Fertile Minds

This morning my kids asked me why they get chocolate eggs for Easter. They thought it would make more sense to eat little chocolate Jesuses; after all, they had picked up from their friends at school that Easter is all about how Jesus died, was buried and rose again.

So, we had a little lesson in "what we believe". These seem to only come when we are challenged by someone else's religious teachings. Bad, bad parents.

Anyway, we talked about ancient pagan fertility rituals...about spring and how plants and animals (and in fact, the two of them) are born in spring. We talked about eggs and rabbits being symbols of fertility and that people have been leaving gifts for the goddesses Ostara and Eostre for many many years. I even went so far as to make the link with the female hormone estrogen... a bit of a stretch for their young minds, but I think they got the basic idea.

I finished up with a lil speech about how there is room in the world for everybody's beliefs and that it's important for them to develop their own, rather than blindly following something because someone else tells you it's the right thing to do.

The boychild then announced that chocolate is his god. My work here is done.