How Do Atheists Celebrate Easter Sunday?

Easter is a nice pagan fertility / spring celebration and safe for atheists and their kids to partake in. Just bring on the chocolate.

What could be more worthy of celebration than the start of spring – the blossoming of nature at the end of the long winter is well worth celebrating.

Just had a traditional Polish Easter breakfast, with decorated eggs (unblessed) and bouka. Is this a shameless appropriation of a Christian festival? Well, as we all know, Eostre pre-dates Christianity by a few millenia.

Not doing a thing, other than the usual chores I do on Sunday. Laundry, grocery shopping and the like. We’ll have to call the super-religious mother-in-law, but I’ll make DH do that 🙂

Our kids get chocolate and presents, and a couple books from their grandparents. I make French toast and sausages and then we watch the TV movies or go out for a walk if it’s nice. It’s just a nice family day with chocolate for breakfast.

It is an excuse to get candy and one birthday present early(my bday is on the 18th of april, my brothers is on the 14th, so we’ve always had a present in there. this year was Simpsons season 6)

I greeted my daughter with “Happy Zombie Jesus Day”! Other than that I can’t even do the chocolate since I’m having a medical procedure tomorrow and can only have clear liquids today, groan. The kid did make up eggs though. Personally I find the whole celebration of Zombie Jesus with Eggs and Bunnies more than a bit weird.

With our kids, it has always been a lesser celebration than Christmas, but the kids still look forward to it.

We hide plastic eggs the night before and then put their favorite candies and one or two little items in a basket at the table.

This year, my son got a Rondo bobblehead and a pack of basketball cards, and my daughter got a Wolverine action figure (she has a new crush on Hugh Jackman) and a pack of Webkinz cards.

They found all the eggs (I hope) with some M&Ms in each one. And that’s about it. Oh, and I made corn muffins. Simple morning, but fun. 🙂

My husband is off this morning to play in a brass quartet at a local church service.

In a little bit I’m going to put on a recording of the Bach B Minor mass and put a roast in the oven for a nice traditional dinner.

When our daughter was younger she always had an Easter basket and we hid eggs all over the house.

Take away the morbid death story/symbolic cannabilism/zombie worship and there are elements of some nice traditions there. Why not enjoy them?

Is today Easter? Darn, the kids must not crave chocolate like they used to. They didn’t even remind me.

We hide Easter baskets for the kids then watch them find the things. My oldest thanked us nicely for the contents. 🙂

We almost always do a lot of gardening that day as it’s generally around the last frost date. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate spring than working with baby plants!

If we had kids, we would probably do easter egg hunts and chocolate bunny’s and such. But, we don’t, so we sleep in. 🙂

I went for a drive to see some lovely scenery and beautifully evolved flying creatures (Gannets)

http://rcd.vox.com/library/post/muriwai-still-nice-even-on-a-grey-day.html

When my brother and I were little, we always had egg hunts and baskets and usually went to brunch somewhere. If there was family around, we’d also have a family dinner late in the day. There were usually some events in the neighborhood (there were lots of kids our age) as well. Those things, like most of Christmas, have nothing to do with the Christian holiday, so why not enjoy the festivities and welcome Spring! When my husband and I have kids, I’m sure we’ll do the same.

My hasband, son, and I decorated eggs. It’s a beautiful and creative tradition. I drew the FSM on some and my 10 year old son drew some Yin-Yang ones. We’re gonna eat lunch together. The traditional ham, potato salad, and aspargus because that’s super tasty! And then we are going to watch Religulous.

Happy Easter fellow atheists!

I’ve spent the last. . . 4 I believe, including later today, at the zoo volunteering (just like every Sunday for the past 3ish years). It’ll be a bit wierd with most of the usual Sunday volunteers off doing their family things or whatever, but it will be anything but quiet. Especially after the area churches let out. I tend to not participate in the zoo’s easter events directly, but that’s because I don’t want to spend 6 hours asking kids what cows say (or whatever questions they come up with that year) and being ignored because the kids only care about what you have to give them.

Sunday brunch where my mother proceeds to comment on my failed lifestyle and decisions.

going to church!
(my parents church anyways) I came home to visit them for the week, so we’ll be going there in a few minutes, then eating the feast.
go jesus!

