Eggs & Bunnies

My first introspection about consistency of Catholic religion and how I was positioned related to it, came up right after Carnation Revolution in 1974. Both Revolution and self-inquisition were interlinked in a way that I would not ever start questioning relevant values in my own life without the openness given by a military coup which opened the doors for freedom of speech. Before that point, my religious education, Catholic of course, was very intensive and very much close to the source. It was like so in such a way that I would become a priest with a simple finger snap if a simple finger snap would have happen⁽¹⁾.

Easter is an egg for some, a rabbit for other, nothing special for even other. The dichotomy “one god vs. pagan” or “monotheism vs. polytheism” seems not to be any longer a challenging issue or even an interesting one. As a matter of fact a real issue surrounding Easter is the amount of eggs or rabbits or, in some pluralist societies, eggs and rabbits that can be sold. As tradition is no longer what it used to be, space has been given to new life values and hence (there we are again!) priority has been given to preservation of capitalist values. What Easter seems not to be anymore for many Catholic people is the reference to death, resurrection and ascension to heaven of Jesus, the son of God.

Well, back to symbols, if we stick to the idea of resurrection (or rebirth), an egg suites fine. On the other hand, the rabbit, that means nothing more to me than a good dish – for instance Coelho À Caçador⁽²⁾ served with a good red wine which may well be a Cabeça De Burro⁽³⁾ – is a good Easter symbol as any other. In any case, Easter is not Catholics’ exclusive but I know nothing about other religions’ symbology. The power of symbology today has such a dimension that we normally live much more for the symbols than for what they are used to represent.

It is hard to deny the power of crowds or brake its force after they start moving. Does it make sense to say, even if only think, that 1.5 thousand millions of people in the world are wrong or fooled? Religion is a matter of faith, faith works pretty good for things we are not able to understand and, between the doubt of certainty and the certainty of doubt, it seems to be quite easy to put millions of Catholics (Christians in general) eating colored chocolate eggs and other millions buying or adopting cute rabbits. Not less true, the number of Catholics has not decreased and Vatican has not got less economically powerful. If Reason is supported and reinforced by the number of its practitioners, should not Reason be unquestionable? If it works with Reason, it works with religion. If it works with religion, it works with eggs. Then, for Catholics, an egg as a symbol can be placed at the very same level of the crucifix.

What I like most in Easter, more than chocolate eggs, are the sweet almonds which are sold in all groceries and pastry shops, no matter if covered by colored sugar or shining chocolate. This is my upmost fervid act of Catholicism during Easter but I will not say no to a provoking and sexy chocolate egg here and there. Sacrileges aside, although my registration through baptism in the Catholic community, when I was just a baby, I am still not able to clear up this tremendous doubt in my brain since years about the validity of declaring myself atheistic. This is consuming my soul and brings me a huge weight on top of my existence for every egg I taste or every rabbit turned to gastronomic art. Going back to my positioning from a religion stand point, I have for myself that the more politically correct attitude I should take, for my own sake, would be the one driving me to social concordance and, likewise “to Caeser what is Caeser’s, to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21), I should say “to egg what is egg’s, to bunny what is bunny’s” (The Wanderer p.664)!

May eggs and bunnies be with you…