Easter is one of those holidays that really doesn't make any sense. Could you imagine explaining the concept of Easter to someone from another planet? How could you honestly explain such a concept to an outsider? I mean, we understand it because we've been fed little by little each year since we were kids, and I still don't exactly comprehend it. What would you say?
"Well, Easter is a holiday in which we celebrate the death and Resurrection of the son of our God, He died for us and our sins. We celebrate this day by taking our kids to the mall to take pictures with a giant rabbit, we then paint hollow eggs, and then parents hide those eggs in the yard for kids to find. The kids believe that the eggs were hidden by the Easter Bunny..... although bunnies and eggs have absolutely nothing in common. Once the kids find the eggs they carry them around in a basket.... sometimes they receive candy for their efforts. It's a religious holiday."
It makes absolutely no sense! But, Madelyn and I celebrated it this weekend probably like everyone else (well, maybe not exactly like everyone else). Saturday we were supposed to go down to my Grandma's house in San Antonio for the traditional Easter Egg Hunt and feast, but there were two problems. One was that it was 35 degrees on Saturday. It was freezing! We thought that one of the benefits of living this far south is that we don't have to deal with those "freak Salt Lake City type" late surges of cold. Unfortunately, just like the Ice Storm, it seems like some weather has followed us here. Speaking of the South (and the differences between our old and new residence), the other reason we didn't go to my Grandmas house on Saturday was because my family pulled something right out of the "redneck handbook". My Grandma told the story as follows:
Lately they have had a skunk that has been crawling under their house and spraying their dog. Getting frustrated by the smell of their dog, and the fear that this animal will spray, or die, underneath their house, they covered up the hole that the skunk was using to get under the house. Apparently, the skunk really liked being under the house, so he went searching for a new way underneath. Somehow in his search, he found himself on the back porch where he sprayed the barking dog and all of my Grandma's plants. My Grandpa, who was inside, immediately smelled the skunk and grabbed the nearest broom. This apparently wasn't affective enough so he searched for something more... blunt. My Grandma had just gotten out of the shower when she walked past the window and saw my Grandpa outside. She told me that it took her a little while to contemplate what was happening but when she looked back outside she saw my Grandpa, in his socks, beating an animal on their back porch with a baseball bat. This image had everyone laughing at our Easter Dinner. The funniest thing about this story is that my Grandma reminded everyone that this is NOT the first time my Grandpa has beaten a skunk with a baseball bat. Apparently this has happened before. The good news is that the skunk is no longer alive, but apparently the skunk won the battle because the back door was open. Anyway, because of the smell of skunk in my Grandparent's house, we decided to hold our Easter Celebrations at my mom's here in Austin.
It was an interesting Easter (cold weather, skunks, etc), but we had a great time visiting with everyone and taking it easy.
5 comments:
Confusing traditions! That's what you get when you take Christian doctrines and mix them together with pagan rituals. (Silly Nycean creed). Just random trivia- the name Easter is derived from the goddess of spring Yester (I think she also was the goddess of bunnies?? That fact is a sketchy one).
I'm glad you guys didn't get sprayed! Skunk flavored Easter candy would have totally ruined the mood.
Did you two happen to see the South Park that makes fun of Easter for the exact reasons you pointed out?? Turns out that the apostle Peter, is really "Peter Rabbit" and if you look closely at the picture of the Last Supper you will see an easter egg being consumed. (Also, in this episode they are seen doing a Gregorian chant to "Here comes Peter Cottontail.") Please, if you have not seen this episode, watch it. Please. Some might consider it sac-religious, I find it gut bustingly hilarious.
We did see that South Park..... always an entertaining show. The Hare Club for Men..
I'm glad you saw it, it was an important lesson to learn.
I'm fairly certain that anything we do besides eat and sleep would make little sense to anyone visiting from outside of the planet. Football? You crash around trying to get a little bit of leather across one line or the other, but you can't be offsides, delay the game, falsely start, rough the passer, interfere with the passer, unnecessarily rough, illegally shift, illegally form, illegally break the huddle with 12 players, illegally pass forward, illegally pass to a lineman (good luck explaining linemen), touch or grab the facemask, hold, go out of bounds before the ball gets to you, or lead with your head to tackle. Don't even get me started on Cricket. Or breakfast food. Or designer jeans. Or jam.
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