Truly I think the best option would be both A and B. As with any holiday Easter has a variety of levels.

My son says Easter is his favorite holiday - the hunt for chocolate and tiny treasures has a tree with wrapped presents beat in the 6 year old boy world. I think the the drama of Palm Sunday parades, centurions, and big stories is more compelling for him than a 'baby in winter' story. I think it also comes at a time of year when you can actually notice big change happening around you - this gets my attention too.

Easter is my favourite too: lent, the destuction and vigil, and the trumpets Sunday morning is a cycle of ritual that really moves me. Rise again, rouse again, raise up the new from the ashes of the old, declare the impossible in the face of despair, speak truth to power! Freedom is coming, freedom is coming, freedom is coming, oh yes, I know.

Mmmm chocolate. Any excuse to eat copious amounts is wonderful in my books.

That being said, I was told from a very young age the true importance of Easter. It's the *reason* we're Christians. The resurrection is the single most important part of our faith, etc etc. I *know* what it's about. I *know* why it's important. I don't see a bunny with chocolate eggs as a threat to that faith, for the same reason I don't see a fat man in a red suit as a threat to the symbolism of Christmas (in fact, I find Christmas itself to be a threat to the symbolism of Christmas, but that's not what this thread it about).

But there's a new dynamic now. Easter will be the first time since Christmas I get to see some of my friends, since we're all away at different universities. I'm also being dragged to Hamilton for a family dinner.

So now, aside from being the single most important day in our faith, and aside from the greatness that is any product derived from the cocoa bean, it's a time to see people I don't see. To laugh and hug and feel like you belong again. It's nice.

I would just like to point out that it is a horrible trivialization of the meaning behind Easter to refer to it as a 'Holiday'. I understand that americanization of it, turning the whole thing into chocolate (which apparently is what every occasion revolves around) but I'm schocked to see that the admin on a website put on by a religious oganization, of all things, would refer to it as a 'holiday'. Talk about liberalization.

I don't share your objection cherishable. Easter IS a holiday ( a word at least partly derived from Holy Day). This isn't a trivialization, it is a statement of reality.

Just to name something as a holiday doesn't mean accepting teh commercialization of it.

Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holiday) says in part:
4. a religious feast day; holy day, esp. any of several usually commemorative holy days observed in Judaism. ...
7. of or pertaining to a festival; festive; joyous: a holiday mood. ...
[Origin: bef. 950; ME; OE hāligdæg. See holy, day]

Growing up on the west coast, in a non-Christian family, we hardly noticed Easter after we stopped getting Easter baskets as little kids. I think we overestimate how important a holiday this is for people who don't go to church. More and more it's not even on their radars.

it means....time off and chocolate.....nothing more.

That is sad that it means so little to so many people. It is one of the richest moments of my year, and certainly one when I feel most challenged and most uplifted. Every year my inlaws try to schedule an Easter egg hunt for the little ones and are completely bewildered that I would rather spend my morning in a church instead of helping my kids hunt for chocolate. They are dumbfounded when I say it's more important than Christmas, that really amazes them. But the few times I missed Easter worship left me feeling hollow and unable to really appreciate the arrival of spring and hope and joy after the long last winter moments (which, considering it's been snowing for several days here after a complete melt off two weeks ago, seems like it will never really let go...)

Three of my four favorite church services of the year happen this weekend. I agree that for the unchurched or even those raised in the UC who haven't been involved for a couple of decades, my or our heavy involvement with church this weekend seems quite odd. I usually get at least one curious/concerned comment from a friend wondering if I am involved in a cult at this time of year! But I would give up a lot for my Friday morning meeting with failure, the Saturday vigil, and the Sunday resurrection services.

Easter used to mean to me that it was a time for chocolate and goodies but as i have become a stronger and more aware christian I have realised that in the big scheme of things..chocolate is so very small ....i think that this is a christian time ..to think back and its to be a reminder of what jesus gave up for us ...im not saying that chocolate is a bad thing ...definitely not but it is a time of thought and devotion

As I'm munching on chocolate eggs, let me tell you how much I love this holy-day!
The whole weekend is fantastic. Went to a maundy thursday service and cried the Hokus Pik song played, cried when hearing the deep resonating voice of a teen doing a reading. Got up at 3:50 am to spend an hour in mediation/communication with God almighty. Cried my eyes out listening to Joan Osborne's 'one of us' - imagine the loneliness of Jesus ( the 'slob like one of us' who volunteered to partake in this life for us) "no one calling on the phone, except maybe the pope in rome".
Tomorrow I'll shop
Sunday I'll do a sunrise service with people I don't even know, followed by a church service
then celebrate a jewish pass over and drink copious amounts of wine
I love, live, and express Easter with my whole being.
There is no better holy-day for me.
God is good!
"my sweet Lord" - anyone have an opinion on the chocolate Jesus?

My husband was just commenting today on how "If it weren't for Good Friday", there would be no Christianity." I thought about that, and realized he was right... It IS centered around the event of Christ dying for us all.

About Easter? Yes, definitely an important Christian holiday... Nothing wrong with kids, easter bunnies, and egg hunts... what's wrong with celebrating someone's memory? Or even celebrating all that is good, despite all the bad things that happen in this crazy world?

And if I let it, I would barely notice it too... but I'm glad I make a point of noticing it.

Cherisable said: "I would just like to point out that it is a horrible trivialization of the meaning behind Easter to refer to it as a 'Holiday'... Talk about liberalization."

Think celebration. Think rebirth. Think new life. Think a new beginning. These are all a part of the Easter story. I don't think it is a trivialization at all.

On the other hand, Chocolate is certainly not a statement of anything. If anything it is a symbol for greed. Where does the chocolate come from? Far away. It takes gobs of energy for us to get it here. It takes gobs of manual labour to produce. Some would say that a majority of the chocolate that we eat is produced by child labour.

The easter bunny, easter eggs and daffodils speak to rebirth and new life. The chocolate bunny speaks to greed, hunger, gluttony and implicit oppression.

Whew... where did all that come from? I'd better lie down for a while.

I made a chocolate creche scene once for Christmas, it went over like a lead balloon for no one wanted to bite the head off of Mary or Joseph or the baby in the manger. Somedays even snapping the ears off of a bunny seems cruel. If we can't handle a bobblehead Jesus, a chocolate one will just gather dust. But at least He won't look like a starving white northern european man with no noticable Jewish heritage (hey, we northern white-skinned people can have honking big noses too). Just my thoughts. Easter is too important to leave to chocolate.

We just returned from a sunrise service at a neighbouring church.

As the wind whipped our candles, we sang
Morning is broken, like the first morning
and we knew that while God does not stop violence, and does not restrict the evil that comes out of humankind, God exalts that which is good, God raises that which is good.

The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen, indeed!

Did everyone enjoy their pagan festival then?

Mnnnn....chocky chocky chocky.......

I think it means a coming of spring. Being as though i do not beleive in god! It's a time where nature comes to life and thats why we celebrate that day. Also i think this holiday is about family.