This morning I woke up at the mum in laws, read some of my current book (The Atheist Manifesto), did the chocolate bunny hunt mum in law set up for us even though we’re 23 & 24 (it was awesome!), ate a hot cross bun for breakfast, packed, and drove home for 4 hours in a stinking hot car.

I call today Chocolate Day, in the same way I call December 25 Present Day. Why would I give up the chance to celebrate chocolate and presents?

We did a basket clue hunt–no one had to pray to find their basket.

We are now playing video games–no signs of (psudo)Catholic mom making it to church

Probably going to Watchmen with my nominally Christian Dad–we won’t be boycotting the movie since Dr. Manhattan is more powerful than Yahweh

Eating ham and pork loin for dinner at my mothers–this must be the Christian way of saying “HA Jews! What are you eating today that tastes as good as ham?”

Easter Egg Hunt–again I don’t think there will be a need to pray first to make sure we find all them eggs.

Last May, I bought an egg coloring kit on a last-chance clearance sale for 29 cents. It’s a Pirates of the Caribbean theme, complete with stickers and a poster. Who could resist?

Holiday? Is there a holiday? I don’t know and neither do my kids, but we are having a pirate breakfast. Arrr, matey!

In 1943 my 3 yr old sis, 8 yr old bro, & 5 yr old Mikie got up early & looked out the window & spotted Mom hiding eggs in the yard. When she spotted us she started hopping. I swear it. She denied it each of the many times one of us would bring it up over the next 60 years. And — the day she told Keith & I that there was not really a Santa Claus, he said “then I’m not believing in Jesus anymore, either”. He converted to Catholicism at around age 60. We never could agree on anything.

I see no benefit to perpetuating the Easter Myth of Jesus by re-purposing the bloody nonsense and wrapping it in Chocolate to fatten gullible children.

Let the nonsensical fairytale fade into the mists of obscurity where it rightly belongs. It serves no useful purpose in the modern era, as the modern man no longer tolerates the Woo Woo parlor tricks of these silly gods.

You who pass on these remembrance rituals are doing your children an unnecessary disservice, and they would be the better without it.

Going to the boyfriend’s family’s house for free food, although since none of his clan really cooks, it’ll probably be take out. Sigh. Next year I’m figuring out a way to make a proper Easter dinner: ham.

I don’t even celebrate Christmas – at least, if left completely to my own devices. My maternal grandmother still does the whole Easter or Christmas thing if we visit during those times, but other than that they’re just normal days.

Even if a holiday holds no religious celebration for you, the mere act of celebrating it gives it power in a way and makes it even more mainstream – in my mind – no judgments on people who celebrate and don’t believe – I can especially understand if there are meaningful family traditions

Easter is about the easter bunny and a celebration of Spring for us. My 3 and 6 yr olds don’t know anything about the Christian holiday aspects yet. We do a basket of candy and little toys and have an easter egg hunt in our yard. Depending on the weather, we may do some gardening together. Sometimes we have relatives over for a casual dinner.

My husband and I woke up, retrieved our baskets, sorted through and nibbled a bit while chatting in bed. It’s been a lovely morning. We’re going over to my parents’ house later for a picnic – they’re in church now, though!

Easter may indeed have been commandeered from other mythology by the thieving death cult of Christians in the early days, but for all intents and purposes it has but one connotation these days, which is the Christian Remembrance Ritual.

You who do those things you do at Easter are, consciously or otherwise fostering the filthy myth of Christianity in some measure. If you feel the necessity to cram your children full of chocolate, then why cannot you do it the weekend before or the week after!

We can’t give up every opportunity for chocolate! And bring joy to the kids faces.

I for one was perfectly content ignoring the day (and not realizing it was today) until I went to Target to pick up some things and the lazyjerkwads were closed. Grrrrrrr.

Actually, it is the Christian story of Easter that pushed me to the wall once my child was born. I’ve always referred to the holiday as the creepy easter story. If you think about it, when Mel Gibson made his film it was rated R and was essentially a snuff film. ‘Nuff said. Each year my son, now 8, asks if he’s old enough to hear the creepy easter story.

In retrospect, I can’t believe they tell this story to young children. (1) It’s barbaric to the extreme, and (2) If you set up a religion at a young age to REQUIRE the suspension of reality for the belief construct, what are you doing to prepare that mind for rational thought?

Basically what you are setting up are the two tracks for all “thought” (1) religion or religious beliefs aren’t required to make sense at all versus the rest of the knowledge you will be acquiring.

