Among the peeves I keep as pets, chief is my loathing of the Easter Bunny. There are many reasons to hate the Bunny. I will get into why in particular the Bunny, but first to some other pressing business.
Why is it that religious holidays require mascots to make them palatable to secularists who otherwise wouldn’t give a fig about the celebration? While some mascots are cool in their own right, most add nothing and typically detract from the holiday’s expressed purpose.
Take the leprechaun. Actually, don’t take the leprechaun. I am pretty sure that taking a leprechaun is bad luck. But the leprechaun as a symbol of St. Paddy’s Day? A hard-drinking short guy consumed with greed is not a good mascot for a celebration of a great saint’s feast day. A good mascot for Christopher Hitchens’ Day perhaps, but not for St. Patrick’s Day.
Another egregious example of the trend is that stupid cupid. St. Valentine, priest and martyr, gets a pagan symbol of lust…Continue Reading @ National Catholic Register
March 25, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Sorry; I was too busy browsing at the Saint Joseph's Altar last week to pay attention. No rabbit or leprechaun on the menu.
— Mack, generic Anglo convert
March 25, 2010 at 3:32 pm
We humans need our symbols. The problem with the Easter Bunny isn't that he exists; it's that he has lost his meaning. We celebrate new life and eternal life at Easter. The bunny is a wonderful symbol of new life. So, I say, don't get rid of the Easter Bunny, just bring back his true meaning!
March 25, 2010 at 4:17 pm
The bunny is a wonderful symbol of new life unless he's eating the tops off of the tulips.
GRRRRRR, the bunny must die.
March 25, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Suggest you read your kids the Country Bunny. It's better than you expect and so I don't mind the bunny.
Besides, I don't think I'd feel real comfortable eating a chocolate tomb or cross but the ears of peter rabbit? No problem.
March 25, 2010 at 5:28 pm
The Country Bunny is the pro-life bunny. She reminds me of my amazing mother who had a gazillion kids and would have made the best darn president…evah!
March 25, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I'm actually indifferent. On the one hand, I PERSONALLY despise the "Easter Bunny" as much as I despise "Santa Claus" and the "Christmas Tree" (a LOT). But on the other hand, it HAS made the holiday pallatable to Jews and secularists. Meaning, we don't get flack for celebrating it anymore; they celebrate the day however they want and we celebrate it as it was meant.
So, as Catholics, as long as we do not indulge in the easter bunny nonsense, I don't mind if others do if it will shut them up.
March 25, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I certainly agree that "a hard-drinking short guy consumed with greed is not a good mascot for a celebration of a great saint's feast day." Regrettably, a hard-drinking short guy consumed by greed is an accurate depiction of how the great saint's feast is actually celebrated. [My wife took the children to the parade here in Cleveland. The teenagers were impressed at the number of people drunk and high and how the police did not seem to care. My wife informed me, discreetly, that she noticed a man urinating on the church building.]
March 25, 2010 at 7:55 pm
What's the real harm? People CAN enjoy symbols of non-religious things, you know, and not spiral into devil worship and debauchery. I'll let this pass until you mess with Santa. Don't you mess with Santa. Or he will mess with you.
March 25, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Early Riser:
If you're going to hate the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Christmas Tree (particularly the last one), then you might as well be a Puritanical Protestant. They eschewed all of these things because they forgot their Christian identity. Unfortunately, such puritanism is not only alive and well in Protestant circles, but it has reared it's ugly head in a lot of Catholicism here in the US.
March 25, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Don't b hating on the leperchaun i come from direct Irish descent. Even my last name means "From Irish Descent."
March 25, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Kim – you are really clueless about history and apparently your own religion. The "Christmas Tree" was a Protestant response to Catholics putting out Nativity Scenes, which they saw as "pagan" (oh, the irony). So, actually you'd be closer to the Puritanical Protestant on this one (ah…more irony).
I LOVE my church, Catholic symbolism and Catholic identity. Maybe you should look into it.
March 25, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Perhaps because we need reminders of gifts.
