North Texas Daily

We all know that the marshmallow, sugar-coated Peeps are revolting. If you don’t agree with this, then you are one of the consumers of about 1.5 billion Peeps each Easter season, according to WalletHub. This makes sense when you think about the $2.4 billion made last year from Easter candy alone.

According to the National Retail Federation, last Easter was estimated to have cost $18.4 billion altogether, more than the $18.2 from Valentine’s Day. Why is Easter giving Valentine’s Day a run for its money?

As years go by each of these holidays are further diluted with capitalism, which waters down the meaning of the day. I’m not a religious person, but even I am one to ask what happened to the good Christian name of Easter?

Easter is said to be the most important Christian holiday because without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity wouldn’t be as dignified as it is. But celebrating Jesus’s resurrection is synonymous to a bunny laying pastel-colored eggs filled with chocolate and jelly beans. This correlation seems indistinct.

The history of the Easter bunny dates back to the 1700s, from German immigrants who brought the idea of a hare laying eggs and rewarding good children. Introduced to America, the idea expanded to include chocolate and other gifts. Easter eggs are supposed to be associated with the start of new life and Christ’s rise from the tomb. There are many ways you can swing the so-called traditions of Easter to fit the day Christ rose, but for me, it just seems like a reach.

Everything we consider an Easter tradition seems more like it was made for convenience or the vie for our cash. I’m not an outright Easter hater, it is a colorful family day and an opportunity to over-consume chocolate, but as time passes, I fear that we only enjoy it because our economy has forced us to. We know what we know now because it is taught and bred into us to accept the structure of our system.

According to Vox, it was customary for 13th century Christians to abstain from eating eggs, so an egg surplus put their dyeing to good use. That’s the convenience part. The vying for our money appears everywhere else, like when you walk into a Walgreen’s or Wal-Mart and there is an immediate bombardment of bright pastels and chocolate eggs. It is pushed upon us from every which way and even if you’re not big on Easter, you can’t tell me those half-off chocolate sales aren’t tempting on Easter Monday.

Even the traditions of the tradition are being lost. I don’t know too many people whose parents actually emphasized that the Easter bunny appeared because you were a good child. Everything seems purely routine these days, just because it’s Easter and that’s what we do on Easter.

I don’t doubt that there are people really grateful on Easter, and anyone who goes to church regularly can recognize the spike in attendance that day. I do think it’s important for this holiday to hold as much weight as it should to Christianity and all that the religion stands for. It might be worthwhile to not prop up capitalism in the process because, very strangely, the two have become intertwined and it isn’t the best look.

Featured Illustration: Samuel Wiggins