Traditionally, when we think of Easter, we think of religion. We think of Jesus Christ rising again on the third day, the end of Lent, and going to a packed church on Sunday morning for the Easter service.
We think of going to a family member’s house and celebrating there, the table filled with food and prayers. These are memories that I vividly have from when I was a young boy in the Roman Catholic church when I celebrated with my own family.
I always enjoyed Easter because it meant that I could finally break my Lent promise, get a few days off of school, and eat my favorite chocolate Easter eggs. It was always a fun experience that I looked forward to.
As I grew into a moody teenager who became less Catholic and more anti-religion, I began to hate Easter. I disliked all of the religious holidays, but I hated Easter in particular because unlike Christmas, I gained nothing from it. I didn’t get any presents and there was no distinct holiday cheer that came from celebrating Easter.
By extension, I also detested Lent. I always mouthed off to my family when they made me go for Easter mass. What is the point of all of this? Why do we have to go? What do we even gain from giving up something for so long if we’re going to break it at the end anyways? Do people really believe that someone can really rise from the dead?
I felt like I was above it all. I always felt like I had better things to do or that I was too cool to go to family parties. Eventually, my parents stopped waking me up to go to Easter mass with them, and later, they stopped informing me of the family party when I started making my own plans (which I now regret).
Slowly but surely, I was able to stop being involved in the holiday, but I inadvertently alienated myself from my family for over seven years.
But as I’ve become older (and hopefully wiser), I began to realize how much I was missing out. I began to realize how much I was missing out on not attending mass, but on the moments my family was having without me. I knew I was being unfair and uncompromising to my family because of our religious differences and it caused me to miss experiences that could’ve been memorable.
If I was able to remember so many memories from my childhood Easters, imagine what I would’ve been able to remember now. Because my family was not getting any younger, I knew this was my biggest mistake.
Although I still don’t personally identify as religious, my issues surrounding Easter have taught me two things. Firstly, even if it may not be important to me for religious reasons, I see Easter as symbolic of new beginnings and as an opportunity to start anew, especially since it typically falls at the beginning of spring and because of the story behind Easter.
This has allowed me to find my own meaning in the holiday without adding a religious connotation to it.
Secondly, I learned that it is important to learn to put aside differences sometimes, as nothing productive or useful comes out of being in opposition all the time. I missed out on a lot with important people because I was so keen on not being a part of something I didn’t fully support.
And beyond all of that, this lesson has shown me the importance of family and spending time with them.
Given that I’m here in Estevan and as a result, celebrating my Easter for the first time without my family in three years, I think about how I took all of the moments at Easter for granted, whether it be the silly egg hunts my uncle still made us do, or my grandmother’s extra soft egg bread. It makes me miss them.
It makes me truly learn to value the importance of the moments that I had to spend with them, even if they may seem mundane or tedious. While you may not think it matters or makes a difference at the time, you never know when it actually may mean something.
There may come a time where you would give anything to be at the Easter party that you supposedly hate, celebrating something that supposedly once had no meaning to you.
