New Life and Eostre

Today, I took my atheist 17 year old daughter to Easter brunch. We were talking about the holiday and its origins and how the spring equinox, eggs, bunnies, all represent fertility.  My daughter started to laugh and asked me if I remember how it was my fault that she didn't have any Mormon friends in elementary school because of Easter.

I didn't know what she was talking about, so I asked her to explain. She recalled how I would teach her and her sisters about the true history of Christianity and Easter, how the Christians were practical people and would incorporate pagan practices into their worship, such as Eostre, or new birth, new life, which eggs, rabbits and Estres or Eostre represent.

Of course, being the young child that she was, would take her new found knowledge to school and tell her Mormon friends all about the real beginnings of Easter. Her Mormon friends would be all horrified and in disbelief and would not talk to such a heathen as her and she couldn't understand, at such a young age, why these Mormon girls would not talk to her after that.

Now, years later, she has left the Mormon church and religion all together. She can tease her Mom for not having Mormon friends in elementary school for teaching her the truth about Easter. We eat Easter brunch in honor of fertility and new life, paying homage to our new life.