(This is a re-run from about a year ago. Spring is here, but there are other reasons I want to share my thoughts on this again. Here in the United States of America many of us are pessimistic about the future. There’s an almost universal feeling that we’re headed down the wrong road. Worse, we’re angrily divided over which wrong road it is that we’re following. It’s a good time to remember that, however strange we may be in however many ways, we Americans are a resilient lot. Whatever mess we dig ourselves into, we survive, hopefully a little stronger, if rarely much wiser. We need spring, in the weather, of course, but also in our hearts and our national conscience!
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, a demand for freedom has burst through the walls of repression. At long last the masses are being heard, and directing their anger at their oppressive dictators, rather than against the traditional American and Israeli scapegoats. Sadly, many lives will be lost in the process, but like the first flowers of spring, democracy is putting forth its tender shoots.)
Yes, Passover and Easter have deep religious meaning for Jews and Christians respectively, but each has additional meaning for everyone. In older cultures outside of Judeo-Christian influence, spring itself had religious significance. It is to those older cultures that we owe the Easter Bunny and colored eggs, and the May Day festival as well. Rabbits and May poles weren’t directly related to either Judaism or Christianity, but they were symbols of fertility, which itself had religious significance in a time when the very survival of the human species was tenuous.
The relationship between rabbits and fertility should be obvious. I’ll leave the May pole to your imagination!
All three of these, Passover, Easter, and spring, have to do with hope, rebirth, and freedom. In ancient times, spring brought freedom from the constraints and discomforts of winter, emotional rebirth after a long period of cold and darkness, and freedom from hunger and worry about survival.
Passover to the Hebrews meant freedom from slavery, a rebirth of their own culture, hope for a land of their own and fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham. In Egypt, the Hebrews were first and foremost forced laborers, relegated to servitude under the rule of the whip. With the Exodus, commemorated and honored at Passover, they were free to establish their own identity, collectively and individually.
The history of Easter goes back some two thousand years, when the world’s only superpower of that time imposed its rule on other lands. Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God, and his resurrection represented the rebirth of hope, an inspiration to brave people who sacrificed their lives to free others from superstition and idolatry.
The messages of Passover, Easter, and spring should have meaning for each of us. For some that meaning is a call to a deeper relationship with a Higher Power. For others it may be freedom from addiction and destructive habits. Still others may find in it the strength to fulfill their own inspirations, be they in more education, better work efforts, improved family and social relations, dreams such as learning a language or writing a book. For each and every one of us, Passover, Easter, and spring should be reminders to take part in breaking the chains of slavery and saving our fellow humans from poverty, deprivation, ignorance, and abuse.