Modern Trinity: Santa, Fairy & Bunny
I’m sorry God, but I can’t understand the Christian religious festivals and the deities celebrated concurrently, by Christians themselves, on these supposedly special days.
I simply cannot fathom the link between a fat, bearded man in a red suit and the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and my mind is completely reeling at any potential similarity between the death and resurrection of this same man with a bunny that litters chocolate about the place. Although with a small amount of research, it’s easy to ascertain that Santa Claus and Easter Bunny have no remote connection to the Christian faith at all. It would seem that both Santa Claus and Easter Bunny/Eggs all pre-date Christianity. I would have expected Christians never to allow these pagan festivals to form part of their religious celebrations, yet that is not what appears to have happened.
Is the Christian faith so weak in its fundamental meaning for most of the Western world that Jesus’ story hasn’t managed to diminish a pagan festival involving some eggs and a rabbit? Is it the case that the crucifixion of a human being and his subsequent resurrection is unable to outdo a fertility celebration? Surely when our world population is in the billions, a fertility festival is hardly necessary. The fertility goddess wins, though, because it would seem that Resurrection Sunday is all about chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, chocolate bilbies, chocolate footballs, chocolate-whatever-you-can-think-of... and with four kids, this chocolate bunny and egg worshipping is an absolute hyperactive nightmare. Where’s the religious festival here? Oh, but how could I have forgotten Hot Cross Buns? Hot Cross Buns put the Good into Good Friday one yeast-filled-cross injection at a time; although Sunday’s chocolate madness has invaded that now too. There’s no death and resurrection of chocolate and there were probably too many kids picking out the sultanas from the original bun version anyway. Of course, all the Christian parents shall claim Easter is all about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yes, yes, the chocolates are just a bit of fun for the kids. What do the Christian kids think about on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday that is different to the non-Christian kids, then? I’m guessing the thought patterns are the same for kids from both Christian and non-Christian beliefs regardless of verbal parental input: chocolate!
Let me get this straight in my head, though: the commemoration of Jesus’ death, where he submitted to an unjust execution and then rose from the dead three days later, couldn’t surpass the fertility festival. Rose from the dead? Are you kidding me? An innocent man was hung on a cross until he was dead and then he actually came back to life? What does one guy have to do here on Earth to be more influential than a fertility celebration involving a rabbit and coloured eggs? Poor guy that Jesus...after all he endured; he’s still playing second fiddle to a chocolate-pooping hare. Wow, if his death couldn’t beat a bunny after 2,000-odd years, then his contentious legitimacy and subdued birth was never going to stand a chance against a friendly, fat chap handing out gifts to children. Father Christmas wins that festival hands down without Christ’s birth getting much of a look-in. It’s really no contest on that one, is it? And that is how December appears every single year. Baby Jesus has been relegated to cards and carols and even has to share that with Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer.
What is perplexing is Christians’ choice to embrace these pagan festivals so whole-heartedly and somehow justify to themselves their doing so. Father Christmas, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy have all become modern deities; they are worshipped as gods by Western society. Christians, atheists and other religious groups worship these deities too. Two children aged five and eight years, left the house for a sleepover recently telling me that they knew Santa Claus was not real. They returned the following day, having spent the night at the house of a Christian believer, to inform me that Santa Claus was, in fact, absolutely real. At a recent Christmas luncheon, I was making my annual disparaging remarks about the Western world’s collective trickery of our children, when one Christian believer at the table shushed me saying that her children, standing a bit too close for comfort, still believed in Santa Claus and she wanted to get a few more years out of it. Oops, OK, but why? Why?! I do not understand it. What do the children gain from it? A bit of fun? Really? These are the tech generation kids that don’t do anything without fun. Come on, think about it! They don’t stand in a queue for three minutes unless they’re having fun with a Nintendo DS, iPad, iphone or some other contraption. They’re having huge fun-filled birthday parties from aged one and probably every year thereafter. They’re born into fun and it’s difficult to claim they’re ever missing out on it. There has to be a real reason a belief in these deities is perpetuated by adults.
What sort of indoctrination is going on here? What would the Christian God think about Christian involvement in these beliefs? I’m sure a biblical belief issomething like “You shall not lie” along with “You may worship no other god than me.” These modern deities are certainly held aloft by society as gods. People may scoff and deny that they’re gods, but please pause for a moment and consider that Santa Claus’s effigy is on windows, lawns, rooftops, cars, computer screens, clothing, ear-rings, and hats from around October to December every year. The Easter Bunny is on display to an increasing capacity on many levels. I see more eggs and bunnies every Easter than I do religious crosses. The Tooth Fairy is a perpetual deity that isn’t restricted to any one time of the year, but he’s still been commemorated in movies by Hollywood. Have these three conjured deities become gods? No, what rubbish! Hang on a minute, let’s have a closer look and ask some questions about these characters:
Does an acknowledgement of one of these deities make a person act in a certain way? Well, except for the coins under pillows, chocolate eggs in the garden, gift-filled sacks at the end of the bed or under the tree, no of course not.
Does a person become a proponent of the existence of these deities? Yes, but only when the kids are within earshot.
Does a person feel a sense of guilt when you fail to abide by the customs of these deities? My ADHD son is on a strict sugar-free diet, but I just break it for him once a year at Easter time so he can find the eggs in the garden with the other kids. My daughter is diabetic and Easter is such a difficult time of year – I feel so mean. The kids are going to feel like Santa ripped them off this year, but money has just been so tight; I guess I’ll just buy a couple more on credit card. Oh, I forgot to put the money under the pillow – what sort of parent am I?
That’s a god. And none of those three gods are the God of the Bible.
An acknowledgement of any of these three specific deities in our Western culture forces most of the mainstream population to function in a particular, and therefore predictable, manner. That’s exactly why deities are created. Egyptian history had some 3,000 or more deities in its mythology, many new ones created by the reigning king of the day to control the behaviour of the masses. When there was an attempted takeover and “Christianisation” of Egypt around 400 AD, the Christians simply burnt the state library to the ground so there was not a written record of these deities. Then they installed “God” as the deity of the day. Now, ironically, in the apparent current Christian society we have new deities popping up, in addition to “God”, that are also accepted by Christian followers.
Christians seem opposed to any proposed restrictions to their religious holiday decorations, yet they’ve been sharing their religious festivals with other deities for years. What’s all the fuss about? So there’s not a “Merry Christmas” sign or a nativity scene in the local mall? Santa took that top spot years ago. Have the Christians been placing Jesus’ manger scene in lights on their front lawns or have they just displayed the regular candy canes and reindeer? How hard have Christians actually tried to keep Christmas as a religious festival? Christmas carol nights are some religious songs interspersed with renditions of “Santa Claus is coming to town” or “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer” and I’ve witnessed many Christians happily singing along to these.
As the days of the Easter deity are being heralded on the near horizon, I ponder that perhaps it’s time for humanity to completely stop worshipping the fertility bunny so that the ever-expanding worldwide population can be calmed somewhat to let Mother Nature catch up with humanity’s toll on the Earth. I also refuse to again mistakenly worship yet another deity that is advocated by Christians, and this time, by non-Christians alike. I do not wish to perpetuate a myth to my children that offers them no long-term substance to their life and encourages superficiality. I believe, and openly state within children’s earshot, that God is as real as Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. When the Christians later tell their children that they’ve been tricking them all these years about the fake trinity, I don’t need to argue the existence of God’s trinity to my own kids. After all, there is more obvious physical evidence to suggest to children that Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy are real than there is evidence to suggest that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are real.