Holiday Shmoliday, its Traditions that matter

I have been really struggling with the Easter holiday.

To give you some context, I am not terribly religious. Not agnostic per se, but just more apathetic. I got married in a church, but the husband's family is very religious so that was important. In preparation for the wedding we went to church for a bit -- that phase also coincided with post-9/11 inner trauma that I think a lot of people were dealing with. It was nice to have a community. To go some where and see some smiling faces. I didn't really latch on to the religious aspects, but I did like the feeling in there.

To me, Easter is really just another Sunday. I was originally thinking that I would go to the gym and make some stuffed shells. My usual Sunday routine.

Now with the two kids I have to start thinking about how we are going to celebrate this holiday. A friend asked me if we do the "easter basket thing"? A look of horror flashed across my face, "easter basket thing, crap, what is that" I thought to myself. Then in the recess of my mind, I remember waking up Easter morning to a basket of goodies. Hmmm, do I want my kids to have that?

So is that what Easter is...just a reason to give kids candy? Seems superfluous. Maybe I should skip it. Then I become the stingy Mom who never gives her kids candy.

Surely, I think to myself, there is a deeper meaning to Easter. But for the life of me, I could not draw the connection between the bunny and Jesus. A woman on my mom's board had to tell me. (My Catholic father's nose would be bright red with fury if I told him that.)

So what should I do then, as someone who doesn't really practice religion? Do I start practicing consumerism? Because seriously, all these holidays have just morphed into ways for us to consume superfluously. Christmas, clearly consumerized. Easter, bunny & egg crap in every store. St. Patty's Day, you have to wear green! Halloween -- the king of all consumer holidays -- candy, costumes and decorations!

But then, I realized you have to create your own way to celebrate holidays. And maybe its nothing to do with religion and nothing to do with consumerism. But its our way, our family way, of celebrating -- hence creating a tradition. What a fascinating idea. I start doing something, and then my kids can carry it on.

I realize now, that I am already doing this on other holidays. For instance, my mom always makes the seafood meal on Christmas Eve -- an Italian tradition. I started doing the same this year.

So, for Easter I embraced the same thought. Today we had the 1st Annual McChung Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a blast. Granted the hunt lasted about three minutes, but the post-Hunt debrief was about 25 minutes when they opened all the eggs and found toys and treats.

Nothing religious, nothing over the top, just us hanging out with some friends, enjoying the kids and starting a tradition.