Easter: Our beliefs are a ‘hare’ off

“Son, one day this will all be yours.”

Little Bunny Foo Foo Fee Foo Fe Fi Fo Foo thought sure he knew what dad was talking about. After all, they were standing there looking out over about a dozen rows of vegetables, the quarter-acre rectangle that made up wanna-be, wish-he-could-be, never-will-be, Farmer Don’s garden and its okra, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash … but that was his wife’s and only his wife’s …

“Really? This will all be mine! What are Liam, Noah, Elijah, Logan, Mason, James, Aiden, Ethan, Lucas, Jacob, Michael, Matthew, Benjamin, Alexander, William, Daniel, Jayden, Oliver Carter, Sebastian, Emma, Olivia, Ava, Isabella, Sophia, Mia, Amelia, Charlotte, Abigail, Emily, Harper, Evelyn, Madison, Victoria, Sofia, Scarlett, Aria, Elizabeth, Camila and Layla going to eat?”

“No son. Not this. Our legacy.”

“Legacy? Dad, what’s a legacy?”

“Well, let’s see. A legacy son is sort of like a gift.”

“Like when it’s my birthday and mom gives me some turnip green pie?”

 “Yes, that’s a kind of gift. The kind I’m talking about is similar only it’s more like being given something that makes you different in a special way.”

“Like Uncle Carl’s big, floppy ears that lets him hear better? Or Uncle Bugs’ smarts so that daffy duck and ‘wabbit’ hunter never outsmart him?”

“Yes, son, like that. But our legacy, the legacy of the ‘Rabbit’ name, is far, far greater than that, and far, far, older. It all began thousands of years ago. It was way before my mom and dad came along and their mom and dad and their mom and dad and on and on and on and on and on.”

“Before yesterday.”

“Yes, son, before yesterday. (Well, he’s not going to get it. I might as well not make it worse by throwing in it was somewhere in modern-day Germany and during the late Roman and medieval periods, the 4^th to 8^th Century AD.) There was this goddess, son.”

“’Goddess? what’s a goddess?”

“Someone with special gifts. We’ll call them special powers.”

“Oh I get that. Lucas says he has special powers. That’s why he can jump over Farmer Don’s fence unlike the rest of us. We have to tunnel under it.”

“Yes. Something like that. Anyway, this goddess’s name was Eastre, or Eostre. She was celebrated as the goddess of spring. You see how all the flowers are blooming and the bees are a buzzing?”

“Yes sir.”

“That means it’s spring. Back when it was so cold. That was winter. She was worshipped …”

“What does ‘worshipped’ mean?”

“Hmm. It means people loved her. A lot. Maybe even more than you love your mom.”

“No way, dad.”

“Well, maybe, and they were devoted to her. That means they would want to give her some of their stuff.”

“For free?”

“Yeah. For free. Whatever they thought would make her happy. So like if you had like 10 carrots and you thought giving her nine of them would make her happy, you gave her nine. Because you wanted to do it. That’s how much you loved her, and you wanted to please her. Also, if didn’t have any carrots and you wanted some or you had some carrots but wanted more, a lot even, you could pray … you could talk … to her, and she had the power to give you carrots. Magically even. Carrots … that’s where the spring came in, this would happen during the spring … just might start popping up all over the place. She could make the ground what they call ‘fertile’. No don’t ask. Fertile means she would make the ground perfect for growing carrots. So, let me ask you a question.

“Sure, dad, I’m smart. I can answer questions.”

“Does your mom have trouble having babies?”

“Geez, dad. You know the answer to that. They pop out all over the place. All the time.”

“That’s because your mom is also fertile. That’s why the goddess picked us as her favorite animal. Moms are fertile. And dads help, but you’re not ready for the birds and bees.” (Puzzlement came across Little Bunny’s face …) 

“That’s why over time, and we’re talking about a bunch of time and this happening and that happening and so on and so forth, that today we are also worshipped.”

“We’re worshipped!”

“Yes. It all happens on this one special day. They call it Easter. On this day children everywhere, millions of children … that’s quite a bit more than your brothers and sisters … all over the United States … that’s quite a bit larger than your backyard … will be told … may be told …  the great day will happen regardless … by their parents: ‘Here comes Peter Cottontail.’ They mean us. Rabbits. They will grab their ‘Easter’ baskets, which will be filled with candy of all sorts.

“What’s candy?”

“Just think of it as vegetables. They will be filled with vegetables of all kinds. A crazy amount of vegetables. More vegetables than you can eat in a day.”

“I don’t know. I can eat a lot of vegetables, dad.”

“So many vegetables that if you were to eat them all, you would get sick. Vegetables and then you would take your basket out in the yard and find even more vegetables … although for humans they would be colored eggs … save the questions on that one son … Vegetables and vegetables and more vegetables hidden everywhere and in plain sight.

“In just a short time you would have more vegetables than you’ve ever seen in your life. More than when Farmer Don harvests his crop. More than you could ever begin to imagine. Well, these kids, in just like a short amount of time, have more candy … chocolate and gummies and caramels and on and on … and even toys … things you play with that break in like a minute … than they could ever imagine. You should see their faces. Their eyes are wide open. ‘Give me!’ ‘Give me!’ ‘Give me! ‘More!’ ‘More!’ ‘More!’ And here’s the great news, the legacy I was talking about: They give us the credit. They no longer need the goddess Eastre. Now, we are the symbol of fertility. They no longer need any gods, any ‘God’ for that matter … although there are a few who still honor it as the day Jesus Christ, the Son of God … ‘the’ God, the one who actually created us … rose from the dead to live forever … They have us to worship, the god, the one and only, the bringer of gifts, Peter Rabbit.”

“Wow dad. Who knew humans were so smart?”