Easter is over. Still, the sounds of children chomping on chocolate and gnawing at jelly beans lingers in the air. Yet even after these memories of munching dissipate, the emotional trauma brought on by the Easter Bunny and his other holiday friends will remain.
Christians everywhere memorialize the resurrection of Christ through the celebration of Easter. I have no complaints about this aspect of the holiday. Rather, I simply loathe the Easter Bunny and all his candy covered paws stand for. Not only does our furry friend undermine the religious meaning of the holiday, he exemplifies society's tendency to commercialize and capitalize every aspect of American tradition.
The rebellious rabbit's worse crime, however, rests in his very spirit. Many people naturally associate the Easter Bunny spirit with displays of innocence and generosity. The bunny brings neither in his basket, unfortunately. Aside from distracting children form the true meaning of Easter, he actually promotes moral, as well as tooth, decay. Kids cling to candy-coated fantasies instead of religious doctrine. The Easter Bunny serves as a harbinger of greed and girth in a society where salivation supercedes salvation.
For many parents, however, the expression of innocent trust on an enthusiastic believer's face eclipses all these unpleasantries. Or perhaps these parents simply harbor more self-serving motives. Maybe they merely enjoy the exhilarating ego trip associated with lying so successfully. I am not afraid to admit I get a distinct kick out of pulling something over on someone. This ecstasy increases with the number of people duped and the number of people involved in the duping. And I know I am not the only mischevious person on the planet.
Certainly the Easter Bunny and all his imaginary friends exemplify the ultimate betrayal of trust. Think about it! Children know nothing about the world except what they learn about it from others. Adults twist this trust as they perform pernicious acts of deceit. The whole world works hard to con an entire generation.
Naturally, children grow to question the validity of what they have been told. I remember asking my dad, in my 3-year-old innocence, just how the Easter Bunny manages to deliver an entire world's worth of candy in only one night. He replied by producing a globe, a flashlight and the biggest lie I have ever heard. He explained in a lengthy dissertation that the flashlight represents the sun, and the globe the earth. He then demonstrated how the sun can only light one side of the world at a time, proving that the Easter Bunny actually has 24 hours to complete his sweet-stashing.
This technical explanation, complete with props certainly satisfied my curiosity. But I do not believe that alleviating my anxiety was foremost in my father's mind. Rather, I believe that he, like many parents, simply enjoys imparting his vast store of knowledge to someone who has none.
While this extended deceit feeds parents' egos, making them feel omniscient, children everywhere undergo victimization. Eventually, all children discover they have been cruelly conned and trade in their blind trust for disgust. This conflicts with a parents need to feel useful. I witnessed such a scene this past Sunday.
"There is no Easter Bunny!" a little girl defiantly declared.
Her mother's eyes welled up with tears. "Who told you that, honey?" she asked.
"Look, I'm not stupid!" the girl answered angrily.
"Don't take that tone with me young lady! And just remember, the Easter Bunny only comes to little girls who believe in him."
The entire display sickened me. I felt rage toward this mother who displayed interest only in concealing the truth from her daughter. As a last attempt to regain control, the mother threatened to deprive the girl simply because she realized the truth.
Certainly the daughter responded a bit snappily. But I sympathize completely with her anger and disillusionment. When I abandoned my own belief of the Easter Bunny in the third grade, I became completely disenchanted. It never occurred to me to question the verity of the world as my parents presented it to me. With a new-found awareness that I had been the victim of cruel conniving, I soon developed a hardened, distrustful attitude toward such frivolity. The look on that young girl's face mirrored my own deep pain of past betrayal.
I neglected to mention the previous scene took place in a church. What an appropriate background. For while this battle of bad faith occurred, a priest stood in front of his congregation, possibly packing the ultimate whopper involving a man who died, only to rise again three days later -- and anyone who doesn't believe this doesn't get to go to heaven. How ironic! How can this poor girl ever distinguish between fact and fiction? She has been lied to about the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Is she only to assume that God is a lie too?
The Easter Bunny is the manifestation of a society obsessed with corrupting its youth. Enough doubt and deceit exist in the world without creating more. Let's kill the rabbit!
