the Christians overlaid their holidays on a framework of ancient tradition, ritual and mythology. What we receive today is a sacred calendar with layers of meaning, a building with many stories.

Simply stated, the traditional story of Easter, wherein Jesus' tomb is found empty three days after his crucifixion, is a fable, a device by which we are prodded towards a revelation and understanding about humanity's own true nature. The image of the Easter bunny illustrates the absurdity of literally interpreting mythic images designed to carry a philosophic or spiritual message. Clinging to a literal interpretation, at best, is like believing in an egg-laying rabbit. At worst, it is like trying to bring life out of a desiccated, dead seed. This season proves every birth is a rebirth, and offers the opportunity to find a triumph of spirit in the growing light of the days.

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,

But not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn;

The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain

Unless within thyself it be set up again.

- Angelus Silesius, 17^th Century Catholic mystic