What a lovely time of year this is. MLB have begun again, trees and flowers are blooming, the weather is currently quite nice, and to use a cliche, spring is in the air. I know there are things some people don’t like about spring, like pollen and bugs, but it’s still a hopeful season, and I enjoy it. It’s also home to my third favorite holiday of the year. If you’ve previously read my blog, you may have seen me post about my other two favorite holidays each year: Thanksgiving, which I value primarily because it is centered on gratitude, something to which we all need to devote more time; and New Year’s Eve/Day, because it’s an extension of the Christmas season without all the baggage, and because it represents new opportunities heading into another year. By now, you’ve probably guessed that my third favorite holiday is the one people across the globe celebrated this past weekend, Easter.

Technically, that’s Easter Sunday, according to the Catholic Church. Each day of this week on the Catholic calendar is officially tagged as “Easter _________” as part of the Octave of Easter. The Easter season itself lasts 50 days in Catholicism, culminating with Pentecost Sunday. So it’s truly another holiday season all its own, as opposed to a single day after which everyone simply moves on. Now, this post isn’t really designed as a theological lesson or some kind of evangelization imploring the reader to convert. I have plenty of friends who are non-religious and also know several people who are atheist. As someone who grew up and remains a faithful Catholic, I respect those viewpoints, so you won’t read any “He Is Risen” rhetoric here with explanation about what it should mean to your life. Although I will admit that, as a child attending early morning Mass on Easter Sunday, I did find the sun shining through the stained glass window and creating a colorful glow near the altar to be an inspiring sight. But that’s a tale for another time.

Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, I find this time of year in general, and the Easter season in particular, to be joyful. Spring itself is a time of rebirth, whether it involves leaves growing back on the trees, someone hoping this is finally the year their team succeeds, a person recommitting to their baptismal promises in church, or everyone simply cleaning the back porch in preparation for cookouts and summer activities. We could also talk about what a great time it is for sports because of all the events happening or approaching. But I don’t want to list out all the ways spring is cool or bullet out “Top 10 things I love about Easter.” I just want to focus on three aspects of the holiday that I find most appealing.

Renewal. Let’s begin with the easiest and most obvious theme. As I said, this is what the Spring season is all about. In Catholicism (and several other Christian traditions), Easter follows Lent, which is a season of self-denial, sacrifice, and simplicity in preparation for the holiday. I happen to enjoy Lent because it represents a purging of vices and things that can pollute our lives, which juxtaposes well against the emotions and themes of the Easter season. The cleansing aspect of this time of year is definitely positive. “Spring cleaning” isn’t just about clutter in the house, garage, or porch. It also can be mental, emotional, and intellectual. For many people, the idea of renewal at this time of year may also remind them to reinforce some of the New Year’s Resolutions they made in January and have let slip over the first quarter of the year. Old habits die hard, as they say, so if you’ve managed to slip back into prior routines, no better time to root them out again than the spring. Get back to eating right, or driving better or calmer, or just making time for things that matter. Renewal can really mean “refocus,” if that’s what it takes. The renewal process can be as dramatic or as subtle as needed.

Part of the renewal process for me is a change of seasons, professionally. You might’ve read my most recent post about Winterguard, for which I have handled sound and announcing for several weeks now. The Easter season typically means that this year’s season has concluded, so it’s time for me to switch gears in my VO career to other work. I can put away PA gear that I’ve carried with me every weekend and focus more on working in my booth at home and marketing my skills and services to the right people. I will still participate in some live announce gigs (I have two coming up later in the spring that I will write about in May), but now it’s all about looking for commercial and narration work. I’m particularly excited about these prospects this year because I actually have far more time to devote to these pursuits.

Shifting Calendar Dates. This one may seem odd at first, but hear me out. Everybody knows that Christmas occurs on December 25, right? Some people even get so obnoxious about it that they’ll be able to tell you exactly how many days until Christmas today, April 9. So what date does Easter occur? Can’t say for sure, right? That’s because Easter is what’s called a “movable feast.” The rule of thumb is that Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of spring. There are some very specific rules in the Catholic tradition about the date of the equinox (March 21), along with the “Paschal” full moon, but you get the idea. Easter will always occur sometime between March 22 and April 25. Yes, there’s literally over a month of variance between the earliest and latest possible dates for Easter. It’s not fixed on the calendar like Christmas or Independence Day.

