Bunnies and chocolate and baskets, oh my!

I went to the supermarket the other day to pick up a few things we needed for a small get-together at our house. A few aisles into the store, I came across the holiday aisle, and it pulsated and glowed with pastel-colored tinfoil, colorful Easter baskets, brightly wrapped egg-shaped candy, hard marshmallow chicks and jelly beans.  Parked at the end of that same aisle was a bargain cart loaded up with Valentine’s Day merchandise, all clearance priced.

I love the holidays, any of them. Maybe it’s because there’s color-coordinated candy that goes along with most of them. I often wonder who thinks up the different themes. I mean think about it; we all know the actual reason for Easter. It’s a day for celebration for Christians everywhere, as well as a day to reflect upon a sorrowful and somber occasion. Who took that and ran with it, coming up with hidden eggs, bunny rabbits and jelly beans as a way to celebrate? I mean I’m not complaining about the candy but still, you have to wonder. Who decided that Easter was the time to dye, then hide, then find, eggs?

I think the most bizzare Easter candy I’ve seen on the shelves is the chocolate crosses, the tools of  crucifixion.  I just can’t do it, even if it’s filled with peanut butter. Somebody got their signals crossed on that one.

I know. I should lighten up.

Carole Townsend is also a Gwinnett Daily Post staff correspondent and author of the recently-released book, “Southern Fried White Trash.” The book takes a humorous look at families and how we behave when thrown together for weddings, funerals and holidays. She has been quoted on msnbc.com, in the LA Times, USA Today and the Christian Science Monitor, been featured on FOX 5 News and CNN, and is often a guest on television and radio shows nationwide.

I don't get the connection between Baby Ruths and Easter.

How on earth did M&M Mars and Nestle get in on the Easter thing? How about Jellybeans or Skittles? What's that all about? Do you know that I actually saw a chocolate cross packaged in cellophane and cardboard in the Easter basket section at our favorite big-box retailer yesterday? A cross! The symbol of the most painful, heartless, cruel death man has ever concocted. I wonder if there was a smaller package of chocolate marshmallow nails near the cross. Jesus has to be puzzled, and more than a little disappointed.

Without getting too preachy or sounding like a thumper, Easter is a miracle. It's a gift. It was born of the most selfless love ever known, and it involved pain, humiliation and a horrible, protracted death. So of course, we make a chocolate cross to commemorate the occasion.

I am just as guilty as anyone else of propagating the chocolate/Easter connection. I absolutely love creating beautiful Easter baskets for everyone in my family, including my husband and grown children. I guess I always will. I suppose somewhere along the way Man, in all his wisdom and self indulgence, figured that chocolate makes everything better, more palatable if you will.

Today is Good Friday. I never understood that name, all things considered. But even more importantly, Sunday is Easter. Chocolate bunnies everywhere will get eaten one ear at a time. Millions of jellybeans will be devoured, and truckloads of eggs will be colored, deviled and consumed. Hopefully, during all the hullabaloo, we will each pause and consider what all this is really about.

And to the guy who thought up the chocolate cross, I dunno dude. Seems in awfully bad taste to me.