Can't celebrate easter?

Question

My kids don't want to believe in christ. Am I being too hard by not allowing them to celebrate easter with easter eggs unless they start to go to church?

Answer 1

yeah, its not even originally a christian holiday.

It might be hard, but you have to keep in mind. Your children are their own person, free to believe in whatever they want.

Answer 2

Hunting eggs has nothing to do with believing in Christ. We celebrate Easter because it is in the Spring and represents a new beginning. Eggs came into play sometime later. If your kids don't believe in Christ, then yes, you can take them to church and maybe that will help but if they only want to hunt easter eggs,,,,then let them have at it.. Maybe do some research and tell them how eggs all of a sudden became a part of the easter story.

Answer 3

I think that if you children are denying Christ, they need to be forbidden to celebrate the day of his Resurrection. I am not sure how old your children are but as long as they live in your home and are under your roof, they need to obey your rules. Maybe if you would go to a Church that is set up for the younger people you would have better success. I know that we have always taken our children to Christian Churches that teach the word of God in an exciting way and they were never in a traditional Church. They were always in a church where we raised our hands and sang, where we celebrated the birth of a new child that was brought into the family of God. And we made sure that the Pastor and youth Pastor were good with children and teens. There is nothing worse than going to an old traditional church where none of the ways of teaching are updated and of intrest to the youth. I taught sunday school for years and we were at a small church and I only had five teenagers my first week of teaching, by the next week we had about ten. Within about four weeks we had so many teens in my class we did not have enough tables and chairs. There were about 60-75 teens in my class. The Bible is not boring, there are only boring teachers that teach it. Find a place that can turn your children on to Christ and make them excited to go to Church. Some of the Church's have a teen night where they hire Christian bands and give away t-shirts, CD's , Christian Jewerly, etc,. They have a time of teaching, the kids will put on skits, the pastor will talk, there may be a film and then the band starts and throws out gifts to the people in the audiance. It is great and you just need to find a place that gets your kids excited about Jesus!!! But until they become Christians I would deny them Christmas, Easter, and every other Christian holiday. Including Thanksgiving because the pilgrims gave thanks to God for everything on Thanksgiving day.

Answer 4

I have found this dilemma in many families. The probable reason why they dont want to believe in Christ is because of the people they encounter at church whether it be kids or other adults, they simply see Christians as unkind and unwelcoming and because of this they think that Jesus is the cause of this. I'm not sure how young your kids are, but I think you should really evaluate the friends at church your kids have, if any on the matter. You really need to make your kids feel welcomed at church whether it be by moving to a different church or trying to make your kids feel welcomed at church. Easter egg or any other holiday that is supposedly connected to Christianity has now been Hallmarked; become secularized with lots and lots of excess things that have no connection to the birth, life, and death of Jesus. I think you should allow them to celebrate if they choose to do so for I belive that it will only cause more harm on their belief in Jesus.

Answer 5

This is an interesting question. I come from an orthodox christian family, where my mom's side believes in God and goes to church and my father's side are almost atheists.

My parents let both me and my sister decide if and what we wanted to believe in. You should consider that your children have their own personality and this is a well-respected fact in society and in the doctrines of Christianity.

From a psychological point of view, trying to convince them by means of deprivation of Easter goodies can make things worse. Your children - especially if teenagers - might react just because you tell them not to. Even worse, they may as well connect the two facts - lack of easter eggs and the church/religion - in a bad way. For instance, my sister doesn't go to church just because of the bad experience she had when, as a child, she was dragged to church by my grandma wearing clothes she didn't like but were 'appropriate' for the occasion.

You can explain to your children the meaning of Easter, what it reminds people and what it symbolises. Going to the church must reflect an understanding of the holiday's meaning and the need to witness and experience it. Otherwise, it is compulsion and hypocrisy.

I don't mean to be harsh and I truly understand your worries. If you are a true christian, try to apply the teachings of the religion in your everyday life, not just with respect to yourself but also to the people around you. I hope this helps a little bit.

Good luck, happy easter :)

Answer 6

As a Christian, I find this an interesting question.

Keeping in mind that most holidays are now pretty secularized, I don't see any real point in not letting the kids enjoy the secular part of Easter (or Christmas, for that matter), even if they don't believe in Jesus Christ.

Easter Eggs and bunnies, after all, are not Christian symbols.

You might, however, consider getting something like these:

http://christiandollarstore.stores.yahoo.net/reseg.html

and including a little religious lesson in with the fun, just so that they get the real meaning of Easter as well as the fun of it.

Answer 7

Yes far too harsh, Easter Eggs were stolen as a symbol from much older religions and have little to do with churches

Answer 8

YOU are the one who should be denied the celebration of Easter, not your kids.

Easter has nothing to do with Christianity. The lessons they'd be taught in Sunday school about Easter would be lies and propaganda invented in a wholly artificial attempt to hi-jack the existing celebrations of springtime regeneration which, in one form or another has always been celebrated for its own sake. The associations Christianity impose on plurisecular Easter celebrations are utterly false.

If you wish to deny your children the chance to celebrate and appreciate the wonderful transition of natural seasons, you cannot defend the action with your religion. That would be dishonest, at the very least.

Answer 9

Considering that Easter is about celebrating the resurrection of Christ, I fully support (and congratulate you on) your decision. Others are saying that it is a pagan tradition, that may be but today it is representative of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. That is like an atheist celebrating Hanukkah for the presents.

Answer 10

You really should investigate the origins of "Easter Eggs" before you encourage your kids to take part in that. Do a money hunt instead. Haven't you ever wondered what colored eggs and bunny rabbits have to do with the Resurrection? Hard core I know but this is the one day we really should try to honor Jesus.

Answer 11

OK that's fine so don't celebrate Easter no big deal ...but sure the odd choco egg wouldn't go amiss as swallowed up big style OK its an excuse just love chocolate