Happy Easter... I think?

Yesterday was Easter Sunday.  I wrote this post yesterday, and it wouldn't publish.  So, now I'm trying again.  Bear with me.

The kids woke to find a Thai blessing bowl with assorted chocolates - some of which were shaped like eggs, but not actually Easter eggs (Kinder eggs), some of which were Easter chocolates imported from France, and not a single anything that was shaped like a bunny.  They didn't really ask where the bowls (no baskets to be seen) came from, they were just happy to have chocolate before breakfast. 

Later in the day (after a totally not Easter brunch and a trip to the DVD shop), we went to some friends' house for an Easter egg hunt.  Again, the children super enjoyed running around the yard,  gathering up colorful plastic eggs filled with surprises - chocolate hearts (no, no bulk bags of chocolate eggs to be bought in this town), stickers, m&ms and gummy bears.  There was some mention of a bunny having been seen hopping away, but the frenzy of 6 children running around a yard more able to find things than ever before in their lives, put any stories or questions as to the origin of this magical activity in the background.  Again, more chocolate?  Yay! Mom gets the gummy bears.

So, we have just "celebrated" the most secular Easter ever, perhaps.  And again, I find myself a little annoyed with myself and wondering what were doing. 

On Saturday night before I went to bed, I asked Joel if he would put the bowls together for the kids.  Yes, he said.  Then I asked what we would tell the kids about these bowls.  It was late, and Joel shrugged.  He didn't really know or care - especially not at that point in the day. 

Joel grew up celebrating religious traditions which are not a part of our created family life.  So there's no, "this is what I did growing up, let's do the same with our kids" for him when it comes to Easter.

I grew up celebrating Latvian traditions with roots in the natural world.  Celebrating the spring equinox, the change of the seasons, the rebirth of plants and animals; it all still makes sense to me.  The traditions feel close to my heart and like ones that I am happy to pass on to our children.  So why aren't I? 

It's the dissonance of tradition and reality.  I grew up in an environment (Michigan) very similar to the environment the traditions hail from (Latvia).  The spring equinox is the spring equinox.  But, here is southeast Asia, it's not spring.   If anything most plants seem to be ending a cycle right now, as leaves scatter in massive quantities.  The weather is generally hot, though it was a wonderfully,  surpringly cool weekend this weekend. 

So, celebrating the beginning of spring,  when that is not what I am surrounded by, just seems odd.  While local Laos holidays don't generally appeal to me, it is understandable that the next big holiday, the new year, will be celebrated with water - both to cool off, and to welcome the wet season. It makes sense. 

So...happy Easter?  Happy equinox?  Happy beginning of the hot season?  Happy day of chocolate.  :)