I love Easter. I think I love it even more than Christmas, because Easter gives me a message of hope like no other. Had there been no Easter, the birth of Christ and Christmas would not have had much meaning.

Coming from a Communist country, Caleb has not had any experience with Easter until this year. I have struggled over the past two weeks, trying to decide if we would introduce the concept of the Easter bunny to him or not. I've never been wild about the fictional characters such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I feel they have their place, but to me they also detract from the true meaning of what to me are very special, religious holidays.

We have spent the past few days as part of our homeschooling, watching The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, which is a movie about Christ put out by our church. We can watch it with both an American Sign Language interpreter and in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles, but not both at the same time. So, on the first day we watched it the kids watched it twice, allowing for watching it in both languages. Ben was clearly moved by the story and wiped away tears at the end. Caleb seemed to really enjoy it as well. I felt that the movie was a great introduction to Caleb about what Easter really means.

Since I prefer to focus on Christ and the resurrection on Easter Sunday, we started a tradition years ago where we dyed eggs on Friday night so we could have our Easter egg hunt on Saturday. That way, all the candy and Easter baskets are out of the way (at least in my mind) by Sunday, leaving us time to focus on Christ.




This year, however, Lynn surprised us by telling us she would be coming home from college for Easter Sunday, so we decided to postpone the egg dying until Saturday night so she could join in when she arrived. As the kids colored eggs tonight, Ben asked if he could help hide them. Jeff told him that he couldn't help because the Easter bunny would be doing it while Ben was asleep. Ben just smirked at him and said, "He's not real!" Caleb looked puzzled by the whole conversation, and Micheline's ears perked up and she said, "The Easter bunny isn't really real?"

I felt like the pressure was on. Do I introduce this fictional character to Caleb? After all, he's already 11 and probably would choose not to believe the story anyway. For me, it is a huge matter of trust. I want my children to trust me when I tell them something, and don't want them later to accuse me of lying to them.

With a newly adopted child who hasn't had time to fully attach to us the same as if he had been born to us 11 years ago, it is even more important. I want our home to always be a safe and secure place where he can believe whatever I tell him. I have a friend who when she told her children that Santa Claus was not real, had a child who said, "Then did you make up the whole story about Jesus too?...because I've never seen him either!"

Meanwhile, Micheline was sitting there waiting for my reply. I told her that the Easter Bunny is a fun story, but no, he isn't really real. He doesn't really hide the eggs for everyone all over the world. She looked dismayed and said, "Then who hides the eggs and our baskets?"

What do you think? If you are a Christian and believe that Easter means the resurrection of Christ, where does the Easter Bunny fit into your celebrations? Does Easter really have to have a bunny?

related link:

Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy