Our family isn’t religious by any means. And most of the Easter stuff that people “celebrate” is bullshit to me. Now, it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t raised on the same bullshit–we got Easter baskets (or, rather, Easter “pots” because it was always more cheap and convenient for my mom to fill a pot or pan than to go buy an Easter basket) filled with candy, just like everyone else. We long had since stopped believing in any Easter bunny, but we still loved getting candy! Easter = candy in our household when growing up.
Somewhere along the way for my mom and family, Easter began to transform from just candy and Easter baskets to Easter candy and presents. I knew that when I had a child, I wasn’t going to involve our family in those traditions. It just seemed ridiculous to me, and still does. I guess this is synonymous with my beliefs about Christmas traditions, but I have since relaxed my beliefs a little bit about that, because it’s become fun for me. But I just can’t foresee myself falling into the Easter trap when we aren’t even religious.
So this weekend we went to my hometown to see my mom. She had previously asked me if it was okay to give Kwabena and Easter bunny (a small one). Sure, why not? He loves chocolate. When she pulled it out, she said to him, “I bought you a bunny for Easter!” Kwabena responded, “What’s Easter?” LOL I know that he must have heard the word at daycare, and I’m pretty sure Miss Marilyn talked to them about it. But at home, we had not. I realized that even if we don’t celebrate, we should have at least explained to him about what it is and why and how people celebrate. Even so, it was pretty funny that he said, “What’s Easter?” I will explain next time. It’s part of his education.
That Sunday (Easter), I was a little annoyed that everything was closed! But then I decided it was the best time to take advantage of some outdoor/nature stuff. So Kwabena and I took a walk. Well, I pushed him on his tricycle. We had a fantastic time!!
We pointed out all the beautiful things about nature: the amazing birdsong…the lush, brilliant grass…the stacks of ant hills that lined the sidewalks, etc. Kwabena asked me if I liked certain colors, “You like blue?? I like blue!” I told him I liked all colors. He responded, “I don’t like black. It makes things dirty.” HA!
The most amazing part was the ant hills. We stopped and observed how some of the ants were carrying pieces of leaves and twigs that were twice the size of their bodies; marveled at how some ants were carrying dead ants away from the ant hill–guess that poor ant was the one commissioned for the job. LOL It was like we were giants, looking down on the Ant Planet, observing a whole other world and order.
We walked up to the baseball field where it was deserted. We laid on the bench and picked up the most interesting rocks we could find. I began to use five of them and review some math lessons, “So if you have three rocks and I gave you one more, how many would you have now?” Kwabena is pretty good at math, even at this age! He totally gets the concept! Of course, I stump him if the numbers get too high, but he totally rocks it otherwise!
When we got back, we ate and then he went down for a nap. Overall, it was a good Easter day, even though we didn’t celebrate traditionally.
🙂
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