Here’s how I did it: I’ve been composing a genetics exam all day, and updating stuff for a review session tomorrow. And in a little bit, I’m going to sit down with a cup of tea and watch Cosmos.
The best way to celebrate? Leave Jesus and church out of it. Also, no magic eggs.
There will be chocolate, yes?
NO. NO CHOCOLATE, EITHER.
We did beer & BBQ
WHY NO CHOCOLATE?
ARE YOU SOME KIND OF COMMIE??
*cough*
Sorry. Something in my throat.
—
Aren’t you in Mormonland?
Hurriedly hides half-eaten bunny in freezer.
The Redhead had to have lamb, so we ordered take-out from our local family restaurant. I had pork.
No chocolate here either.
No chocolate??? That’s downright UNAMERICAN!
We only had rabbit droppings. Rich dark ones.
Lofty
Have you discussed chocolate with blf?
What kind of tea tho?
I graded a test, watched a snake mating ball in the backyard for awhile, got upset at Call The Midwife, and am now watching Cosmos. Oh, and have been laughing my head off at Muppet Christ Superstar, which is pretty much just what it sounds like.
I wonder if they planned to show the Cosmos episode that directly attacks Ussher on Easter?
We celebrated with brunch: huevos rancheros, fresh fruit and mimosas.
That was about it, though. After the food (and champagne) coma wore off, I even got a bit of work done!
I went to the supermarket and looked at the half price eggs, but sadly they were all cheap milk chocolate. No decent dark choc on sale. However, tonight our houseguests are making us bacon & egg pie and lemon meringue icecream for dinner.
You know, P Zed, the greatest gift you could give us is instruction on how to be prepared for the risen Christ… so how do we use biopsy needles and where do we get them?
(I assume the beheading via machete is the same for all zombies.)
No chocolate here, either. Boy had four hot cross buns, but I can’t eat those. I ran the wife to a friends at 8:30 am and got caught in the traffic at a Catholic Church. Maybe it was the crackers or the wine, but the people leaving the church seemed confused or dazed and basically unable to operate a car.
Other than that, just kicking back and enjoying 420 Day…ah yes, the perfect tea.
I don’t give a F about jebus, why would I ? Is anybody here give F about jebus ?
I’ve been drinking tea and working on a quilt. Now I’m gonna get some more tea, and lie down with a book. No chocolate in da house.
Some of us prefer double-tapping with shotgun slugs. Some traditionalists prefer a more robust solution.
Feather?
Flower?
Hi Alethea!
Alethea!
*confetti*
It seems silly to live in a country full of Christians and still not enjoy the heathen parts of their holidays. I plan to share a chocolate covered egg with my fertility goddess.
I spend it as I usually do, at the local SF convention. I was on a panel on sexuality, politics and religion, though it turned out to be a bit big a topic for one hour.
If Brach’s would just come out with Chocolate Easter Squid PZ would be ALL over it.
PZ:
No chocolate?
(marks Chocolate Octopus off the list of possible xmas presents for PZ)
Yes. There WILL be chocolate here. Quite a bit of it.
chigau
Can’t My mouth is full and suspicious brown stains have appeared on my finger tips. Mmf mmmf mumble mmm. I’ve discovered a brown log with a minty centre on the kitchen bench, da bunny must have been through the herb garden.
Drinking Faxe Strong Beer and eating a slice of pepperoni… reading Megan Hustad’s, “More Than Conquerors, a memoir of lost arguments”, a delightful Easter treat from a missionary’s daughter (to this preacher’s son.) Making homemade pizza, then watching some more of Michael Apted’s series… we are at 28 Up now….. would like to be watching Full Metal Jacket for Easter but my wife thinks that is addled thinking…. She’s such a mushy….so Apted. (Oh, I downed a choco Coffee Crisp earlier today… on my knees…. slobbering…..praise be.)
Stayed inside for the most part. The stores would be closed and the restaurants would be packed. It was a beta test weekend for an MMORPG called Wildstar which I joined. I enjoy it. It remembers that games are supposed to be for fun. I made lunch for work for the coming week, did laundry, and watched Cosmos. Not a bad weekend.
