It's a pagan fertility ritual. Made to honor the goddess Esterk

I see two choices: first as a celebration of spring and rebirth, or second, the fairy tale "Easter Bunny", etc.

The spring equinox.

Pagan Fertility ritual. And candy. Lots of candy.

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 . . . . . . . . . .

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.

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

AprIl Fool's Day !!

Easter Bunny, Jelly Beans and colored eggs

Oops. New phone + fat fingers = "yur"

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

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

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.

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.

I told my kids easter was a celebartion of spring. that we clebrated with chocolate bunnies. Which is what we did.

I taughter my daughter Eostre.... The bringing of new life... Plants, animals, a new beginning of life.

Esotre the celebration of spring solstice. Christians stole it for easy conversion. The rabbit was the symbol. I don’t know where the egg came from. Maybe the breeding season.

The history of where it came from.

The first Sunday after Passover.

It's merely about the Spring season. Rejuvenation and the start of the earth providing us once again with more sun, food, and warm weather outdoor recreation.