Hoppin' Down the Bunny Trail with Agnostic Mom

God nor Jesus is about any religion. There is nothing within any Holy Books that states this. It is an assumption...

Jesus and God are about "A PEOPLE"

Christianity wasn't created until Casear stated in 325AD that all people must live by Christs Teachings, therefore calling it Christianity. Caesar also stated that he would determine who is and who isn't christian.

There is nothing wrong with a child celebrating the easter bunny, or receiving gifts at Christmas. It certainly doesn't mean that you have to rear them believing that Jesus was born that day, or that the bunny is real. What's wrong in teaching truths, Jesus was a Great Teacher, The easter bunny may not be real, but the day is about having fun, and look at the candy you get this day that you don't get anyother day. Or instead of all candy, make it a special day of a new tradition. The new tradition being that we colour the eggs because it's a celebration of spring.

Let the children have fun, and what a wonderful way of starting 'new traditions', in truth.

rainbow_n_eye

You can enjoy the story, even if you know it's not true. You'd have a hard time damping the imagination of my preschooler. Fortunately.

Well it is post-Easter so it may be too late to get in a word here, but I just do not see what harm it does to indulge a fantasy about the Easter Bunny or the Sandman or the Tooth Fairy...don't our children have years of seriousness ahead of them? I just hate the thought of a generation of 4 year old pragmatists.

blogging relentlessly at Time's Fool ( http://timesfool.blogspot.com )

The whole santa/easter bunny question has been a big one in our house since last december. Our son is three. He used to believe in Santa and the easter bunny, because everybody from his grandmother to the caretakers at playgroup told him so. We thought about it, and told him that it's really the parents who buy the presents or chocolate eggs, but that many people will tell their children that santa/the bunny is responsible for it, because they think it's a nice story for children.

The problem we had was, that there are parents out there who think children shouldn't know the truth. That it would ruin their holiday. So we caution our son, and say that it's better not to talk too much about it. Ha! As if that worked.

The religious part, I find easy. We tell him there are a lot of religions out there, people believe in different things. And that easter is simultaneously about the beginning of spring and that it's also a Christian holiday about the resurrection of Christ. His grandmother is Catholic, so she believes different things than we do, and when he is bigger he can choose for himself.

Hi Agnostic mom,

Okay I understand what you mean from a non-religious perspective. I guess because I am religious I never understood the whole bunny and santa thing relating to Christianity. Although just like Jule Ann, we do the Easter Bunny and Santa here too, and I give my sons the same response when they ask if its real...however, the huge focus during these holidays in my house is Jesus; the other stuff is just an after thought in a way I guess. lol.

Thank you for allowing me to see another point of view. :)

LBB
Saving the moisturized-impaired one shea butter at a time. ( http://www.BigLakeSpa.com )

I understand religion and religous preferences can be a touchy subject and I appreciate the thoughtful and courteous comments on this post.

I appreciated AM's original post not only for her interesting take on the issue and the considerations behind teaching our children myths, but also because it prompted me to figure out what LBB is pointing out -- that the Easter Bunny actually has nothing to do with the religious aspects of Easter.

Mary
BlogHer Contributing Editor, Mommy & Family ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/mommy-family )
Mom Writes ( http://marytsao.blogspot.com )

LBB--The Easter Bunny and Jesus relate, but not in a way that you are thinking. You're right, it has nothing to do with the Resurrection. They relate because atheists and most agnostics view them both as myths.

When I left religion, my parents begged me to pretend I believed because they thought it would benefit my children morally. There is also security of being able to tell your kids that when people die they go to heaven with Jesus.

My integrity dictated that I not teach these things to my children. The dilemma, then, is a question of whether it is hypocritical to continue the Easter Bunny myth. Why keep one myth, but not another? This is the point of the whole blog post.

"And should she keep alive the Easter tradition of baskets delivered in the night by a mythical bunny even though she is raising her children in a household without religion?"

I'm not sure how the two even relate when the Easter Bunny has nothing to do with the ressurection of Christ.

LBB

Saving the moisturized-impaired one shea butter at a time. ( http://www.BigLakeSpa.com )

My dad was a lapsed Catholic., my mom a non-observant Jew.

We had a Christmas tree and presents. We lit the menorah and did all 8 days of Hanukah. We had Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts. We had books with (Old Testament) bible stories in them. But we had no religion at all. Never went to church. Never went to synagogue. Didn't bother with any other holidays, particularly not the high Jewish holidays.

To this day my mom hosts Christmas dinner and Easter dinner. But these are family days, not religious days.

And we all turned out OK. Not to be flip, but I gotta stick up for the non-religious out there. We develop systems of morals and ethics and everything.

It may sound appalling to some, but I'm sure I gave the ideas of Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Bible stories about the same credence in my childhood mind.

(Ironic side note: Despite my complete secularism I really like a Christian pop band named Jars of Clay, and a song of theirs came on Shuffle and played the entire time I wrote this comment!)

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

I just wanted to add that Christian parents struggle with the exact same questions. As you said, the roots of the Easter bunny tradition lie in paganism, and even if they didn't, it's hard to explain what a pink rabbit has to do with the resurrection of Christ. Christmas has fared a little better in pop culture, because movies tell us all the time to remember the "real meaning of Christmas", and even if the birth of Jesus is usually left out, at least most people think of Christmas as having something to do with giving and loving.

My mom actually never told us there was an Easter bunny or a Santa Claus. She just filled our stockings and hid our baskets, and let us draw our own conclusions. That way, we believed as long as we wanted to, and figured it out in our own time. I'm pretty sure she used the "what do you think?" line, too. I distinctly remember developing my own elaborate theory on how Santa could get into the house when we didn't have a chimney after my mother deflected the question when I asked it of her. I think Agnostic Mom's on the right track.

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not a man."
http://juleann.blogspot.com