Appreciating Easter

[John Zeger]

Easter can be appreciated on at least three levels -- the natural, the mythic, and the metaphorical.

Easter is celebrated in relationship to the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. The arrival of spring has always been an important time in pagan traditions of celebrating the renewal of life on earth.

Easter is one of the two greatest holidays in the Christian faith marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. However, Christianity is not the first mythology to honour the resurrection of a god. In fact, Wikipedia lists 19 mythologies in which 37 gods experienced rebirth following their death.

Lastly, Easter can be understood in mystical and metaphorical terms as coming into the eternal life of the Self following the death of the ego. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ symbolically represents awakening the Christ within.

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
But not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn;
The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain
Unless within thyself it be set up again.

--- Angelius Silesius (1624-1677)