Easter 2011

So, in my secular paganism, today would be (is?) Easter. Easter would always be on the 21st of March, because the 21st of March is the Vernal Equinox.

Today, in the old world, was the Beginning. This is why we have April Fool's Day (another post) and why the financial year still begins at this time on the calendar; this is the New Year. This is the day on which the sun regains its hold on the day; after this and until September, the days are longer than the nights.

Passover. The resurrection of Jesus. Nowruz. The rebirth of Mithras and of Attis, consort of Cybele. This time of year has always been about birth and rebirth.  

That's why eggs and rabbits and baby birds.

Easter is named for Eostre who is also Eos who is also Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, which is, in a way, the dawn of a new year or the dawn of the living things that have been sleeping under snow.

All of that is well and good, but it isn't why today is my Easter. Today is my Easter because, damnitall, holidays should be predictable and evenly distributed throughout the year (as I've mentioned before) and they should have good decorations.

And, since we in America celebrate Easter entirely in a pagan sense anyway, and clearly regard it (as it is) as a festival of Springtime and fertility, we may as well do the thing on the Spring Equinox.

So, today is for eggs and rabbits and birds and flowers and chocolate and peeps and brunches and fancy hats. Winter is finally dead today, at least for another turn of the wheel.

Of course, that's why I'll be so infuriated when it snows in April (but not when Prince does so), because GET IN THE GROUND, Winter!

Botticelli (as always) knew what was up:

The Chiara Heresies II

On Easter, Chiara and I eschewed the traditional family brunch and went for a walk around the Avenues - the neighborhood where we live.

The weather was fine for walking as long as you stayed in the sun, but turned bitter cold as soon as you went beneath the branches of a tree or the shadow of a house. We had intended to make a picnic outing of it: stop at the neighborhood market, buy some provisions, sit in the park and get our mind off of things, but it was just too cold in the wind and the ground was still too damp from the previous day's rain.

We walked back to our house through the cemetery. It is, or so I'm told, the largest city-operated cemetery in the United States, so it is gigantic. It is filled with tombstones worn down to illegibility by the years, pitched at odd angles as they slowly sink into the earth. Here and there something really tragic, like the stone from 1870 that listed a woman and three unnamed children - a death in childbirth we guessed. Mostly we tried to spot the masonic symbols and the most old-timey names:

(Jedidiah, Zebedee, Tharquad).

At the edge of the cemetery sits a church. Parishioners were filing out of the doors in their cheap suits and floral dresses, heading home from Easter Sunday services. We tried to guess their denomination based on their hairstyles and clothing. A group of teenagers were sitting in a circle on the grass, be-suited and be-floraldressed, reading from the bible and talking.

I had to stop Chiara from shouting at them "Aren't you tired of believing in imaginary people?!" by admonishing her that it was Easter.

She reminded me that I was the one who was always on about the pagan origins of Easter - its Anglo-Saxon roots as a holiday for Eostre, Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, celebrated as a fertility festival with colored eggs, rabbits, and baby birds.

All true enough, but still . . .

As it was, she pointed at them and barked out, in Nelson the Bully's telltale singsong, "Haa-Haa!" as we passed.

I don't know if they looked over at us or not. I looked firmly at the wet ground and the misshapen headstones and quickened my pace. Chiara chuckled evilly.

"Aren't you glad we can sleep as late as we like on Sundays and then go for a walk or do whatever we want?" she asked me with a smirk.

I said that I was glad of those things. And that we didn't have to sing unmelodic and droning songs in the company of our neighbors every week. And that there were at least two days of the week we didn't have to leap out of bed at some (un)godly hour. Still, I didn't want to taunt those poor dopes - look at their haircuts!

Then we went home and made waffles.  We picnicked at the kitchen table and watched the Daily Show on TiVo.

"Happy Easter," said Chiara to me.

"Happy Easter," said me to Chiara.