Easter In Disguise: Rediscovering The Meaning Behind Lenten Traditions
(REVIEW) What is Easter? In our consumerist society, the religious message is all too often overlooked, even though many of the popular English Easter customs owe their origins to Easter celebrations.
Thousands of hot cross buns are eaten during Lent and Easter. Good Friday is linked inextricably with the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which is why spiced hot cross buns are marked with a cross on top. Modern buns are a derivation of Alban Buns, devised by a medieval monk, Brother Thomas Rocliffe of St. Albans Abbey, to feed the poor on Good Friday, and are still made in St Albans using the original recipe.
Equally popular are Easter eggs, with over 80 million purchased for the festival. As symbols of rebirth and the resurrection of Jesus, eggs are an essential part of U.K. Easter celebrations.
READ: 5 Facts About The Origins Of Modern-Day Easter Traditions
During the medieval period, eggs were forbidden during Lent, so eating them at Easter was a real treat. To celebrate, eggs were decorated in bright colours and given as gifts. Nowadays, children are often told the Easter Bunny delivers the eggs on Easter Day, provided they have been good children. Easter egg Hunts are held everywhere, from public gardens to historic houses.
Egg rolls became increasingly popular and are believed to have originated as a symbol of rolling the stone away from the front of Jesus’ tomb. Children would roll a decorated egg down a hill to see whose egg rolled the furthest without breaking.
Such races still take place in some parts of England, although chocolate eggs are more likely to be used. The biggest event is held in Preston in central England, where thousands of people gather to roll hard-boiled or chocolate eggs down steep slopes as well as enjoying workshops, performances and the appearance of wacky characters.
While these traditions were originally linked to spiritual truths of the season, over the generations, many have lost their religious connections. It is easy to forget the meaning of Easter. Nottingham-based Sister Liz Dodd, a Catholic nun within the Order of St Joseph of Peace, is seeking to remedy that omission.
By adopting the title “Easter in Disguise” for her newly released book, Sister Liz Dodd is advocating a very different approach. Recognizing that Lent can be very performative, often focusing on giving up a favorite food like chocolate, she set out to explore the real meaning of Lent and Easter. Such an attitude is not surprising since her order focuses on peace through justice, and Dodd has previously addressed the United Nations about migration issues.
Pointing out that “Easter is the vindication of God’s reign of peace and justice,” she said, “The spiritualities I explore in my book throughout Lent — poverty, peacemaking and so on — look often like they end in defeat, just like Jesus’ ministry. But we know our nonviolent God is victorious: gentle in the garden, not raging from the Cross. That means that God’s call to justice and peace — protest and poverty is victorious too. We live these spiritualities because they bring us deeper into the heart of God, and that is why they succeed. Even when the world seems dark, spring flowers are ready to burst out of the soil.’
Writing on Lent, she highlights the radical way Jesus lived and died, challenging readers to try out a similar radical discipleship. Her suggestions include engaging people in practical ways to focus on poverty, hospitality, peacemaking, protest and solidarity.
With the advent of Easter Week, justice comes to the forefront.
“What really inspired me was the way Jesus lived his last week,” she said. “Between the entry into Jerusalem and the Passion, Jesus doubles down on his spiritualities of Justice. He says that God wants justice, not worship, and he identifies himself with the hungry, the homeless and the naked. He overturns the whole structure of power and authority, for the sake of the oppressed, and dies for it.”
She added: “We had a rule that the priest could only wash men’s feet. It became a way of reinforcing structures of power that already existed. I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant. Pope Francis used the service to wash the feet of refugees, prisoners, men and women. It broke the mould, and I think it gets at the heart of what Jesus meant: God’s kingdom is one where the last are first, and the oppressed are freed, and power is upside down.”
As a result, she has encourages a much more revolutionary approach to Holy Week studies. Instead of traditional foot washing and last supper Sister Dodd is encouraging people to host a potluck with strangers; try out alternative stations of the cross to pray for refugees, victims of war or racism; and practice a “radical sabbath” of rest on Easter Sunday.
Dodd ends with the simple recommendation.
“Make space for the rhythm of Holy Week, however it’s celebrated in your tradition. Slow down, take intentional time with God,” she added. “Relish the stillness before the celebration.”
Angela Youngman is a freelance journalist who has written for a wide range of British and international publications.