By Savannah Ford | LTVN Social Media Editor
Somewhere along the way, Easter stopped feeling like it meant something and started feeling like it just looks like something.
Easter now means pastel dresses laid out the night before, Easter baskets filled with candy and photos with your family before heading out for the day. It’s chocolate bunnies, dyed eggs and Instagram captions about “new beginnings.” None of this is necessarily wrong, but it feels detached. Because for a holiday that’s supposed to center around Jesus, his name feels almost absent.
The meaning hasn’t disappeared, but it’s gotten quieter, buried underneath things that are easier to see than something deeper we’re supposed to feel.
Growing up in a Christian household, Easter meant waking up early to colorful baskets my mom had laid out for my siblings and me. It meant searching for the golden egg my dad hid with a $100 bill inside after we had painted it the night before. Then we’d get ready for church and go out for brunch.
As a kid, I was always told that Jesus’ resurrection was the entire meaning of the holiday. But that always confused me.
If that was true, why were we painting eggs and taking pictures with a bunny?
As I got older, I started to question whether we even talk about Jesus in the same sentence as Easter anymore. I see more and more posts on my feed: cute church dresses, families posing with oversized bunnies, kids running through fields hunting eggs and baskets overflowing with candy. It all looks beautiful, but when did we lose the raw, real meaning of Easter?
And to be fair, Easter isn’t the only holiday that’s shifted this way. Christmas has too, with Santa Claus often taking center stage over the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It happens.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to celebrate Easter the way we do now, to take the photos, eat the candy, hunt for eggs or wear your LoveShackFancy dress. I’ll be doing the same. I grew up in a home where my mom made every holiday feel magical, especially Easter. I loved waking up early to grab my basket, getting a head start on the egg hunt and doing crafts in Sunday school.
But I do think we shouldn’t lose sight of what Easter actually represents: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Because at its core, Easter isn’t just about tradition or aesthetics, it’s about sacrifice, redemption and the belief that we were saved.
And that meaning deserves to be just as visible as everything else.
