I am BIC, raised by devout, but not crazy fanatical, TBM parents. I left the church the day I moved out of my parent's house at 18. I attended a small, Methodist-affiliated college, and Easter was a BIG DEAL. It wasn't until college that I realized how much I knew about Easter. I'd never heard of Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, or Good Friday. I knew the basic story of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, but that was it.

Many Easters fell on General Conference Sunday, and General Conference was definitely the highlight of the day rather than anything Jesus related (four hours, sitting in the dark, in a stiff, itchy, new dress makes for happy childhood Easter memories ;) ) Those were almost better than the years when Easter fell on a different Sunday and we had to sing the funeral dirges -- er, I mean Sacrament hymns -- and nothing else for the whole meeting. I don't remember the lessons being Jesus-centered, or any special music programs or anything like that. Perhaps your ward was different. This was in the 1990s and early 2000s.

My dad always bought me a chocolate bunny and we dyed eggs together, but that was the extent of our Easter celebration at home.

After leaving the church, I'm an agnostic and haven't ever attended another Christian church's Easter service, but friends tell me they can be quite spectacular. They leave feeling uplifted and happy, which is the opposite of what I've ever felt after a Mormon service. So, I celebrate chocolate bunnies instead =)

Did you understand Easter as a TBM kid? My upbringing was church-centered, and definitely not Jesus-centered, even on Easter.

I have to disagree. Easter was a VERY big deal to me growing up.

Jesus was the first resurrected being, but he opoened the door for OTHER people to get resurected and many people HAD. You could be running into resurected beings every day of your life and you just didn't know it, because it's not like they advertise it or anything.

There was a lot of discussion about the difference between resurected beings, spirits who had once had bodies, spirits who had NEVER had bodies and how to distinguish between a good spirit and a bad spirit (the handshake test.)

And then, OF COURSE, there were those translated beings like the Three Nephites. But being translated is not the same as being resurrected. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!

Nevertheless SOME people managed to get themselves resurrected -- Joseph and Hyrum FOR SURE.

My father once got ahold of a slice of a GENUINE HUMAN BONE. My sister got it to him from some lab she worked at.

ANYWAY, he put it on the end of a divining rod, took a walk through the cemetary, and could tell you OF A CERTAINTY, which of the dearly deceased had got themselves resurrected and which hadn't.

So Easter was a VERY VERY big deal.

Plus new dresses, back in the day when a new dress was a VERY BIG DEAL, easter baskets, lots of candy, and all the rest of it.

Lois

Lois

Yeah, I understood it. An egg laying rabbit brought me candy. That's all I needed to know.

I was never a TBM kid, neither were my two brothers.

Easter lost its significance to me after I read about Osiris, Ishtar and other dieties that were killed/sacrificed and returned to life

Christianity isn't the first religion to claim a dead god came back. Not by a long shot.

I never understood the hymn "I Stand All Amazed". Especially the part about being rebellious and proud. It is assumed by the singers that they are rebellious and proud- but I could never see why anybody would think that of themselves or anybody else.

I suppose that's why I kept getting in trouble at church.

I don't understand it NOW.

Bunnies lay eggs and bring them to children for hunting because Jesus got crucified and resurrected? No amount of explaining is going to make me understand that.

The couple who ran the choir where former Baptists.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/1031246/Obituary-Virginia-Ray-Robinson-Ledbetter.html

I didn't know much about Easter but I loved their Easter Program. And they were nice neighbors who lived across the street.

I held to the belief that Easter is when Jesus came out of tomb and if he saw his shadow it would be an early summer.

Our Easters were oddly secular. Christmas was, too. My father was a crazy fundamental Mormon nut job, and Joe Smith was always #1.

I don't know if I learned the meaning of Easter from m mom or the church. I am thinking my mother. I don't remember not knowing the meaning behind Easter and other holidays-religious and secular.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 07:18PM by bona dea.

I never paid much attention to the biblical version of Easter...I was only interested in the chocolate bunnies....and I was never TBM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2019 12:35AM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

Bunnies esp one made of chocolate are very important, but kids should know the basics of why we celebrate holidays. I remember talking to a history class of 8th graders and at least on kid had no idea that the Declaration of Independence and Independence Day had any connection at all. Parents shouldn't just assume their kids know things. They should talk to them occasionally and maybe ask if they know why we celebrate Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July or whatever. Being culturally literate is important as well as chocolate bunnies.

Easter for me was always spent up at our vacation home in Sun Valley. Easter was skiing, snow ball fights, snowmobiling and easter eggs.

We didn't even bother to go to church even though there was an LDS meetinghouse in Ketchum.