Agnostic, Unitarian-Universalist, and no. Haven’t celebrated Easter since I was a kid, and even then, it was a non-religious egg and chocolate extravaganza. I’m more likely to celebrate the vernal equinox.
Seems to me that, outside of those who do observe the religious nature, it’s one of the few holidays that is really still a kids’ thing.
We do Easter baskets for the kids. My wife usually takes them to mass. I cook a nice dinner. Before we had kids, I don’t remember doing anything particular besides the dinner.
My family are atheists. My mom was raised super duper hardcore Roman Catholic, though, which is where the vaguely Christian stuff came from. (My dad is Jewish, but his people were the radical Communist atheist kind of Jew. He holds all religion in disdain, but he does like chocolate.)
Not really (I’m agnostic). I go to the family gathering, and would buy Easter baskets for my kids if I had any, but that’s as far as it would go. I wouldn’t host my own Easter dinner, or anything.
If I were to have someone to buy baskets for, I wouldn’t be celebrating any of the above. I’d be going through the motions of getting baskets, and Easter clothes, like everyone else around me, because that’s what’s done on that day, and because it’s fun, and familiar.
Atheist. My friends usually give each other chocolate, there will be hot cross buns and someone will end up wearing bunny ears but they religious aspect is nil.
I’m curious: what exactly would be a religious celebration? What you guys are describing is pretty much all my family ever did as a Christian: egg hunts and candy. Sure, we also went to church, but we did that every Sunday. And of course I was in the Easter choir, but, again, I was always in the church choir.
In other words, what special religious things are we Christians supposed to do on Easter?
Look up Lent and Holy week.
Atheist. I worship the God of Cadbury.
And this year I plan to cover some eggs in catnip for the kittehs.
IANAAtheist, but know quite a few people my age who fall into what my mother and I call “folkloric atheism/agnosticism”. The same people in her generation are “folkloric catholics”.
The label they give themselves is different; the behavior is the same: they don’t go to a Mass unless it’s attached to a wedding/baptism/funeral, but they go to religious parades, to the week of special prayers held before their local saint’s feastday, sing to “their” Virgin or “their” saint or “their” Cristo Redentor. Theology, no thanks; folklore, yes of course.
Jewish Brit. I celebrate the fact that we have a four-day weekend to get drunk three nights in a row. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are available pretty much year-round now, so even they aren’t as exciting as they were when I was younger.
I always forget which long May weekend is Easter and which one is just the May bank holiday (yes, I know one is three days and one is four days, I just can’t keep it straight in my head for some reason), so I have no idea when Easter actually is most years.
My husband and I were raised Christian but are now agnostic (him) or atheist (me). Aside from giving our son an Easter basket when he was very young a couple of times, because it was fun to have an excuse to give him a gift and also so that he’d have some vague familiarity with the custom, we don’t celebrate Easter.
While growing up, I was taught that Christmas was nice enough, but a lot of it was just for fun. The the REAL core of Christianity was expressed through Easter, a far more serious and religiously significant occasion. If Jesus hadn’t died for people’s sins and then been risen from the dead, there really wouldn’t be much to Christianity.
I don’t believe everything I was taught about religion, but I believe that, so it doesn’t make sense for me to celebrate Easter.
If someone gives me chocolate, however, it tastes just as good in the shape of an egg or bunny as it does in any other form. (Or just as bad if it is nasty waxy stuff.)
Atheist: eggs and candy, for the kids.
Neopagan.
We do Spring Equinox/Oestara as a religious holiday, and Easter as the secular family holiday it’s always been in my nominally Lutheran family of origin. (That is, Grandma’s really Lutheran, Mom hasn’t been to church since her own wedding.)
Little girls will dress in pastel dresses. Easter baskets and candy will be enjoyed. Dinner will be ham. No one goes to church. I’ll make a zombie Jesus joke and Mom will wince and Grandma won’t even notice. As it is and so may it ever be, a-ho and pass the green bean casserole, please.
The kids get chocolates. I get a day off work. And it’s one of 3 times a year where I cook a turkey.
That’s it for our celebration.
We get a long weekend so we go somewhere cool! Basically it’s a civic holiday to us, like the one we gt in Augist which is basically a day off work for the sake of a day off work.
I celebrate the spring equinox, which is usually around easter. I think it’s a shame that, just when the world is waking up from the winter, when all the green is coming, we have to have a religious holiday. Spring should be celebrated!
How I celebrate it is I write in my solarday journal, which I write in every equinox and solstice, and go out for pizza.
This atheist enjoys the day off of work with a movie!
Atheist - candy, chocolate, bunnies, eggs. Maybe. Some years it just passes by like any other day.
Sometimes Easter falls on my birthday, in which case I get unreasonably drunk. Other than that, no.
It’s the single most joyful, celebratory feast day on the Christian calendar!
Well, Lent and Holy Week do not equal Easter, although they lead up to it. Lent is a period of sober introspection and sacrifice, and Holy Week a period of somber remembrance. But Easter? It’s like the sun bursting through after a month of cloudy days. Eh, oh well I guess.
Slightly OT since I am a Christian, but since we’ve been married we’ve hosted a huge party on Easter every year. It used to be just extended family but lately we’ve had as many as 40 people crammed in our house for food and desserts, and we do an egg hunt for all the kids. We invite friends and people we know who have nowhere else to go. It’s by far the biggest gathering we host each year. I’m excited for it already, just from reading this thread.