On Monday, chocolate will be cheap, if picked over. It will be much like the day after Valentines Day, with lower-quality chocolate. Remember that chocolate is supposed to have mood-enhancing qualities (it enhances my mood, even if the chemicals in it are insufficient). Sugar! Cocoa! Fat!
When Minnesota finally reaches tolerable temperatures (this weekend was pretty good, but it takes a week or so …) barbecue can take over. (I’m at the same latitude as PZ, but he gets the warm air first. UNFAIR!)
I ate the last few of a bag of chocolate chips, but not because of Easter. Fried chicken for dinner, then drove down to the river and watched bats.
Hi Chigau! Hi Carlie!
I don’t care about Jebus, but I do care about the long weekend, and the folk festival which brings our annual visitors to town. I LOVE our Easter rituals – it’s dinner with old uni friends, too much whisky, hot cross buns, chocolate, the works. Nothing remotely Jesussy anywhere.
There is a British Store in town, where I can buy bee Yoo tee full chocolate, no carnauba wax or yucky additives, just great English, Scottish or Irish dairy in ’em. Not a lot of dark chocolate, though. And because there are no preservatives, it all goes on sale tomorrow to beat the expiry dates.
It’s funny when self-proclaimed atheists who supposedly don’t believe in God go out of their way to make sure to continually mention how much they don’t believe in God. I’ll note that you don’t do this with all other religions and their holidays. I’ll also note that Christians don’t go out of their ways to continually mention that they aren’t celebrating the holidays of those religions they don’t follow.
Cider. Chocolate. Smoked brisket.
And matzoh.
#35,
You should buy a notebook so your notes are retained for future generations.
Alethea!!!!
*pouncehugs*
Green Thursday we had spinach! Because it’s such a ridiculous tradition 99% of people don’t even know why they are supposed to follow it. Also because I love spinach (with bacon, and eggs)
Good Friday is supposed to be about torture and suffering, so we made the kids clean up their room. There was lots of wailing and crying. Coincidentially we even had a vegetarian meal. Käsespätzle with fresh bear’s garlic in the batter.
Saturday we coloured eggs and made a sweet bread. And we had salmon, pasta and aspargus in crème fraiche.
Sunday we went for an easteregg hunt (me being the bunny. Yes, I wore fluffy ears) and lunch at my in-laws as usually.
And yes, there’s lots of chocolate all around. And we’ll eat lots of hard-boiled eggs.
Today I need a bit of rest and I need to work on a report.
Nunov Yuzbiznez
Why not? Atheists can talk about whatever they bloody want, without some damned spook berating them for it.
Atheism. Try it, it’s liberating.
There’s a reason for that: it’s Christians who are continually trying to impose their beliefs on almost all the atheists who comment here, because these atheists almost all live in countries where it is Christians who have the numbers and political power to make that a feasible goal.
I ate chocolate, redecorated some furniture, and watched Tim Minchin’s Woody Allen Jesus several times. Highly appropriate for zombie day.
It’s Easter?
{Goes back to studying}
Louis
Surely some mistake?
As a Brit who hasn’t tried USA chocolate I can’t say whether ours is superior to yours, but ours is significantly inferior to the chocolate found in mainland Europe.
Belgian chocolate is the one with the great reputation but most of the mainland chocolate I have tried is superior to the British muck.
Nunov Yuzbiznez:
Other than, yanno, every time they mention that their god is the only way, the only path to heaven, the only truth, etc.
In other words, pretty much all the time.
And, really, next year pay attention around midwinter at the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” biz – you’ll see tons of Good Olde ‘Merican Christians not only proudly proclaiming their non-celebration of Funny Furrin R’legions, but their insistence on everyone else falling into line about it.
To put it another way, as Arnold Rimmer said in Red Dwarf “With all due respect, sir, you’ve got your head right up your big fat arse.”
@35
‘Self proclaimed atheist’ – What other type is there?
‘Supposedly don’t believe in god’ – Ah, that’s right. we are all lying about the subject.
