For the past few years at Easter, I’ve done an Easter cartoon. Some have been more humorous than others, but all have tended to fall on the ‘dark side’ of humour. See here and here for two examples.

For this year’s Easter cartoon, I decided to go decidedly dark. And for good reason.

When I was young, the strongest experiences I had of Easter were the dark moments that infused the traditions of my religious upbringing: the Stations of the Cross, Passover Feasts, Stripping of the Altar services, and early morning dawn services that always began in darkness. They were powerful and emotive experiences, and fed me spiritually at that time in my life.  While we also had Easter eggs, they always came after the church bit.

Although I’ve long abandoned my traditional faith, this year, for some reason, seeing all the Easter eggs in stores hit me more keenly than other years. While I certainly don’t mind a bit of chocolate, and acknowledge they have a vague connection with the ‘new life’ concept that churches tout, there is something inherently tacky about them that repulses me. The commercial preoccupation with these shiny, sickly-sweet chocolate eggs sucks any real meaning out of Easter for me; as do the kind of sickly sweet mega-church versions of Christianity that I still see (mostly) dominating in modern Christian expression. Hence the cartoon.

I’m in no position to preach anything to Christians however, so I’ll let others more eloquent writings do that. This piece from George Armstrong says what needs to be said pretty well.

Anyway, rant over. Happy Easter everyone!