holiday ambivalence

Let me be clear, I am not in any way religious. In fact, and perhaps I've mentioned this before, I would consider myself at the very least agnostic, if not atheistic. And this is why I have this weird ambivalence about Easter.

I don't want to tell little j that we are not going to celebrate, because she knows about Easter, baskets, eggs, bunnies, et cetera. But to it's very core, Easter seems to be based solely in religion. It is arguably, after all, the most important Christian holiday.

How to explain to a small child why we celebrate Easter but do not celebrate the underlying religious significance? Clearly I need to do some research on the origins of the holiday. Perhaps, we can make the holiday a celebration of spring -- although how a large bunny hiding eggs figures into that scenario I just don't know.