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An Unorthodox Easter

A different perspective on Easter

By Amanda MitchellPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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An Unorthodox Easter
Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash

My mother calls me a cashew, like the nut. Since my father is catholic and my mother is Jewish, I seem to be stuck in between the two religions. If you combine the words catholic and Jewish, we can pretend it would make a word close to cashew, right? Although neither my brother nor I were raised religiously, we do still celebrate the holidays. (I would have to argue that this is more for our grandparents sake then ours, but that is just the angsty teen in me coming out.)

Easter is going to be on April 4th this year, and with the holiday coming up, it has brought back the fond memories of how my family incorrectly celebrated it. One of which being the Easter egg hunt that my brother and I would do each year. Each year, my Jewish mother would take a bag of twenty -empty- plastic eggs and simply chuck them all into the backyard. You know how, for most people, the eggs are supposed to be hidden? Well ours literally just sat, brightly colored and shiny with morning dew, clear as day in the grass.

Now, let me explain why this was still an annual treat. My father is obsessed with his yard. He spends the same amount of money on the backyard annually, as the cost of my mothers engagement ring. Due to this, my brother and I were not allowed to walk on the grass until we were 13 years old. I’m not kidding. My father said that we would do it wrong; meaning step on a flower, pull out the grass, or make lawn angels, and ruin his hard work. Nevertheless, Easter morning, we had free range of the yard, for the time it took for us to pick up the twenty eggs that my mother so ‘carefully’ placed. It was really more a game of fetch, than a scavenger hunt, but we didn’t know or care. Once we finished, my mother would then hand us each a $25 iTunes gift card with the ‘to’ line not filled out, and the ‘from’ line saying ‘The Easter Bunny’. At least she tried, right?

I remember when I was 10 years old, my younger cousin asked what the Easter bunny had brought me. Unknowing to the oncoming tantrum, I replied with ‘a gift card’ which was apparently so absurd, that it made her doubt the possibility of a ‘magical bunny leaving eggs in people’s yards’ existing so much, that she went crying to my uncle. My uncle handled it like a professional, calmly stating, “ She's Jewish, they celebrate Easter differently.” He didn’t even bother to explain that Jewish people don’t celebrate Easter because the only Jews that she knew, did in fact seem to celebrate the holiday.

This includes my maternal grandparents seeing as they often go to my paternal grandparent’s house for Easter. My dad's side is the typical, Italian catholic household, who believe that ‘the more the merry’, so we meet at their house after our morning hunt. My mother’s side is always very appreciative to be invited and they will make sure to bring a platter to contribute to the already excessive amount of food. As a peace offering, and to show that they can blend in with the Catholics, they like to bring a meat and cheese platter. For those of you who know little about the kosher diet, this is as anti-kosher as one can get; mixing meat and cheese is highly unorthodox. Thankfully, since the holiday isn’t celebrated overtly religiously, my mother’s side doesn’t feel ostracized.

The experience of celebrating a religious holiday, without practicing or understanding the religion can be a bit strange at times but, in the long run, family is family, and a day that brings family together, whether it be religious or not, is one to celebrate. It is funny looking back on all the seemingly normal things that my family did to celebrate the holidays, now knowing how untraditional our version is.

-And if you think we celebrate Easter weird, then you need to hear about Chrismukkah.

immediate family
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Amanda Mitchell

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