I have always found Easter to be a strange holiday. I don't look forward to it like I look forward to, say, Christmas, but I usually end up enjoying it more than I expect to.

I've also always half-believed or at least not applied much critical thinking to claims that many of what we think of as Easter customs are in fact holdovers from pre-Christian springtime fertility rituals and the like.

In this week's essay, I take a look at this strange holiday and find that the case for the pagan origins of egg and hare worship might not be as strong as I once thought. I also determine that all is fair in love, war, and jelly beans.

Hope you had an enjoyable Easter yourselves (or, as your personal beliefs and practices allow, at least a nice Sunday). Thanks for reading!

-Otto