Today, the Christian world celebrates Easter Sunday. My seasonal indigestion and today's activities would certainly prove that I don't celebrate this holiday with them, but I still appreciate the observance I see around me. (I only wish that supermarkets would at least have afternoon hours).
What most Christians don't realize (because they're even less educated in their own religion than most Jews, and that's saying something), is that Easter is a much more profoundly important holiday than Christmas.
The central point in the life of Jesus of Nazareth was neither his birth nor his death (Mel Gibson's medieval rants notwithstanding), but the dogma of the resurrection, i.e., that there is, according to Christian doctrine, life after life, even on the corporeal level. It's the idea that someone unencumbered by Original Sin would first take on the sins of others, die most horribly, and then cast everything off a few days later that makes Christianity Christianity. Not virgin birth, not walking on water, not resisting temptation in the Judean desert, none of those things. Easter Sunday is the culmination of the Christian liturgical years - everything is either a prelude or an epilogue to this moment.
And it stands to reason that this is the major point of separation between Christianity and all other religious systems. It may be that some Jews, Hindus, or Moslems, put up a Christmas tree and exchange Christmas presents; but you'll never see them taking part in Easter celebration. Easter is simply too religious to have universal appeal.
So I'm a bit uneasy about it.
The feeling of the holiday is happy - in certain cultures I am told the common greeting is "he is arisen!" as if it were news of the day. It is hopeful, and it speaks of renewal, much in the spirit of the season.
But Easter was also a time of pogroms, of making Jews and others responsible for the prerequisite event for the resurrection. If there ever is a time that some Christians find justification for a sense of superiority, it is now.
So I am glad for Easter to the extent that it evokes in my Christian neighbors a sense of hope, renewal, and a higher purpose. As long as I don't have to stay indoors.
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