I live in a culture where soccer is regarded almost as a religion and you will often hear non-soccer people bemoan the pervasiveness of the game and how they are gonna ignore the big game.
Having something that you don’t care for being foisted on you as part of the mainstream can lead you to frequently discussing how much of a pain in the arse the whole thing is.
Personally, I spent Easter trying to get my recalcitrant Piaggio up and running. All I can say for sure is:
1) It’s something to do with the starter
2) It’s not a fuse (including the ‘hidden fuse’*)
3) It’s beyond my meager mechanical skills to correct.
*there is a fuse incorporated in the starter relay assembly, which is beneath a bodywork panel, under a frame shelf, inside a rubberized cover, inside the relay assembly itself – which, in the words of one of the Modern Vespa chatroom posters “requires the hands of a vascular surgeon” to open. Even with online pictorial instructions, it still took me three tries to get into the damn thing.
…I sense I’m oversharing…
Bob Dowling,
One chocolate consumer’s opinion:
I lived in the US for a brief time and tried their chocolate. From a UK/European perspective the bulk of what I sampled would not be classified here as “chocolate” but more “brown candle wax”. The same went for beer which was more “cold gnat’s piss” versus our “beer”. That said, there were notable, excellent exceptions even back then (early 90s). In fact, I’d go as far to say that the excellent exceptions just required only a modicum more effort to find and compared well with anything UKian/European.
Having also lived in France, I’d make a similar argument re British chocolate (and much food). The average quality is higher IMO in mainland Europe. Certain things seem to be taken more seriously. That said, the food revolution of the last few decades in the UK is making those once rare exceptions much more common. Obviously it’s a function of economic privilege, but it’s relatively easy to get incredible food and choccy here in the UK nowadays.
Louis
Myself and several other non-believers held a sunrise service on the #1 tee box at our local golf course. Had the course almost to ourselves for some reason.
No “magic eggs”? I wasn’t aware there was such a thing. Magical delivery via rabbit, perhaps, but I had never heard that the eggs were anything but eggs.
For me, I either ignore Easter, or I drive the hundred miles to my mother’s childhood hometown where the folks who make up that particular subtribe of mine have an Easter shindig with egg hunt and beer hunt. So this year I did that. Made a potato fritata afterwards for my mother.
Easter dinner is an unknown concept to me. As a child it was always frozen fish sticks as that would usually be the only think in the freezer after the three hour drive home from my grandparents. We always had school on Monday and my mother would *never* let us miss a day of school for any reason.
I haven’t tried British chocolate, but I have partaken of the Unsanian substance of that name. Based on that experience I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the British stuff is much better than that.
Hershey’s almost manages to make disgusting chocolate. I didn’t know this was even possible.
It took a lot of practice, but they got there.
On Friday I bought a bar of Green & Black’s dark chocolate. This is my annual chocolate purchase: 85% cocoa. It’ll last me more than a week because it’s so bitter I can’t eat more than one piece a day. That one piece, however, is utterly delicious.
Wow. So exactly not the same. In no way, shape, or form is saying “I celebrated Christmas” the same as saying “Here’s what I did to not celebrate Ramadan.” Aren’t you embarrassed for yourself for posting something so completely illogical and stupid?
I did. It wasn’t.
Nunov Yuzbiznez
You didn’t try very hard, did you? Go back to your comfortable fug if it saves you from having frightening thoughts.
Look in the mirror. Many atheists do celebrate religious holidays, as it is a reason to do something other than the same old routine (my preference actually). The Redhead is an atheist, but a holiday is a holiday. If Easter, lamb must be present, so she got lamb….
Yeah, I guess I wasn’t a true Scotsman… er… atheist.
Your best response is “I know you are, but what am I?”
Good for them. Dawkins likes celebrating Christmas and singing Christmas hymns/carols, too. Perhaps those atheists who don’t want to celebrate religious holidays could just shut the bleep up and stop trying to convince us just how much of “holier than thou” (so to speak) atheists they think they are. Regarding those that don’t (like PZ), one has to wonder who they’re really trying to convince: others or themselves.
