Also because my child came home today and told me. Seems they prepare the children for this event. They have decorated baskets so that they can collect the eggs at the daycare easter egg hunt. There's even been talk of the Easter Bunny. So of course my three year old asked me, as we drove home ...
"Why is Easter coming?"
Uh. I have no idea what to say, so I just say the actual explanation.
"Easter is a religious holiday, when people -- not us, per se -- celebrate the fact that a major religious figure -- Jesus is his name -- died and was reborn on Easter. It's kind of like Christmas, which is also a religious holiday, when people celebrate the birth of the same guy. (editor's note: should that be Guy?) Now I don't know how the Easter Bunny figures into this, but on Easter we eat chocolate."
"Chocolate eggs" he says. "And chicken ones."
"Yes," I reply.
And then later, "Honey, did I answer your question?"
"No," he says with no hesitation.
Mom: 0 points for holiday explanations.
But seriously, when one isn't Christian -- or even when one has no comparable religious holiday that one can use as an example ("We don't celebrate Easter, but remember when we celebrate X holiday? That's our holiday and Easter is a religious holiday for Christians.") how does one relay the whole concept of religion to a three year old? Because one can't reasonably explain Easter without the context of the religion to which it belongs.
Or should I just have gone with the Easter Bunny and left it at that?
2 comments:
I've got to admit that so far I've stuck to Santa at Christmas and the Easter Bunny at Easter -- I haven't talked about anything else. E's satisfied with that (since it involves the stuff he cares most about -- presents and chocolate) and I don't know how to get into the more complicated stuff. I will, someday... but not now!
Erm. Yeah, that one :P
We of course have both Easter and the other thing at our house, which has become more complicated since SP started school and discovered that most people* celebrate either Easter or Passover, either Chanukah or Christmas, and not both. Since DH is, like, totally not religious, we don't really talk about the religious significance of Christmas or Easter much. I think I've explained who Jesus is/was/is believed by some people to be a time or two ("Mommy, why does it say in that song, 'Jesus your king is born?' What does dat mean?") but it hasn't come up in connection with Easter, so far. And I think "birth of baby Jesus" is a lot easier to explain to kids than "passion, death and resurrection of Jesus" ...
And as for the connection between the above and chocolate eggs delivered by an anthropomorphic rabbit ... I must admit I am totally at a loss ...
* N.B. She does have one or two friends whose families celebrate Jewish holidays plus Xmas and Easter. But they're rare.
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