You’ve all seen it, heck, many of you have willingly participated in it.
I’m talking about the community or church sponsored Easter egg free-for-alls. Why in the world do we tolerate and condone the usually violent, poor natured, running, smashing, and grabbing, hitting, swinging and slashing of Easter egg baskets, associated with these “hunts”?
I imagine it is done everywhere. Volunteers purchase, cook, color and scatter multitudes of eggs on the lawns of city parks. Hundreds if not thousands of kids, parents and grandparents arrive and mill around, elders giving instructions to their offspring on strategy. Finally, the big moment, heck as often as not one charged up kid makes a break for it ten minutes early and everyone else, thinking they are going to miss out, join the melee.
Half of the eggs are destroyed in the stampede. Children in their spanking new Easter outfits join in, or are the victims of pushing, shoving and trampling. Often you’ll even see adults flying through the short folks grabbing and smashing with their tot in tow.
It’s over in less that a minute, bleeding, tattered and torn children stumble around dazedly looking for their families. Some of the bigger kids will have a half-dozen eggs in their Easter baskets, many of the smaller children in tears because they didn’t get any. Regrettably, I have even seen normally placid adults nearly come to blows with each other over the actions of each others children.
What an ugly way to celebrate a Christian holiday! What does this teach our children? That the bigger you are, the more aggressive you are, the more eggs you get?
Just so’s ya know there Mr. waskowe wabbit, if you come around our house, you’re likely to be hippity-hopping down the road at a mite quicker pace and a with a burning backside as a reminder to pass our peaceful home by next year!
