I just had a houseguest for two days. I was amazed that she gave me a shocked face and said she was "shocked that we celebrate Easter." She’s an agnostic, Science teacher and graduate of Cornell. I was even more shocked by her attitude.
Do you get a similar attitude and how do you handle it?
Never until just last night at dinner.
I told my husband that we were going over to have dinner with some friends on Easter. He asked why.
This launched into a conversation about why they celebrated Easter because they are non-religious and why we were going over there because we’re atheists. I reminded him that we’ve decorated eggs and had dinner as a family every year and that before our daughter was born and we lived near family we always had dinner with them on Easter. He still seemed confused but pretty much dropped it. We’ve never gone to church but we have a kid. She likes to color eggs and she likes candy. Our friends invited us over for dinner. I just didn’t see the big deal and he’s never balked at any Christmas celebrations. It was a little weird but hey, we’re both a little weird anyway. 
No one else has ever asked me this and if they did I’d probably just say that I grew up in a secular home and we always celebrated holidays in a secular way and I’m just carrying on my family’s traditions. Because that’s the truth.
August 16th, 2009 at 12:10 am
No, they’ve asked me why I *don’t*.
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August 16th, 2009 at 12:15 am
It’s for pretty much the same reason that monotheists hold their weekly holy meetings on the days for worshipping Freya, Saturn or the Sun.
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August 16th, 2009 at 12:50 am
you’re going to have to ask her cuz i’m an atheist and i don’t celebrate easter
but i celebrate christmas
why? cuz christmas now has nothing to do with jesus. it’s all a marketing holiday.
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August 16th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Christmas and easter have nothing to do with christianity, they have been stolen.
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August 16th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Say Xmas and Easter isn’t about christians anymore.It’s all about presents
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August 16th, 2009 at 3:03 am
It’s not a religious holiday. It’s a federal holiday, and it is a cultural event. There was celebrations of spring long before angry Romans were nailing Jews to trees.
I don’t understand why secular progressives can’t continue the tradition of holiday theft as illustrated by the Christians.
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August 16th, 2009 at 3:39 am
No, I rarely get comments on the holidays that I choose to celebrate. Sorry about your house guest though, I just don’t get not celebrating (secularly, of course) a "religious holiday". Then too many of us have religious families and being with family is important.
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August 16th, 2009 at 4:15 am
It’s hard to not celebrate Easter in some sort of way. There are religious aspects of Easter that I do not celebrate with my family, but there’s also a traditional aspect that I do. For example, painting Easter eggs. Plus, I need some excuse for eating Peep after Peep…
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August 16th, 2009 at 4:38 am
I didn’t give up my entire cultural heritage when I realized God didn’t exist. I still love the Big Bunny and Santa.
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August 16th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Nope. Not really.
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August 16th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Rituals are a way of keeping in touch with the past, irregardless of your sincerely held-belief systems. Traditions often have a way of disappearing from the American Landscape because people want to assign their own meanings to them instead of the simple need to never disconnect entirely from the past.
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August 16th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Nobody in the real world has ever wondered that about me. And I was raised by atheist parents, with atheist friends and a very atheist environment.
We always do Christmas, and sorta Easter too. It’s fun.
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August 16th, 2009 at 6:21 am
No, not yet!
((((Laptop))))
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August 16th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Yes. But that’s because they think I don’t deserve presents. I just laugh and play with my dolls.
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August 16th, 2009 at 6:55 am
No
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August 16th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Well I don’t celebrate either….I just eat the chocolate rabbits and Yule…
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August 16th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Easter and christmas are regarded in most christian oriented countries as just another day to have a holiday and a meal with family and friends, no different from birthdays really, I am not required to believe in someone to celebrate their birthday am I
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August 16th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that there will be Atheists attending Easter services with their families over the weekend. Some of them will even have the nerve to go take the eucharist as if it was an hors d’oveure at a cocktail party. Then there are all those folks that just go to church to show off their Easter outfits. How do you express your Christian humility by dressing up in colors that look like the fires of hell? Some of these females are dressed like Soleme, and I wonder at one point during the services will they decide to dance at the altar and plead for John’s head on a plate for Herod.
Then there are the muscle bound thugs that looked like they just fell off the back of an army truck. Roman gladiators. I tend to move away when I see them. No metal detectors to get in. You never know when these guys are going to go nuts and think they are back in Iraq and wipe out the entire crowd with a military issued firearm. If they wear an over sized overcoat, they could sneak a sawed off shotgun or an Uzi under that coat and blow every one there away.
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August 16th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Never until just last night at dinner.
I told my husband that we were going over to have dinner with some friends on Easter. He asked why.
This launched into a conversation about why they celebrated Easter because they are non-religious and why we were going over there because we’re atheists. I reminded him that we’ve decorated eggs and had dinner as a family every year and that before our daughter was born and we lived near family we always had dinner with them on Easter. He still seemed confused but pretty much dropped it. We’ve never gone to church but we have a kid. She likes to color eggs and she likes candy. Our friends invited us over for dinner. I just didn’t see the big deal and he’s never balked at any Christmas celebrations. It was a little weird but hey, we’re both a little weird anyway.
No one else has ever asked me this and if they did I’d probably just say that I grew up in a secular home and we always celebrated holidays in a secular way and I’m just carrying on my family’s traditions. Because that’s the truth.
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August 16th, 2009 at 9:50 am
They should cause it contradicts their beliefs.
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