March 25, 2010 at 10:51 pm
I thought that the Christmas Tree was an adaptation by St. Boniface (apostle of Germany) of some pagan practice associated with the Winter Solstice. Can someone enlighten me on that?
TeaPot562
March 25, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Early Riser:
Sorry, I'm not the clueless one. I perfectly understand that the Christmas is of pagan origin. The desire to get rid of it, these days, is puritanical precisely BECAUSE of the pagan origin.
March 25, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Anonymous:
Here is the St. Boniface tradition:
http://www.novareinna.com/festive/tree.html
March 26, 2010 at 3:00 am
The St Boniface tradition is in no way connected with the "Christmas Tree", which is of Protestant German origin.
Kim – regardless of what you and your little Wicca Kabaal chant in the snow during "winter solstice", Christmas is NOT of pagan origin. Every day of the year was most likely associated with some feast, commemoration, event etc which pre-dates Christianity or is celebrated by a non-Christian culture. This does not mean that a Christian feast on the same day has any relation to what others celebrated on the same day.
Was there a pagan feast celebrated on the 25th of December in ancient Roman times? Possibly. Does the feast of the Nativity on the 25th and the subsequent feast of the Epiphany on the 6th of January have anything to do with pagan tradition or worship of pagan deities? Not at all. Christmas has NO pagan origins. So, you and your friend, Sapho can peddle your modernist, new-agey, anti-Cnristian propaganda elsewhere.
March 26, 2010 at 11:57 am
I'm not a Protestant (any more) but I think the arguments about origins of symbols are secondary to the main point that is made above. These 'secular' symbols are used to fulfill that urge in us all for significant festivals breaking up our year, with something that is shallow, childish and, at best mocks the actual meaning, at worst turns the greatest festivals of Christ into consumeristic free-for-all.
Frankly it also is where we find out whether the commandment not to tell lies is taken seriously by Catholics. Fantasy novels are fine, when its clear they are fantasy. If you SWEAR to your children the Easter Bunny is coming… why will they believe you about Jesus?
March 26, 2010 at 1:20 pm
early riser:
I do actually believe that that has been the first time I've ever been accused of being a new-agey type person. Congrats on being the first, and most likely, the very LAST. I suggest that you check out my profile. You will find that you are so very, extremely wrong about my religious affiliation.
First of all, I never said that Christmas was of pagan origin. Even if I did, I would have absolutely no problem with the idea. You know why? Because I understand that all of man has a deep religous sense. I can see that the pagans of old are what Pope Benedict XVI "advent" religions. They have a sense of the divine, but were not fully aware of the fullness of God until Christianity was brought to them.
Ireland is a perfect example of this: it was completely pagan. When St. Patrick brought Christianity to them, they embraced it and recognized that their old ways, their pagan beliefs, were leading them to the point of recognizing Christ. This thought, Early Riser, is very far from being "new agey."
I am NOT of the kind who believes that Christianity "stole" pagan traditions. Instead, I see Christianity as being the absolute fulfillment of those traditions.
March 26, 2010 at 1:21 pm
My uncle was driving his children, al 8 of them, to my grandparents house one Easter when I was little. On the way they saw a bunny hoping by the side of the road. He told the kids, 'look, the Eastern bunny!' They were excited. Then, the unthinkable – the bunny ran out in front of the car, thump, thump! The reast of the day all the kids could say was, 'Dad killed the Easter bunny!' Ture story. Really, are our christian symbols not enough? Maybe we have the Easter bunny because we have so few other symbols in the home for Easter in the USA. This is not the case in many other countries.
March 26, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Kim – don't fool yourself, because your not fooling anyone else. If you can't remember what you wrote, here it is cut and pasted from your post above "Sorry, I'm not the clueless one. I perfectly understand that the Christmas is of pagan origin".
Once again, Christmas is NOT, absolutely NOT of pagan origin. The only people who say this are extremely ignorant of history or have a new-age agenda of "hey, one belief is really as good as another". Clap-trap. Whichever side you come from, it's not adding any value to this conversation at all.
Peter – exactly. spot on there.