Some people find the movable nature of Easter to be confusing, but I have always enjoyed it. I find a certain charm in the knowledge that this year’s date for Easter will not be the same as next year’s. I also think it’s cool when Easter is super-early or super-late in the possible window. Because it’s based on lunar cycles, that shakes things up, and I am here for it. Heck, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, they use a Julian calendar instead of a Gregorian calendar, which places Orthodox Easter on a different date. This year it’s on April 12. Call me crazy, but I think that’s cool. I also enjoy how some years, the Easter season coincides with Passover in the Jewish tradition, and some years it doesn’t. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that I spent 4 years early in my education career teaching World History and World Geography. One of the fundamental themes in both of those courses was the influence of religious beliefs and traditions on culture. Learning the nature of movable feasts in several religions was therefore emminently useful knowledge. You don’t have to memorize every rule for every religion to appreciate the influence holidays like this have on our lives, especially when it’s not a fixed, single-date holiday that comes and goes. Bring me a nice holiday season any day.

Lack of Commercialization. And more than anything, when you bring me that nice season, stop trying to convince me to buy stuff because of it. True story: one of the local morning news/lifestyle programs in Dallas ran a segment on “Easter gift ideas” last week. What?!?!? I mean, if you’re under 10-12, the old-fashioned Easter egg hunt is a fine activity. And perhaps some of the eggs will have something besides candy inside. Maybe the kids’ Easter baskets will have ONE item inside that’s not food or food-adjacent. I remember receiving a stuffed bunny wearing a baseball uniform in my Easter basket when I was 8, and it was cool. Other years, I got a couple of comic books since I often gave those up for Lent. But “Easter gifts?” You have got to be kidding me. We don’t need for Easter to become yet another gift-giving holiday.

Even as a child, one of the things I liked about Easter was the lack of things. After all, this wasn’t Jesus’ birthday. We had just spent the previous week focused on suffering and death. Easter was about resurrection from that death, but still…death, people. Not the same. Not about lights and decorations and things. Clearly a more serious message. Since you had given up something for Lent, the only “things” at Easter were whatever you had sacrificed, like the aforementioned comic, chocolate, your favorite TV show, snacks, whatever. When I was young, my family would typically go to early morning Mass on Easter Sunday (complete with stained glass glow), then we would go someplace nice for breakfast. Then it was typically back home for a nap since we got up so early. No gifts. And it was the greatest. 

Now, as a kid, I enjoyed getting Christmas gifts as much as the next guy. But Christmas was Christmas, and Easter was Easter. The Easter Bunny (or Easter Beagle, IYKYK) hides eggs; he doesn’t come down the chimney with a bag of gifts. Leave that to Santa Claus in the winter. And to this day, I still appreciate that aspect of Easter. I’ve previously written about how the Christmas season gets exhausting because there’s pressure to do things and buy stuff and do and buy and do and buy. Not so with Easter. If you’re religious, Easter is all about sacrifice and prayer leading up to it, then celebration of the miracle and all it implies for yourself in this life and the next. If you’re not religious, you can still get into the more secular aspects of Easter, like eggs and rabbits that shouldn’t go together but somehow do, or just get outside in great weather, go out to eat, and enjoy the day. And I know, capitalism, business, economic growth, yada yada. I taught that stuff for two decades. But there will be plenty of opportunities to buy things that don’t have to tie in with Easter. The U.S. is clearly a consumer-based culture, and it’s not like any business is going to wither away and die just because Easter sales fell short of the forecast.

The bottom line for me at Easter can be summed up by what my family did this year. We attended Mass, came home, and relaxed. We watched baseball on TV. We had a nice meal together. We enjoyed each other’s company. We got outside and enjoyed some great weather. As the season progresses, I have some personal goals and objectives to attend to — some related to faith, some just things to be completed, physically and intellectually — so there is a sense of renewal. And we’ll come back and do it all again a year from now, even though I can’t tell you the exact date yet. And that’s awesome.

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