Easter Rewrite

Well the holiday is over. We had fun dying eggs, hunting for eggs and eating the eggs. The chocolate bunny this year gets two stars. If Lindt or Kinder or Cadburry made something moderately sized for a three year old I would have snapped it up.

My apologies for trashing the holiday a little yesterday. I don't think a spring time holiday with a resurrection theme is necessarily a bad idea, I would just do a little rewrite.

So lets take some of the main themes for our pot, god killed, god resurrected (bodily), betrayal, murder by man. God or gods dying is not really too new. Ragnorok is one example and I think some of the Titans died when Zeus and Hera ascended although my memory on this may be shaky. But when you've only got one god and you kill him off, that's balsy. I don't know of anyone else who does that. Resurrected bodily is a little more difficult. I know one of the heresies was that god was not resurrected in corporeal form but rather returned as an apparition. If you are a literalist, I would think this would be the way to go, but corporeal reinvestment makes sense in another way too. The betrayal of god and murder by man are two of the most interesting elements of the Christian story. I can't think of another tradition off the top of my head that shares these elements, but please enlighten me. And maybe tweak a couple of things regarding the death. First let's be clear that mankind killed god instead of some group of mankind. That way no one can go on death rampages against anyone. And maybe dial down the suffering of god a little. The first reaction to hearing about god suffering seems to me to be most often religious fervor, rage or aggression rather than what is intended. And really isn't it man who suffers for killing god rather than the other way around?

And lets sprinkle in some other things. First lets tie in Spring firmly to the holiday. It's convenient enough because the holiday we do celebrate is primarily a spring holiday. The holiday is right around the equinox and frankly the Christian tradition seems to have slipped far from its necessary connection to nature, with too many invoking the idea that man has dominion over nature rather than being a part of it. Then addition by subtraction. Let's make god not the god but a god. For me anyway this solves some of the problems of hostility between religions. Too many argue we believe in the one true god and you don't. Now some will say well we probably all believe in different manifestations of the same god. But there are too many counterarguments that say, well there is only one manifestation of our one true god, so again you don't. Perhaps if we had more than one people would be a little flexible on this. Maybe not all the gods have been revealed and everyone's god is some manifestation of some god or of the godhead. With two gods the holiday can get a lot more interesting. Now addition by addition. Lets make the holiday about the resurrection of two gods instead of one.

So in the brief time I allow myself to write this post I would come up with a holiday with roughly this framework.

Two gods, one male and one female are born and resurrected on or around the vernal equinox (depending on your hemisphere). They are reborn and resurrected in bodily form after a death of six months during which time the nights lasted longer than the day. Coinciding with their rebirth/resurrection the world is reborn and resurrected in spring. Their rebirth happens not once, but every year for us to celebrate. And of course, since we attribute human characters to god and because everyone is pretty clear how people create life, it is fairly obvious how the holiday is celebrated or can be celebrated amongst both the gods and the people. And frankly given "spring fever" it is pretty obvious the spring is already celebrated in this manner. Most of this tradition is celebrated through May Day, Beltane and Easter. (And hey, they would have a kid right around the Winter Solstice, isn't that interesting).

The gods born on Easter would be gods of justice and natural gods. A little New Testament, a little Old Testament, but given the nature of the season I could only suggest a gentle god, Jesus-style. The fact they are born and die on an equinox would naturally lend itself to the idea of balance, as hopefully would their relationship - with one another which is something which would be extremely useful and is not well provided by the Christian tradition. Very zen. Their pairing, and the pairing of male and female while allegorical would not need to be absolutely literal, but about the joining of parts balancing a whole.

As the summer ends, then the bible Easter story springs into action. A conspiracy of man against these two gods. Perhaps one man given the knowledge that he would be called upon for a necessary betray of god (Peter and the Gospel of Judas - Judas), and one may with ill will (canon gospel Judas). Of course, both gods would have the knowledge that they must die in order to live again and in order for the world to be reborn, so they would in a sense have the same knowledge and behavior of Christ at the last supper. They could even draw parallels to eating of their body and drinking of their flesh, although I would suggest they broaden the scope a little bit and focus on the fact that their being is all of the earth and all food and drink from the earth is part of them, rather than narrowing in on the similarity between wine and blood. At the appointed time around the autumnal equinox they would both be murdered in cold blood, the murder having no clue that his evil act was actually life affirming, echoed forever by their final statements at the time of their death. And they would be murdered with the support of everyone, who had turned against them from failure to see and/or understand. I can't see exactly how they would be murdered, but I'd be willing to take suggestions. Something not to gory or gruesome, so as not to instill hate in people, but something that does not entirely destroy their bodies, as immediately after their death, their bodies would have some significance to the harvest.

And then after the death of the gods the cold and hard winter approaches, with the justice that the gods might have sought in life, played out after their death.

Plus, I think there must be a way to have the female figure give birth to at least one sun god on the winter solstice, Christmas time, the sun/son god.

Well anyway. Someone should write that book. But until then, Happy Easter.