As I wrote a few weeks ago, Gus has given up candy for Lent. I'm very proud of him. And this Sunday the Easter Bunny comes...but to an Orthodox home? After all, "Greek" Easter isn't for another week -- after Passover when the Resurrection actually occurred.
But we're Americans, so of course the Easter Bunny is coming to our house on Sunday, but that does raise a quandary for Gus. To keep his Lenten vow, he'll need to hold on to the candy for another week.
It rather reminds me of a great scene from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Middlesex: it is "American" Easter and the protagonist's older brother watches as his friends in the neighborhood search for hidden eggs, chomp off the heads of chocolate bunnies, and toss handfuls of jelly beans into their mouths, all while he remains sequestered in a Greek Lenten home.
Eugenides description perfectly describes the Easter frustration every Orthodox kid has felt at one time in his / her life - mine included, "Standing by the window, my brother wanted more than anything to believe in an American god, who resurrected on the right day."
One day the boys' will understand that skipping the candy for one more week is worth it. In the meantime, they can simply wish we believed in an American god.
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