The spring holidays are upon us again. Passover and Easter are both observed by my family. It makes one ponder about religions all together. Why do we have them? And more importantly, why do we need them? And the traditions that we follow. Everyone knows that the Easter bunny has nothing to with Easter. And yet it’s as much a part of the holiday as matzoh is to Passover. Of course, the fleeing Israelites didn’t have this iteration of unleavened bread. Matzoh is a cracker more than unleavened bread. And all products made with flour must be purged from the house to relive the suffering of our ancestors. Yet we sit in climate controlled houses and eat meat butchered by someone else and we have the means to buy this food. Not a whole lot of suffering going on. So why do we do this? Why do we celebrate holidays that are a mash-up of pagan religions and hard to believe miracles?
Because being human is a gift that we really don’t understand. Some OTHER bestowed on us our journey. A pre-ordained journey to explain the unexplainable. But we all must take a step back and not just worship by rote. We must really look at our gift and try to make sense of it without thinking it is someone else’s doing. This is our lives given to us by nature. A miracle that is more of a miracle than any we can dream up. More so than any bible stories. So the tradition of holidays is all well and good as a reason to be with family and share a meal. But we should bless every day that we have been given the miracle of life and living our wondrous existence.
