I remember in my 4th grade Catechism class, my father joked about when Peter went into Jesus’ tomb, he exclaimed “Where are the eggs?” That was by far the best introduction to Easter I ever received. However, these days, the meaning behind the season of Lent and Easter seems to have been forgotten.

 On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, many non-Christians give some of the Christians who do partake in the season of Lent a weird look at the ashes on their forehead and often inquire about it. Now, this has become expected; however, it causes many religious teenagers to feel awkward or ostracized.

In fact, because of this situation, many teens just opt for evening mass to get their ashes or decide not receive them at all to avoid being questioned. Sometimes, teenagers feel embarrassed when they are asked why they put ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, and they don’t know the answer.

Well, behold the best answer to that question: “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Well, the ashes are a reminder of that fact.  Ash is dust, and–if we choose to be cremated–we turn to ashes, thus the ashes symbolize the fact that our lives are short, signifying what is to come after we pass.

 Following Ash Wednesday is the forty days of Lent.  One student, Hallie Takenaga (10), feels the significance of Lent is that “it is a remembrance of God’s sacrifice during the forty days and forty nights.” However, most people think you need to give up something for Lent to actually celebrate it, because Jesus went into the desert for a forty day fast.  Wrong, wrong, wrong. There are three aspects to Lent: sacrifice, service, and prayer.

 As you may have guessed, most people tend to go for the sacrifice part of Lent, and that’s okay, especially when you can indulge on Sunday. Yet, there is the service and prayer factor. It may seem insignificant,  but in reality, it is not. Last year for Lent, my father wrote a heart-warming letter a day to a person that wasn’t part of his immediate family, and he achieved forty letters for forty days. And this year, my sister decided to pray a set of the rosary each day.

 Lastly, we come to the chocolate bunny of the basket. That’s right–Easter. These days, Easter is one of those holidays where candy factories mass produce candy so people can stuff them into little plastic eggs and hide them in places so that children could find them. In essence, it has become Halloween minus the costumes. And despite how tasty Cadbury Mini Eggs are, one must still keep in mind what Easter is all about.

 Easter is the most important day of the Christian faith, for a very good reason. It is recorded in the Bible that it was the day that Jesus resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven. Of course, many people outside the Christian faith dismiss this as some sort of scheme or scam, that Jesus didn’t really rise up into the heavens.

 But, think about it–Christianity has the largest amount of adherents in the world, which is estimated about 2.4 billion people. Why else would more than one third of the world’s population believe in a single man rising in the dead? Except for Jesus, no significant religious leader died with hundreds of spectators, had a tomb blocked by a boulder and two guards keeping constant watch, then rose from the dead in the course of three days and later appeared to not only his disciples but to his people. This is what Christianity is based on. Without Jesus resurrecting, there wouldn’t be Christianity because that is the fundamental and absolute spiritual truth.

 Now I hope you guys feel inspired and remember that when you buy that chocolate bunny, keep in mind that without Easter, you would never see a bunny made of solid milk chocolate.