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How would you explain Easter without referreing it to as the ressurection of Christ?

I've a 3 1/2 year old. Being a single mother and due to my financial situation I live with my super religious parents. I've already given in to allowing my mom to take her for "Sunday School" most because I thought she could meet other children there. With the upcoming Easter holidays I'm begining to wonder how I can explain to my daughter what Easter is without bringing religion in to it. I'm sure she will get a religious explanation in church but I'd like to counter that with a non-religious one. Mostly, I just want her to think for herself and ask questions. I live in a small city in India and other than my brother I have yet to meet another atheist. I've met a lot of people who say "I don't believe in god" simply because they are angry at god because things didn't go as planned not because they really question his existence.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

JenniferRoberts 4 Mar 11
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70 comments (26 - 50)

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0

At 3.5 years old, you'll have to keep it pretty simple, but it's good that you can work on a strategy for upcoming holidays as she gets older. You might explain that Easter is a time for telling lots of different kinds of stories about being energized by spring time. Your parents like stories they learn in church, you might like to tell stories about baby animals and flowers coming into bloom, or feeling happy about all your favorite things you like to do outdoors, or what have you. Hopefully you can find in your library or order some secular easter books to read to her?

When I was explaining holidays to my kids I used this approach. We hung easter eggs from the trees in our yard, planted flower seeds, had a feast to celebrate spring. We did have easter egg hunts with relatives religious and not.

I think if any religious folks complain about celebrating in a more secular way, you've got the facts behind you that Oeaster was historically before Easter and they should be glad you're not calling them on that nor complaining about the way they are celebrating in church.

0

4 days of public holidays and all the damn tourists turn up and clutter our beaches making lots of mess and noise as if they own the place. But some people worship the chocolate gods.

1

Eating chocolate because some people thought they saw a friendly zombie.

2

I would explain that Christians believe it's about the death and resurrection of Jesus, because (as you're already aware) she's going to hear that from a number of sources. Then go on to explain that, way before the time of Jesus, it was a celebration of spring, and can still be that if you want it to be.

Not believing in God is probably more common than you think. I suspect a lot of people cling on to Christianity (and other religions) more for the sense of community than out of any sinceere belief that there's a guy in the sky somewhere, looking after us if we're good and punishing us if we're not. There's too much evidence of the non-existence of an omnipotent and benevolent god for anyone with an ounce of rationality to take that idea seriously. But there's a bit of an "Emperor's new clothes" thing going on. Nobody wants to speak out against doctrine for fear of being ostracised.

This ^.^ right here. Many people are Christian for the social aspects of it. They just don't really speak on that and join in the holidays for family as well.

Emperor's New Clothes...That is such an awesome comparison!

0

Talk about the easter bunny and the colored eggs. That makes more sense than the nonsense of a man rising from the dead.

2

Spring equinox, changing of the seasons, a celebration of fertility of the natural world around us. Going on a natural level, its the celebratrion of the return of the germination time of the year and the the time to be well into planting and breeding seasons. I mean honestly, bunnies and eggs? Hello....

AmyLF Level 7 Mar 12, 2018
2

I think it’s called spring. Explain the shifting of the seasons and how ancient people’s came up with different ways to explain it. And how we’re lucky to have science to know what’s really happening.

Iffy Level 5 Mar 12, 2018
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"It's a stupid holiday that you don't even get a day off for. No, you may not have that giant chocolate bunny."

Well, SPRING BREAK is a country-wide gas... And anyone in the education systems, or who worked with schooled kids did get quite a break - 2nd in duration only to summer (of course) and Xmas!

@Ungod Lol, I like that better than my explanation. 🙂

4

The truth: It's a pagan holiday celebrating spring's rebirth that got hijacked by the church, to make Xtianity more palateable to pagans they were trying to convert. In a way that yur child can understand. Ex: Easter is a celebration of nature, because the winter is over, and it's time for flowers to bloom.

I needed that more fully explained to me as a kid growing up in NYC...

“Spring” was still quite cold and snowy come March 21, in the days before global warming began it’s runaway greenhousing(!), so it was a long time before I realized how that period of time was considered spring!

February was still the “blizzard month” and as a child, I could see no correlation between Groundhog Day and the start of spring...

Now every winter month seems like the start of spring!

@Ungod
Groundhog Day has more to do with the January Thaw than any real meteorilogical information is concerned.

Just one little untruth in your comment. It wasn't hijacked to make christianity more palateable to the pagans - it was to totally stop paganism, and if you didn't like it, they killed you. They didn't try to convert pagans, there was no choice. There was no PR in the days of old.

0

Oops. New phone + fat fingers = "yur"

0

Easter Bunny, Jelly Beans and colored eggs

3

"The Easter bunny gathers up all his magical eggs in a basket and steps out into the world, and if he sees his own shadow then there will be another six weeks of winter."

Or, more soberly, "Easter is a celebration of springtime. The exact celebration comes from a pre-Christian pagan religion, and every culture and every religion around the world has some kind of holiday to mark this time of year."

5

Go back to the pagan roots: celebrate spring, new beginning, fertility and preparing to plant.

5

As a lifetime ex catholic, you explain it as a family tradition. "Most of the religious world celebrates this event, and even though we're not religious, we made this holiday a fun family tradition." is what I told my son.

Or you could tell them the truth.