To take it one step further, requiring people to suspend belief for g-d seems to be the gateway to creationism and fundamentalism.

So meh… we do bunnies and chocolate in this household. MUCH more pleasant!

I have a friend here in Iowa who claims this is his annual ritual of Cadbury trying to kill him.

The way I see it is that my daughter gets the fun out of Easter without the drudgery of having to sit through a sermon, too. We participate in the fun, secular aspects of holidays. It works for us because I personally believe it is a good idea to not restrict holidays/fun for kids who have to go to school and listen to how everyone else had lots of fun on this special day. Sitting out because of religion breeds resentment. My parents wouldn’t let us celebrate Halloween because it was a celebration of Satan in disguise. I always thought it was ridiculous and felt left out when my schoolmates happily discussed costumes, parties, and trick-or-treating. The first thing I did when I left the house was fall in love with Halloween. I go a little overboard for my daughter now. My point is that kids will run straight to that which they feel they missed out on when they are adults. I think the best way to raise a religious kid is to not allow them to participate in any activities that might even smack of religion.

I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and am now a atheist philosophical Buddhist. As such the holiday times have always just sort of passed me by. Ive no longer any moral objection to them, but, its a little like being a vegetarian, after enough time you just dont miss it anymore.

My daughter has never celebrated a holiday and says she doesnt wish we would.

I went for a little reflective bike ride, then to starbucks for a Vivanno milkshake thing and an egg sandwich. Later today I’m going to lie to my mom about going to church, or perhaps just tell her I too have been reborn and resurrected, though not in the way that she would like/think – I’m no longer catholic.

I wished my christian wife a “Happy Zombie Day” and she wished me a “Happy Easter.” Then we had lunch and we’re watching the E network.

I celebrate Easter Monday. The candy is much much cheaper then.

This atheist just made a futile trip to MicroCenter because he forgot – again! – that stores, even big ones that are always open, close on Easter. Next year in Jerusalem. Not.

I am watching m fav zombie movies today

We dyed eggs of course (this is one of the most fun parts of the holiday, IMO) and have Easter baskets for any kids who are of appropriate age (I think this is up to 25 but YMMV). Then we have a nice seasonal dinner. The only thing that bugs me about the holiday is the Easter Bunny charade. I’ve tried to offer hints that the Easter Bunny is me, but the school/peer influence is strong and he is only 6. He’ll figure it out soon, I’m sure.

We also celebrated the Vernal Equinox (much more relevant really) by taking cupcakes to school and talking astronomy.

Any excuse to celebrate, I say. So years ago, I started having ‘orphan holidays’ where all our friends gather because our families are so far away. Around our house, it’s Athieaster, or Hoppy Esters if there’s beer. I’ve always wanted to serve a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs for our beloved FSM, but in the end I’m just too traditional and love cooking some big centerpiece item. 😉

We’re planning on honoring that whole resurrection theme by running Dead Alive and Sean of the Dead after dinner.

Today is actually my mom’s birthday so we’re celebrating that more than Easter. When I was a kid we did the whole candy hunt and then a walk to look for signs of Spring. I have daffodil and tulip shoots coming up and most of the snow is gone.

All the originally pagan Spring and fertility related stuff is really a wonderful tradition, especially living in an area with harsh winters. I do without all the Christian stuff though.

If we had kids, we’d probably do something in the eggs/ rabbits/ candy family. As it is, we tend to celebrate the coming of spring on May Day. What with my wife being a Morris dancer and all. Today, it’s just Sunday.

Happy Zombie Jesus day everyone!! 🙂

To celebrate the almighty Zombie Jesus, I will walk around like a zombie and cannibalize my fellow humans. Nom nom nom.

In all seriousness, I munch on peeps and chocolate bunnies for “Easter” and eat a large meal….of human flesh. 🙂

For a while, I made it a personal tradition of sorts to watch a particularly cheesy schlock horror movie in the theater. I haven’t had this option for a few years (no movie theaters in walking distance) so instead I’ve resorted to watching Night of the Living Dead… which is basically about Jesus, who returned from the dead TO EAT OUR BRAINS.

I’m 30, and the only reason I look froward to easter is because of the 10 pounds of chocolate I get in my basket. My father is insistent that I get one every single year.

Despite the fact that the Christians have claimed Easter. Absolutely nothing in the day beyond the story of crucifixion is christian. The holiday still has the name of one of the pagan goddesses it did worship.

