Happy Easter!

'Tis the season for resurrection... including this blog!

When I was teaching kids over in Japan, I always dreaded the looming, cottontailed-specter of Easter-themed lessons. Of all the mainstream U.S. holidays, Easter boasts the most bizarre amalgam of characters and celebrations.

Halloween is spooky: witches and ghosts, costumes and candy. Valentine’s Day is romantic: cherubs and hearts, cards and candy. Both simple enough. Both have candy.

Sure, they are actually woven from a rich tapestry of history, religion, and culture, but even in modern America, most people don’t really know or care much about that (for worse or worse). I didn’t feel too bad sparing a Japanese 10-year-old a dissertation about Samhain or Christian martyrs and cutting right to the arts-and-crafts.

Christmas was tricky, but if I’m being honest, I would usually take the easy way out and skip over the whole Christ part in favor of his rotund, jolly capitalist stand-in with the higher global Q-Rating and the bag of toys. Most people were already incredulous enough when I told them we didn’t eat KFC and cake for Christmas, so I had to pick my battles, Jesus, I’m sorry!

Then, we got to Easter. Again, Jesus never really got a great foothold in Japan, so setting aside the minor issue of The Resurrection, I was left with rabbits, eggs, candy, and flowers, I guess? It was a nightmare to try and explain what in God’s name tarnation we were celebrating back in the ol’ U.S. of A. I’d try to make it a general springtime thing and toss in some egg-coloring worksheet for good measure, assuring well-intentioned students and teachers alike that, yes, the crazy foreigner was aware that rabbits don’t lay eggs. At least it had candy.

So, here we are once again celebrating Easter in all its glory! As I have been blessed to have a deluge of new subscriptions lately (relatively speaking ha) and no shortage of ideas I’ve been meaning to hatch, it has inspired me to finally resurrect this humble blog. I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming content and has a very happy holiday… however it is they celebrate it.