2

Do NOT allow her t be taken to Sunday school..... nothing good happens in those circles.... and it'll slow her development of critical thinking skills..... which most very religious people are void of.

I went to Sunday school for nearly 15 years, was raised a Christian and was surrounded by extremely religious people. It didn't do me any harm and I'm a hardcore atheist and so is my brother 🙂

@JenniferRoberts Considering the rapidly growing reputation of the Catholic Church as being the largest pedophile ring in the world, I'd say you were very lucky to get out of it unharmed. But, the popes keep saying that the Church's good name is more important than bringing the offenders to justice - so they keep moving them to new parishes in different countries whenever the victims' families start to get wise to their shenanigans.

2

I was baptised and brought up a Catholic and did all the chruch stuff growong up but if you teach your daughter how to think and help her develop her critical thinking as she gets older she'll probably come to the same conclusion you have. Being a Catholic didn't do me any harm, if anything it gave me an insight that I wouldn't have otherwise had.

Weird way to get an insight. Like when the beating stops you appreciate not being beaten? I've never been religious - the insight it what you're born with. Religion stops it.

@GoldenDoll I had no say in being brought up a Catholic so it's hardly weird but insight in this case means something I acquired, I understand what they're about more than if I'd never experienced it. So I have an insight into being Catholic but not Zoroastrian although basic tenants of faith obviously apply and as I stated, for what ever reason, I worked out for myself that it didn't make any sense, whether that's nature or nurture is another discussion.

I found your analogy to being beaten, imo, a little glib but perhaps more accurate than you realise. I was the victim of domestic abuse and so again I have an insight into what it feels like to be physically abused and the long term damage, in a variety of ways, that it causes. It is an insight that I could have cheerfully done without but I wasn't born with it.

@ipdg77 I know about catholicism from catholics, and I know about abuse from kids who were abused. Doesn't mean I don't sympathise and understand it, but I would never suggest a child should be beaten so they could have a better insight into abuse.

@GoldenDoll I'm not suggesting that either, I'm not saying you or anyone else should experience being Catholic or being abused to understand it, all I'm saying is I, personally, have a greater understanding of Catholicism and abuse from personal experience that was not of my choosing. In my case being Catholic didn't do me any harm, being abused did (and I don't mean physical) . But I would hope, again and this just my perspective, that my experiences may prove beneficial in some way to someone else through discussion etc

3

The druids called it Oestre and it was a festival more about the returning cycle of a warming sun and a spring that promised a coming fruitfulness and good harvest with the buds devleoping - I am guessing that is where we get 'oestrogen' from - the druids were aware of the oneness of all nature.

0

AprIl Fool's Day !!

Ungod Level 6 Mar 13, 2018

April Fools Day is a Christian spoof on the old Pagan Calandar which began on the Equinox.
Christians eat everything. They absorb all they encounter. They are the Borg

I just like that THIS YEAR they are one and the same!

0

How about the Easter Bunny ? There are certainly enough celebrations about him at Easter.

Bunnies and eggs are fertility symbols. You can't beat rabbits when it comes to that subject.

@Leafhead The old joke goes: "You can beat your wife, and you can beat your meat, but if you beat your rabbit, it dies."

4

Spring Equinox, feast of new beginnings

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Easter: yet another lame religious ritual without the common decency to be scheduled on a Monday.

See also: vernal equinox.

1

I just had this talk with my 4yo a couple of weeks ago. My family is also very religious, but we live in another state, not in the same house. We talked about the Spring Equinox and how when people don't understand something, they use magic to explain it. I didn't say anything about Jesus or Christianity. I told him about Ostara, the European Pagan goddess and the celebration in her name involving rabbits and eggs. It seemed to help. I'll explain more as he gets older.

0

Btw, we are part of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. The UU church in Detroit (where we used to live) was mostly Humanist. Our new congregation in has more Catholics, but the teachings are all secular. The Religious Education program for children helps to explain a lot of this. You might want to find a UU congragation near you. You could take your daughter to Sunday School on your own terms without coming out to your family right away.

Do they tell the kids the truth? That is was the pagan goddess Oestre's fertility festival hijacked by the christians?

@GoldenDoll yes they do! My son is only 4, but my friend's kids are older and preparing for their coming of age ceremonies. It's very uplifting to hear them discuss what they've leaned. Two already identify as Atheist, and one identifies as polytheistic. All their own choice.

0

How would I explain Easter? OK, let's try this in a way that every child will believe it and it fits together. When they took Jesus down from the cross there was a rabbit. He wasn't afraid and he bothered everybody. He wanted to make a bunny trail. Then they put Jesus in the tomb and somebody slit the rabbit's throat and threw him in there too. A guard said "silly rabbit ." no wait. That is something else again.
Then Jesus and the rabbit went off to basic training together. Then they came back.They became good friends and the rabbit had a basket full of eggs. Jesus smiled and carried the rabbit and his basket around everywhere. Eggs were given to the faithful if they could find them. Each year people would watch closely just to see what Jesus and the rabbit were going to do.
But if they see their shadow . . . . . . . . . .

Or just tell them the truth.

3

Perhaps describe it as a celebration of the return of Spring and all the new born things, i.e., baby animals, budding plants and flowers, trees sprouting new leaves.

Pagan festival of the goddess Oestre.

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