EASTER: The REAL struggle.

Let's face it: EASTER IS THE MOST TERRIFYING HOLIDAY of all the holidays. 

Maybe I missed something as a kid when they told me I was suppose to be excited about a giant animal sneaking into my house and bringing me a basket of candy? I only voiced my fear a few times, but it was there.. it was constantly there. I just imagined this massive beast-though white and fluffy- abnormally large, with massive eyes and unusually good hearing, coming out of the dark wood behind my house. This same dark wood was the origin of most of my terrors when I was younger. (Witches, the ghost of the socially wronged native American Chieftain,  human trafficking kid-nappers, you name it-they all come out of the woods. 

Anyway, soooo theres this large bunny that's going to bring me candy. He sneaks into my house and hides the basket. (WHO HIDES THE GIFT!?) There's something fishy about giving a person something and then not wanting them to actually receive it. I was always the last kid in my family to find my basket. Mainly my sisters found it for me. Okay okay, fast forward to church. They made me dress up in pastel colors, which I have nothing against now, but my second grade self did NOT agree. I thought it was de-masculating. Get to church and have to sit through hours of listening to the same easter hymnals (ALL OF WHICH MAKE ME WANT TO SCREAM!)

 If you haven't let the giant bunny take you away or all the pink get to you, the old time-y gospel hymns may take you down. Need I mention the hour and something spent listening to how someone plotted, publicly embarrassed and successfully killed Jesus, which as a kid I was thoroughly confused about why we had to keep rehashing this horrible tale.  I thought it would all be better off just to stop dwelling on it, and sweep it under the rug. 

Alas, at the end of it all, Easter was one holiday my kid self could do without. I wanted no part in it. As an adult it has come to represent so much more to me, but still holds some of those old meanings too -It is the gateway to summer, it is a time of good food, celebration, and tons of CANDY just like it was when I was seven. The religious stuff is just the icing on the pastel cake.