Here comes the … large … bunny
So what do you call a 6-foot-tall anthropomorphic white rabbit wearing a bright green bowtie and a candy-striped vest who shows up at an event involving young children seeking colored eggs stashed in various secluded places?
Good guess, but there’s a chance you’d be wrong.
Truth is, we weren’t sure anymore either, after the City of El Centro’s Community Services Department held its Spring Fling Festival March 23 at the Conrad Harrison Youth Center.
In reviewing the flier for the children’s event we couldn’t help notice that amid the flowers and bunnies in the illustrations and the activities listed, the term Easter was carefully and conspicuously avoided.
So instead of Easter egg decorating, children simply engaged in “egg decorating.” Instead of an Easter egg hunt, it was an “egg hunt.” Apparently in this context, kids are to understand the practices of coloring eggs and later hunting them originated organically. A farmer woke up one day and decided, “You know what I think I’ll do? Before I eat my breakfast, I’m going to paint it and then hide it — give it a sporting chance. … Better yet. I’ll turn the whole project over to a giant bunny.”
Thank goodness Gene Autry recorded that song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” way back in the day or we might not know what to call that critter.
No word on whether there are plans to drop the term Easter from other traditions that are popular this time of year.
Perhaps we’ll resort to calling Easter bonnets what they really are: oversized, wind-catching hats — Anglo sombreros, perhaps?
And what about Easter parades? A spring stroll for the conspicuously overdressed?
If it’s all the same to our readers, we’d like to keep calling Easter, Easter.
And we suspect most folks feel pretty much the same way, whether the day has religious significance to them or not.
Many Americans are weary of having values and traditions they cherish undermined through a small but oppressive cultural watchdog system that’s managed to consolidate power and influence through advances in social media and information technology.
How weary are they? They elected a thrice-married billionaire with considerably more money than tact to fight back on their behalf.
There’s no way a man with Donald Trump’s personal history gets elected president without tapping into the rage festering in Middle America over a sense of disenfranchisement. Simply put, they wanted to feel like someone “gets” them.
Enter Trump. “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct,” he said at the first Republican presidential debate back in 2015. “I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either.”
Recent evidence suggests this is still true. Some 18.2 million viewers tuned in Tuesday to the season premiere of Roseanne, back on television after a nearly 21-year hiatus.
Needless to say, it was a ratings triumph leading to an immediate renewal for another season from ABC.
Star Roseanne Barr is an avid Trump supporter and notably NOT politically correct. The Hollywood Reporter disclosed the blue-collar sitcom “really overperformed in Middle America.” The three highest performing cities nationwide were Tulsa, Okla.; Cincinnati, and Kansas City, Mo.
If nothing else, those results suggest the Midwest is more nostalgic than the rest of the country.
But that’s an overly romantic take on it.
Show us someone who’s nostalgic, and we’ll show you someone who is very attached to a certain way of thinking.
Not all traditions deserve to last, but as we see it, society has gotten far too indiscriminate in choosing its battles.
Which is one reason we’re still content to say, Happy Easter.