Nunov Yuzbiznez:
I live in small town America. We are constantly reminded that we’re supposed to celebrate these goddamn Christian holidays — that’s why they get mentioned here. You Christians do not keep this crap to yourselves. As was mentioned up above (and dismissed by you), Christmas is the worst — that’s the time of year your ilk will judge and condemn if someone doesn’t use the appropriately religious Christian greeting.
You may also notice that I did not stomp into any of the churches here on Easter Sunday to blow raspberries at the preacher and congregation…yet here you are, on a proudly atheist blog, sneering and throwing around lies and just generally acting like an asshole. A fucking Christian asshole.
You do your religion a real service here, making it precisely clear what you’re like.
No, PZ, you’re not reminded that you are **SUPPOSED** to do anything. Church signs at Christmas do not say “Celebrate Jesus’ birth OR ELSE!” You don’t get Easter cards from family members and friends that say “Jesus rose from the dead and if you don’t celebrate it, you’re going to Hell!” Honestly, if I lived in a heavily Jewish or Muslim area and said I was “constantly reminded that we’re supposed to celebrate these g.d. Jewish/Muslim holidays,” I’d be painted as a hyperbolic bigot, and rightfully so! No one is forcing you to celebrate anything, PZ. No one is forcing you to go to church. No one is forcing anything on you. We’re just expecting you to afford us the same bloody tolerance you expect us to afford you. See, what you are is nothing more than an anti-Christian bigot and a hypocrite.
Coming here to expose your self-righteous, self-glorifying bloviating about not celebrating a Christian holiday is not anything like stomping into a church to harass the congregants. Those congregants are not going out in public and self-righteously proclaiming “Look at us! We’re celebrating Easter! Aren’t we great for doing so?” Can’t say I’ve ever heard any pastor criticizing atheists for not celebrating Easter.
I don’t see you complaining when people are criticized for not using the “proper” Hanukkah and Ramadan greetings. Funny that…
Your last line is hilariously ironic. You do atheism a real service here, too, and make it precisely clear what YOU’RE like. You are a hate-filled, vulgar jerk who can dish out gobs of criticism, but can’t take the teeniest, tiniest bit in return. In essence, you have the mentality of a bratty child. You refuse to see it, though, because of your arrogance. In your teeny, tiny world between your ears, you are god and you are always right and everyone else is wrong, especially when they dare disagree with you. I really hope you don’t live out the rest of your life without ever looking in a mirror and seeing that angry, hateful, accusing finger pointing back at yourself. That would be a sad, pathetic end to a currently sad, pathetic little man who thinks far, far too much of himself.
Ban away!
Nunov Yuzbiznez , a sad, pathetic little man who thinks far, far too much of himself.
Really, it’s not like I live in a place where it is forbidden by law to host a dance or open your club on Good Friday.
Really, nobody trying to shove their religious opinion on how I have to spend that day down my throat.
I’d like to see christians react to laws prohibiting the operating of restaurants during Rhamadan and forbidding work on Saturdays to accomodate more than just christians…
Oh, well.
Nunov Yuzbiznez @ 52:
And ask yourself why your average western Christian doesn’t even have to mention that they didn’t do anything for Ramadan and you might have the faintest inkling of my point, glimpsed in the distance as it sails over your head.
If you don’t think a great many Christians are smugly superior about not celebrating other religious holidays – and are put out about other people celebrating them – I suggest you brush up on your current events. Here’s a hint: Hobby Lobby.
If you don’t think that any sort of actual faith in Christianity involves a steadfast refusal of the truth of any and all other religions (and therefore anything other than a completely hypocritical celebration of their religious festivals) than I’d like to know what color the sky is in your world.
It’s just amazing how much your sort freaks out when someone mentions that they’re not giving your religion the ass-kissing you believe it deserves. All PZ did was mention he wasn’t celebrating Easter. If you honestly don’t have a problem with him not doing so… what the hell are you doing here?
If you’re honestly tolerant of his choice to not celebrate Easter… why are you posting?
Protip: if your religion was more impressive, we’d be more impressed.