So, tomorrow is Easter Sunday, a holiday I celebrated as a child by attending church and getting baskets and having egg hunts. It is another holiday that, for about twenty years, pretty much skipped off of my radar.

I studied comparative religion, fully realized my own agnosticism, moved west, and had no family around to have dinner with or any reason to participate in celebrating something I didn’t much care about.
But now the kids are here.

This year, nearly three years after their arrival, is really the first time this sort of thing has caused me some pause… like in December… do we do Santa? Do we do a church or a synagogue or a meeting of some sort? What do we tell them about god(s) and religions and why some people celebrate some holidays and others do not?

But they are children, and they believe in things. I didn’t do any formal Santa education last fall, but they just picked it up… they KNEW all about who he was when he appeared in shopping malls, and their anticipation and squeals of delight when we came through with stockings and gifts Christmas morning was pretty amazing. Downright awesome actually.

So, I decided for now, we’ll celebrate the FUN – the animated mythology I remember from my own childhood. Is it overly materialistic to make it about cartoonish creatures that bring presents? I don’t think the turning of seasons is anything to scoff at… I mean, spring is here! Bunnies are coming with candy and treats to celebrate making it through another winter!!

Granted, I do have a semi-plan for their future educations in belief systems. I plan to take them to churches and synagogues and meetings and mosques and celebrations of every different religion and community I can find, and we can explore each one together. My hope is, that in this way, by openly admitting that I do not KNOW what is the absolute truth, but I respect the ways in which people find peace and joy in their lives, and the way they cope with death and evil and despair… I am hoping it will construct a moral fiber strong enough to weather them through life – and if they decide to choose one of the avenues of faith, I will certainly support it. I hope that they will remain true to what I do believe: that life is interconnected in ways we do not fully understand, and that there is purpose and meaning in everything we do each day.

So, this evening we put them to bed, and told them pretty casually that the bunny was coming. I went downstairs and filled baskets with fun stuff I hope they can enjoy and appreciate. I decided, while doing it, to take up my husband’s tradition of a basket hunt – rather than an egg hunt. Is that lazy? Ah, I am sure they will enjoy it regardless. And then I heard my son calling me. I went into their room and they both were standing up.
“Did the bunny come yet?” he asked me.
“Oh, no honey, the bunny will come after you go to sleep and maybe bring you something to find in the morning.”
“We did sleep. It is morning!” Said my daughter. (We have discussed daylight savings and the fact that it is not dark at bedtime many, many, times lately)

I tucked them back in, and came downstairs, and realized what this is, what is happening. They will remember this. Maybe not forever, but next year, they will know what happened this year, and it will build an anticipation, a sense of wonder, that, if we are lucky, will last for a few years after.
This IS their childhood.
This is THEIR spring.