Easter Funny

By: Rupert Common

Indy helps with the Easter Egg hunt; what happened to religiosity? (Photo by Solo/Flickr)

The closest I got to Jesus this past Easter weekend was breaking bread with a bearded fisherman. Throughout that brunch, and all the other holiday gatherings, not a prayer was uttered or a biblical reference honestly made. Church wasn’t even considered.

In the Canada I know, religious holidays are now just…holidays, and most people can’t tell the difference between Shrove Tuesday and karaoke Monday.

For the Church, this distance from religiosity is the end of the chute in a three-generation slide from relevance to obscurity. And unless the Church unifies with the State in an Aldous Huxley-like fashion (God forbid), I don’t see it reaching the summit again.

Faith and tradition were strong with my grandparents, who were Catholic on the one side and Protestant on the other. They raised their children in post-war times with church as a habit; but somewhere in between then and birth of their grandchildren, church-going slipped.

My sister and I were christened, but that’s about it. If either of us have kids, they likely won’t receive the holy cross on the forehead. Why would they? At this point it seems like an arbitrary tradition and maybe celebrating Easter is too.

But we can’t just rename Easter or try to take away its significance. Jesus was a real person and he was crucified. An entire religion–one which shaped the world–bases its faith on his teachings. Just look at the world’s calendar. According to the Internet, the Olympics, and your last pay cheque, it is the year 2012. Exactly that many years ago, Jesus Christ was born via Immaculate Conception in a barn. Even if Christianity, like Latin, becomes a dead language, it will always be at the root of things.

It makes sense that we–as a nation founded on Christian expansion–would hold onto these dates, but the religion now connotes a history of abuse, judgement, and scientific ignorance. Maybe I am caught up in my own, liberal world here in Vancouver, and I am not fully aware of the strength of Christianity across North America, or its presence in politics, but as it continues to dwindle in my eyes, how will we celebrate the holidays and what does it mean for our culture?

vs.

It is what it is, and so that’s what it will be.

By: Theo Pui

Oh Christianity! I think this could be one of my favourite topics, not because I praise the Lord in any way, but because it’s so… arbitrary.

Example. Thanksgiving: A time of the year when we look back upon the settlers who came to Canada and the United States and are thankful for what we have taken from the Natives. To celebrate, we shall feast on turkey! I know, seems silly to me, too.

To some, religion can mean nothing; but to others, it is literally the meaning of life. I happen to be quite the realist, so for me, religion gets put at the bottom of my priority list: right beside homework and washing dishes (but that’s just crazy me).

The significance of Christianity has no doubt dwindled since its birth, but its scope is still quite large. Taken from an extremely reputable source (Wikipedia), Christianity has approximately 2.5 billion adherents. More importantly, if God had a Twitter account, I’m positive he would have more followers than @joelmchale and the @ladygaga combined. In the Twitterverse that is a huge deal.

In terms of Christian holidays, they may not mean much (religiously) to people anymore, but they offer a break from the drudgery of work and more time for people to spend with their friends and families. This is important for society as it keeps people happy and the suicide rate low.

In terms of economics, Christian holidays are a boon to retailers throughout the year. Just think of all the purchased presents, pine trees, pine tree holders, pine tree ornaments, stockings, turkeys, flowers, and chocolates that are directly correlated to a Christian holiday.

Due to the economic loss, history and evident backlash from 2.5 billion Christians and God, I believe these holidays are going to stay for the long haul, despite how irrelevant they are/are becoming. These holidays have been entrenched into our calendar after many years of simply…being there. Would we dare remove them and replace them with even more arbitrary holidays? I doubt it.