Easter 2026

Easter is an interesting word. Begining with the root word EST = derived from old English which derived it from Proto-Indo-Euyropean root word est for East or dawn - where the sun comes up. Approaching Easter at my age, 80, is interesting because I am an anachronism in so many ways and Easter points out a couple.

I was looking for womething for my sister's grandson who has everything. He doesn't want candy and he has every toy and art supply known to American culture. He has such piles of toys that it is, to me, a bit revolting. For an example: He has THREE electric bicycles (like little motorcycles) and two electric scooters. I can't even begin to dig through all the reasons he has so much stuff, but he has several house-holds - his mother's house, his father's house, and his grandmother's house. All three are filled with toys.

My sister is 20 years younger than I am and it is a diffent generation. We were talking about that today. I was born in 1945 to parents who were raised in the Depression and became adults in World War II. They had the life habit of ration books, string and metal and paper drives for the war effort: the community vegetable/victory gardens which were a necessity not a hobby. There was a food shortage! My parents were careful and thrifty and then came the boom of the 1950's! But even then, we, my brother Joe. who is near me in age, and I, got one or two toys for Christmas, not 15 o 20 in three different houses. Even my daughter got two gifts from me and one from Santa and usually a couple of outfits for holiday events. When she was growing up, I was poor - a single mother raising a child, paying a mortgage, and earning a teacher's pay. I didn't even have a car for the first fifteen years that we lived in New Jersey, and I walked with a wheeled shopping basket from the Supermarket, and took my daughter to the babysitter and the day care center in a wagon, So although I have fallen into some bad habits, generally, I am simple and spare in needs and expenditures.

I thought I might buy the great-nephew a book about Easter, because I am sure he has little or no idea about what it is other than Easter egg hunts. but the Right-Wing political culture has taken over popular Christianity and the books in the Supermarket were a bit creepy, not the coloring books with nice Bible stories of my youth or the view of Jesus that reflects his values: Love, kindness, generosity, forgiveness.

Lately I have thought a lot about the roots of holidays in relation to astronomy/archaeology. During St. Patrick's Day, I looked at lots of documentaries about the stone circles and the structures made to celebrate the Spring and Autumnal equinox. The rays of the sun shining through the stone portals of the structures. I was thinking about sun dials and the ways in which early people measured time, seasons.

So Est - East, estrogen, fertility, the season when the world becomes fertile, flowers open to tempt the bees to pollinate, rabbits breed, birds lay eggs and the earth produces fields of golden grains and trees bearing fruit. The world comes alive.

It is removed from the Christianized version of the holiday - Jesus, the prophet of Christianity arrested, found guily, betrayed and crucified, then resurrected from the tomb. Today, Good Friday, is the day he was crucified.

Just like in Autumn when we celebrate Halloween the season when the world seems to die. The trees go bare, the earth shuts down, animals go into hivernation. And then the world is covered in the white shroud for the long sleep.

Spring arrives, the tomb is opened and life emerges, born anew! Easter!

Throughout my childhood, we celebrated the Christian version of EAster along with the pagan one. We dyed eggs and put them in baskets, we ate symbolic chocolate bunnies, coconut eggs, and got all dressed up in new outfits to go to church for the special celebration of the life/death/and re-birth of our prophet, Jesus, the prophet of love, sharing, forgiveness, suffering and simplicity - putting our values in our relation to our fellow beings not in the accumulation of material wealth.

Had lunch with my great-niece Alex today and we talked about religion and institutionalized Christianity. She is a Catholic, which is how she was raised and she practices. In fact, after lunch she was going to sing with the choir at the local Woodbury Catholic Church and she has a solo part. It is very important to her.

We talked about Jesus dying for our sins and I quoted Patty Smith, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

In my opinion he died for the sins of men! Men killed him and men have built an edifice around him that would be appalling to him if he saw it. Jesus lived in poverty, not pomp. He threw the moneylenders out of the Temple. The Catholic Church has built a bank there.

Well, I am not feeling too well today. My body just doesn't work right any more. I don't digest right, I don't have a good chemical balance, or a physical balance for that matter. It is hard to walk around, I can't see, I can't hear - background noise is amplified to the point that it gives me a headache. I hope I feel better soon. Tomorrow I have Easter Saturday brunch at Maritsa's with Sue and Archie and Bryson.

I hope I can find something on my laptop to divert me from my discomforts and self absorption. Also, I hope the rest of you have a Happy Easter! wrightj45@yahoo.com