POLL: What does Easter mean to you?

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Well, the Easter weekend is 1/4 over but I'm wondering what Easter means to you guys. Poll question should be self explanatory. They asked this in the street on the news this evening and I thought the responses were quite interesting.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 44 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: What does Easter mean to you? (44 votes.)

What does Easter mean to you? (Choose 1)
* Recognising the sacrifice Jesus made for the people of the world - 23% (10)
* A pagan fertility festival welcoming Spring - 11% (5)
* Chocolate, hot cross buns, and more chocolate - 16% (7)
* Nothing / Don't Care / Other - 50% (22)

 

Getting drunk.

Got a monster hangover this morning .

 

It means as much as Christmas... couldn't really care less. The break is nice though.

 

Vacation, but not much else. I do not spend any celebration days, even though Christmas would be an exception if I had kids.

 

We're Jewish. I understand the holiday intellectually, but I don't feel it spiritually.

 

Jewish over here also. The thing I like best about Easter is all of the jelly beans. Yum!

 

Nothing really. One good thing is that it is still seen as a big holidy so the four nights I will have worked this easter will all pay big holiday discomfort pay which is almost twice the amount of your normal wage. That is nice.

 

For me, it's an excuse to spend time with family. My wife and I don't live in close proximity to either of our families, so any significant holiday is usually the occassion for a road trip. Also, both of us being from Italian heritage, the holidays are always (regardless of where we go) marked by large dinners.

It is quite ironic actually. While I'm sure a great many people on this board are Christian, I do not think people hold Easter in the same esteem as they do Christmas (which is undoubtedly due to its commercial aspect, even though by any measure, Easter is the single most important day in Christianity.

 

When I was a kid, it meant chocolate.

Now it means time to catch up on assignments, papers and projects.

 

Nothing. Except for the fact that the cake shop makes cute odd shaped chocolates on that day. What are hot crossed buns? Are the crosses made of cherries

 

Nothing, we get one day of coming monday but I was free anyway so....

 

Hmmm, interesting.

 

Bunnies, eggs, chocolate and pimples. Not in that order.

 

Cadbury eggs.

Large chocolate bunnies.

Robin eggs.

Come to think of it...cavities.

The Ten Commandments.

Having sex while wearing a large pink bunny outfit.

Taking truth serum.

...

Dammit.

 

The welcoming of springtime, the corruption of an ages-old Norse holiday by Christianity (no offence intended to any Christians out there), and an excuse to go outside other than "It's a nice day." And chocolate. Can't forget the chocolate. After all, everybody needs to eat unhealthily from time to time.

 

For me, Easter and Good Friday go hand in hand. To have the Resurrection, you must have Jesus' death. And so, Easter may be susceptible to commericial influence just as Christmas is, but not so much Good Friday. There is nothing marketable about Good Friday. Suffering, sacrifice, injustice, betrayal. What's to celebrate? What's to shop for? Who could pig out on a day like that? There is simply no way for a culture devoted to lightweight enjoyment and superficial relationships to come to terms with Good Friday.

It does have great meaning for Christians though:

Not only did God become a mortal man, Christianity maintains, but he went all the way through with it, even unto death. And not just any death: the Son of God died unjustly at the hands of a worldwide empire that used every means at its disposal to suppress insurgents. A death by torture, a death of shame, a death of horror.

Nor was it just one more crucifixion among so many hundreds. We say God took on this death in order to give the world life. We say God knew suffering and tragedy so that we might never more feel that we suffer alone. We say God washed away our sins in the blood of him who was God made flesh.

Easter for me, and the Holy Week in general, is more a time of inside reflection. I don't celebrate it the same as Christmas, but that doesn't mean I fail to have respect for it.

 

@ Harbourboy

The Lord be with you.

 

Amen to this

It means free lunch at grandma's house, And some money. And candy.

 

gOD, there are a lot of believers on SP! But why? Religion is only the most widely spread form of mass manipulation!

 

That's organised religion. Religion by itself is harmless.