Should my kids participate in an egg hunt on Easter?

[pianistclare]

I am the Easter bunny at our parish. My office holds $1000 worth of RCIA gifts, First Communion gifts, and Confirmation gifts, certificates, tablecloths, centerpieces, and instructional materials for all the educational programs and 8 jumbo trash bags of Easter eggs.
Anyone who would like to help fill them, tape them shut and distribute them for the chaos that is our annual tradition can PM me.
Everyone else…well, …how about worrying about something else.

 

[GEddie]

Oh heqq! Why wouldn’t you?

It’s not like Santa Claus, as even young children know rabbits don’t lay eggs.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Viki63]

If memory serves, no one ever explicitly told me that the Easter bunny laid the colored eggs, and for my own kids, we always just called it an Easter egg hunt.
But the Easter bunny is a symbol of new life, appropriate for Christ’s resurrection, and so are Easter eggs. They’re also said to be a symbol of the rock rolled away from Jesus’ tomb.

Easter eggs, bunnies, frolicking lambs, Easter lilies – all joyous expressions of the joy of Christ’s rising from the dead to open heaven for us!

.

 

[boomerang]

Let your kids be kids, for goodness’ sake!

Yes, let them participate.

There’s being a responsible parent, and there’s being a parent who thinks everything is a sin and ends up driving their kids away from the Church. Don’t be the latter.

 

[AngelusDomini]

In some parts of Europe there is an old tradition that Easter eggs come from Rome. As bells were silenced from Maundy Thursday, children were told that the bells had flown away to Rome (hence the silence); on Holy Saturday night they flew back from Rome filled with eggs which would fly out to add to the celebration of Easter when the bells would joyfully ring again. (Some stories add that the Pope had blessed the eggs, others have chocolate rabbits as well as eggs in the bells - there are a few variations.)

Eggs are symbolic of the promise of new life. Nature begins to flourish during the Spring. All easily linked to Jesus as the resurrection and the life. Unfortunately, as with ‘Santa’, religious festivals and accompanying traditions have been given a secular white-wash. (There are, of course, arguments that some of these traditions pre-date Christianity and were given a Christian spin by missionaries - but that’s a whole new discussion.) We have so many traditions which can enrich our faith - losing them and their meaning would leave us poorer.

 

[Moneyball]

Thanks everyone for your (name removed by moderator)ut. I was leaning in that direction but wasn’t sure if there was an argument against it. I’m actually surprised to see a concensus.

 

[Kelfa28]

Thanks everyone for your (name removed by moderator)ut. I was leaning in that direction but wasn’t sure if there was an argument against it. I’m actually surprised to see a concensus.

Usually, the only time of the year where everyone is divided is Halloween. Some are for it and some aren’t.

I’m in the pro-Halloween camp…but, I definitely see the argument against it and I think it’s well founded. I don’t agree…but I can understand.

But that is an argument that won’t rear it’s head for another 6 months.

I think most people have little issue with Easter Egg hunts and giving presents on Christmas.

I’m really looking forward to Easter this year.

It’s the first year I will have the time, energy and the help I’ll need to organize an egg hunt for my daughters.

My husband was supposed to work it but he took the day off and we are planning quite a day with an egg hunt, morning Mass as a family where we all can dress up and hubby is cooking a roast for dinner with some extended family coming.

 

[mikekle]

Let your kids be kids, for goodness’ sake!

Yes, let them participate.

There’s being a responsible parent, and there’s being a parent who thinks everything is a sin and ends up driving their kids away from the Church. Don’t be the latter.

I disagree about that, as a kid growing up, my parents were both strong catholics, I was forced to go to mass, and to attend catholic school, even though I had no interest in either, all my neighborhood friends went to public school and not many of their families were religious at all, but we were taught about the ‘fake’ santa claus, I didnt learn about the real reason for Christmas until I grew up a bit, as a kid, all of us thought Christmas was solely about getting new stuff, we knew we would be going to church that day, but we really didnt understand the reason.

Same thing with Easter, as children, we viewed this as a time to get lots of candy, and we believed there really was an easter bunny who went around like santa claus delivering all this candy, again, we knew we would attending church that day, but we really didnt understand why.

All of us 4 kids were forced to attend catholic school and mass every sunday, but 3 of us backslid when we became adults, I stopped going for a long time and lived a totally secular life, I think I would have felt different had I been told the truth about these things as a child, and not so much emphasis put on the ‘getting new stuff’ side of it, I eventually became very disgusted at how the retail world takes advantage of these christian holidays for nothing more than greed.

 

[Magdalen2013]

The egg is a symbol of the Resurrection – that is why we have Easter eggs. You’ll often see in icons of Mary Magdalene that she’ll have red egg in one hand.

Both St. Nicholas and the Easter Bunny represent the spirit of Charity, one of the Christian virtues we’re supposed to practice. All charity is supposed to be done in gladness of heart, which both the above entities inspire.

Both Easter and Christmas can be used to teach that being charitable can be fun. Don’t you want your children to associate virtuous actions and behavior with being happy?

 

[Allegra]

I disagree about that, as a kid growing up, my parents were both strong catholics, I was forced to go to mass, and to attend catholic school, even though I had no interest in either, all my neighborhood friends went to public school and not many of their families were religious at all, but we were taught about the ‘fake’ santa claus, I didnt learn about the real reason for Christmas until I grew up a bit, as a kid, all of us thought Christmas was solely about getting new stuff, we knew we would be going to church that day, but we really didnt understand the reason.

Same thing with Easter, as children, we viewed this as a time to get lots of candy, and we believed there really was an easter bunny who went around like santa claus delivering all this candy, again, we knew we would attending church that day, but we really didnt understand why.

All of us 4 kids were forced to attend catholic school and mass every sunday, but 3 of us backslid when we became adults, I stopped going for a long time and lived a totally secular life, I think I would have felt different had I been told the truth about these things as a child, and not so much emphasis put on the ‘getting new stuff’ side of it, I eventually became very disgusted at how the retail world takes advantage of these christian holidays for nothing more than greed.

I was raised by a very lukewarm Catholic father and a mother who was Protestant-sort-of whose main interest in Mass was a reason to get the whole family dressed up. I only attended Catholic school for one year. Even so, I managed to grasp the concept that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus and Easter was about His Resurrection.