Boundless Enthusiasm - The Enthusiastic Musings of Marshall Ian Sontag

For those of you that didn’t enjoy yesterday’s post on the easter bunny, I will post something a little more substantial, even though there is something deeply wrong with you. (Yes, I’m projecting.)

I want to discuss how silly it is that people think that Easter has anything to do with Jesus Christ coming back from the dead, turning water into wine or Mel Gibson. Or that Passover has anything to do with swarms of locusts, turning water into blood or Charleton Heston.

No, I’m not a militant anti-religionist, or some grumpy old man trying to do away with easter-egg hunts and searching for the afikomen. In fact, the opposite is true — I’m trying to save these superfun activities from the clutches of magical, mythical religions! (OK, so hunting for brightly-colored eggs with yummy candy inside qualifies more as “superfun” than looking for a piece of half-baked bread, but I digress).

Let me put it differently: Don’t you find it peculiar that both Easter and Passover happen at about the same time, depict a rebirth of some kind and involve kids’ games of searching for something hidden?

We all know the traditional story of Easter: Jesus gets nailed to a cross for being a bastard (literally, he had no legitimate father) and then dies, after which his tomb is robbed he is resurrected from the dead.

Easter is a more clear-cut case of rebirth than Passover. I recently attended a Passover seder at the Zerivitz’s, and according to Dr. Zerivitz, the Kabbalah states that Passover has a more symbolic meaning: the passing over from one stage of life to another. (For those that don’t know, the Kabbalah is the real Jewish spiritual teaching, as opposed to the Torah, aka Judaism for Dummies.) This is the first time I had heard Passover described that way, rather than just being a celebration of Jews escaping slavery in Egypt. What’s the Torah’s rationale for calling it “Passover?” From Wikipedia:

The term Pesach (Hebrew: פֶּסַח) or, more exactly, the verb “pasàch” (Hebrew: פָּסַח) is first mentioned in the Torah account of the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:23). It is found in Moses’ words that God “will pass over” the houses of the Israelites during the final plague of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the killing of the first-born. On the night of that plague, which occurred on the 15th day of Nisan, the Jews smeared their lintels and doorposts with the blood of the Passover sacrifice and were spared.

So there you have it: it’s called Passover because God (in his infinite benevolence) passed over the houses of the Jews as he murdered the innocent babies of the Egyptians. How did he know who was a Jew and who wasn’t? At that point, God had yet to develop omniscience, so he had them smear lamb’s blood on their front doors. Perhaps, instead, God might have noticed that the Jews, being slaves, had inferior living conditions. At the very least they could have just written “I’m a Jew” on the door, but it seems God has a penchant for drama.

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because the celebration is more about passing over from Egypt into the desert (and eventually onto Israel) than God passing over Jewish babies during his crazed infant slaughter, but that’s the story that’s given anyway. If you’re smart enough to look past that story, you’ll see that even the escape from Egypt represents a rebirth of sorts: from captivity to freedom — a fresh start.

Why the preoccupation with rebirth? Elementary, dear Watsonberg: Both Passover and Easter coincide with the Spring Equinox. This marks the beginning of Spring, the season where the Earth is reborn! Now, I know you’re already rolling your eyes because you’ve heard the whole Christmas/Winter Solstice thing already, but stay with me here. At least Christmas has the distinction of being christened a new name — Have you ever stopped and wondered what the hell “Easter” meant? Again, from Wikipedia:

The English and German names, “Easter” and “Ostern”, are not etymologically derived from Pesach and are instead related to ancient names for the month of April, Eostremonat and Ostaramanoth respectively. According to the 8th century Christian monk and historian Bede, this month was dedicated to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre.

The name Easter was derived from a celebration of Eostre, the goddess of fertility! All of these celebrations are just derivatives of celebrating the coming of Spring. Hence, the occurrence around the Spring Equinox and the themes of rebirth. Also, rabbits represent fertility (That’s where the expression “We f@*#ed like rabbits!” came from) and eggs represent birth, for obvious reasons. However, in other parts of the world, the whole notions of symbolism and metaphors were lost on various groups of people.

In Japan, Shintoists have their own Fertility/Spring Equinox celebration called Hounen Matsuri. As part of the festivities on this day, dozens of people march through the streets carrying above their heads the ultimate symbol of fertility: a giant wooden penis. I swear I am not joking:

Giant Wooden Penis for Hounen Matsuri in Japan

Maybe they just eschewed metaphors, preferring instead to be more to-the-point! I hope the kids don’t go on wooden penis hunts. More pictures here.

It’s been lots of fun poking fun at these holidays, but I want to finish now on a more serious note. I imagine at this point you see the parallels among all of these different Spring celebrations. Perhaps you’re like me and feel disinterest, or maybe even disdain, towards the respective holiday from your particular religion because you never saw any point in celebrating it as you grew up (I became an atheist at 10). My intent here is to not only restore the real meaning to these mythicalized celebrations in your minds, but also to bring your attention to the fact that the annual rebirth of the Earth in the Spring is genuinely worthy of celebration:

There’s more warm, radiant and life-giving sunlight, as the days grow longer. Birds return from their winter vacations and fill the air with song. Cool breezes and trees grow new leaves, painting the formerly barren landscape a luscious green. Butterflies begin to flutter by, against the backdrop of pretty blue skies. Life has begun anew.

I realize I am waxing poetically, and I know I’m talking about things that might be difficult for jaded Western minds to appreciate — and I am no exception. However, the practice of mindfulness in my life has, on many occassions, created a space in me that’s allowed for a deep, heart-felt appreciation for such things. Sometimes after meditating on the weekends, I like to just stand on my back porch and bask in all the pleasing sights, smells, sounds and textures, most of which I already named. I also enjoy the freshness and more variety of fruits and vegetables that have become available.

If these are the kinds of things that you find difficult to connect to emotionally, I highly recommend you learn how to meditate. Then you can come celebrate the rebirth of the Earth with me.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.