Here's proof

It might have snowed on Monday, and it might be unseasonable cold, but here's proof that spring is here.

New ideas for an old tradition

I get Christmas.

I get that the traditions, though some may have had a pagan past, can be tied to the reason we celebrate: the birth and life of the Savior of the world. 

Like others, I can equate Christmas trees with the evergreen of eternal life, candy canes with shepherd's crooks, gifts with the gift of His son by our Heavenly Father and the gift of redemption that came from Christ's atoning sacrifice. From that, I get that the holly berries can represent the blood of Christ, and that lights -- on the trees, on the houses and on candles, represent the Light of the World whose birth was announced by a star.

The traditions reinforce the message.

But I have a little problem with a little Easter tradition.

I have no idea how a bunch of kids scrambling to get more eggs than each other, has anything whatsoever remotely, distantly, in any way related to the idea of Easter.

We never did the community hunts in our family. We hid eggs around the house for the tradition, with an equal number marked for each child and if you found one that wasn't yours, you left it for the next person to find. 

Eggs first represented Easter because they bring new life and that we can understand and embrace.

But I've covered community egg hunts for a few years now, and I don't get how we're encouraging kids to grab as many as they can, even if others don't get as many, or how parents can hassle organizers when their kids don't get enough, or how kids can cry if they don't have as many as they wanted. 

Neither does the little girl in the center of this picture I took at Centerville's scramble this year.

How about if the eggs are really hidden around an entire park, not just plopped in a flat field, meaning you have to go looking and work for what you get.

How about if each child can only gather four or five, meaning everyone is equally valued.

How about if every child who gathers eggs goes looking for someone who doesn't have any yet and gives them all to away. Meaning sharing. And sacrifice.

Just a thought.