I see no reason not to celebrate this weekend, the coming of spring is a wonderful thing. (When I lived down-under I celebrated Easter because it meant the coming of moderately cool and comfortable winter.)

Conversation I had with my 6-yr-old yesterday ended with: “Mama, I know we don’t believe he came back from the dead, but I *really* like egg hunts.”

So we had one. It was fun. 😀

Hope everyone had a good Sunday!

So I went to church w the rents.. In the sermon the preacher mentoined the atheist bus ads and noted how 100 yrs ago the ateists were very gloomy buy today they seem happy and hopeful (go us!) . He did say though that he had many problems with the message not surprisingly. The only one he mentioned was “if there’s no god then what do we build our lives upon?”.

Didn’t take me long to come up w a response – family, friends, and personal relationships, community service.

Any others that you all would add?

I celebrate Easter by going out the day after and buying cheap candy.

Here’s a friendly, warm, welcoming “Happy Easter” (named for a pagan goddess) or, alternatively, “Happy Zombie Jesus Day” to you, Mike!

(We aren’t being hateful. We’re just being normal, everyday, non-religious people living our lives in a religion-saturated society.)

Went to the bakery this morning for cinnamon rolls: closed, with not even a sign in the window explaining why (guess we all know how holy this particular Sunday, the one after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, is). Went with my nuclear family to our UU church for a nice service celebrating the renewal of spring & questioning the standard Christian story of Easter. The kids put on a spring play, & had chocolate and an egg hunt (the candy-filled kind) there, had fun.

I was very pleased with our county library system – I went to their website today, & under “hours” there was an announcement that every branch was open its usual Sunday hours today. Bless their hearts (so to speak).

When my boyfriend and I are living together we plan on finding a good bread recipe, calling it Jesus, bringing secular friends together on Easter, and then coming out of the kitchen once the bread is done, saying “Jesus has risen!” We’re looking forward to it 🙂

I cooked a rabbit so we happily ate the Easter Bunny. He was good too. 😉

I made myself a nice breakfast and a killer steak for dinner. On days when stuff is closed, I make up for it with great feasts… Not like I was going to get anything accomplished anyhow.

@Mike-April 12th, 2009 at 8:39 pm: I for one do not tolerate religiosity in anyone but the very old Mike. It is beyond childish for grownups to still adhere to that silly magical thinking, and I cannot respect such mushy brained thinking or lack thereof. The very old should know better but they are afraid to die so I just don’t have the heart to tell them they are just going to die and stay dead so get over it.

The Religious and their imbecilic child minded beliefs in magic are an embarrassment to modern humanity. If they come out of their dark caves of ignorant religious superstition into the light of truth then I will be friendly to them, otherwise I will belittle, and berate them at every opportunity as a community service, and my duty to mankind. It’s great Easter fun as well!

Dinner with the grandparents. It being Easter just reminded me that I should go see them more often. We had a nice dinner and some candy. Not a single mention of religion, pro or con, the entire evening. The way it should be.

Bought a couple CDs and a new zombie book. Nice, relaxing day at home, then spent the day working on motorcycles and cursing the fact that most stores were closed. Couldn’t get a new battery for one of them. Also the Gym was closed. 😛

It was my boyfriend’s 23rd birthday on Easter, so we mostly..did birthday things, like opening presents, nookie, going to the movies, etc.

Although we did buy some pastel colored junior mints. That counts as easter-y, doesn’t it?

When we have kids, though, we’ll likely do the typical easter stuff – eggs, bunnies, etc. Because I find that stuff cute. 🙂

There were only like six of us left in our entire dorm, and it was pretty obvious that we were the unbelievers. So we climbed a mountain and talked about life and happiness on the edge of a cliff.

Much more satisfying than a mass I have to say.

The last few years we have made it a point to celebrate science and nature over Easter weekend. Our family went hiking at Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio this year. Last year we visited the Cleveland Natural History Museum, the year before that we went to COSI in Columbus. Easter had always been my “least favorite” holiday. It was always a drag having “Easter dinner” with our religious family members. Now I look forward to Easter weekend!

We are celebrating spring. I made the kids Isthar baskets filled with goodies. The hubby is putting some burgers on the pit. I filled some plastic eggs with coupons for the kids for “mom to do the chicken dance” or “one day of no chores”. Just having good clean, non-zombie celebrating type of fun. 🙂