Dear Maggie,

This weekend, I’m invited to Easter dinner with my family. But the problem is, I don’t celebrate Easter. I’ve found my own path and this holiday isn’t a part of it. How can I, in good faith, take part in a family celebration with all the Easter Sunday trimmings and symbolism, without betraying my own true beliefs, much less without saying anything about what I think? If I don’t go, they’ll be angry with me. If I do, I have to keep my mouth shut about my own beliefs, and that feels like a lie to me? What should I do?

Signed,

Easter Scrooge

Dear ES,

I never get over how everyone with a firm belief thinks they’re somehow obligated to share it with everyone else.

You mentioned dinner and all the traditional Easter stuff. Which includes colored eggs, and bunnies and marshmallow chicks and a big dinner, right? And what, I ask you, do ANY of those things have to do with the Christian meaning of Easter? Nothing. They’re all fertility symbols related to pre-Christian observations of the Spring Equinox. But is your family shunning them because it might betray their faith? No! Why not? Because they are fun and part of the holiday tradition, not to mention in keeping with the Universal theme of life and fertility and the return of spring, the promised, consistent triumph of life over apparent death.