外語中心復活節系列活動

By Armon Nakprasert, Foreign Language Center

        It is that time of year again… EASTER! Things get a little greener. The sun gets a little brighter. Animals seem more vibrant and full of life. Spring has sprung! Although spring is not my favorite season, I do appreciate its

exhilaratingly unapologetic arrival every year. Other seasons seem to slowly fade into being without much fanfare or self-awareness. Unless you live in a climate that snows, let us be honest, can you really tell the difference betweenfall and winter?  I grew up in Chicago, I knew, we all knew, when it was winter, mother nature does not like to keep you guessing in northern states in the US.

However, when I lived in Southern California for ten years before moving to Taiwan; summer, fall, winter all seem to inconsequentially dissolve into each other (even Taiwan has a more dynamic seasonal transition than “So-Cal”).

All except for spring. Spring has always been more pronounced than any other season.  Having experienced life in three drastically different climates, I can say with confidence that when spring arrives, it arrives!

                There is no better holiday to accent this robust season than Easter.  A holiday that was originally a pagan celebration of new life after the dreadful and loathsome winter where everything that died will be resuscitated back to life.

This is where the symbols of the hare and the egg come into the picture. These were pagan symbols for new life and fertility. When teaching Easter's origins to my class, my first question to my students is, “What do rabbits and eggs have to do with Jesus's resurrection?” The answer? Absolutely nothing. Some Christian scholars have tried to metaphorically link these things together, but it is just contrary to the facts. Some of my students seemed to be quite intrigued by this and asked me for a further explanation of how did these symbols become so intrinsically link with this important Christian holiday. This was the result of great marketing by Christians who wanted to convert pagans into Christianity.

Retaining some aspects of the old beliefs and customs made converting to Christianity more palpable for the pagans. This is also the reason why some strict factions of Christianity refuse to celebrate Easter with eggs and the Easter bunny. This can also be used to argue that Easter is not exclusively a religious holiday. All can partake in the joys and vitality that the spring season brings.

                Like my previous Easters activity classes, I would play games with my students once the Easter lesson is out of the way. Of course, my students were keen from experience about where I would hide eggs throughout my classrooms, this would make for a dull egg-hunt. I had to outwit my students by changing the rules (slightly) and hiding the eggs where they least expected. I was quite proud of myself, I guess as proud (shameless) and a grown man can be for outsmarting middle and high school children. I think it was more fun for me to watch my students search for eggs at my usual hiding spots only to find stale air and emptiness (priceless). We also had an Easter egg-spoon race, as well as a new addition, the egg-rolling race. We capped the lesson with a quick game of Easter bingo, which is a favorite amongst my students for the mere fact of having the opportunity to get some candy. I hope everyone has a pleasant and happy Easter as I did with my students. Happy Easter!

106班  莊斐晴

        This was not the first time I experienced Easter activity. My foreign teachers in the past taught me about this holiday. This was my first time experiencing Easter at Huey Deng in Teacher Armon's class. Like his other

holiday activity classes, it was really fun and I learned a lot about the holiday. I learned about things that I did not know before like what Easter really means to Christians. I learned about what people do on Easter. We also played games that most kids play on Easter like the Easter egg hunt. We also raced around the room trying to keep an egg from falling from our spoon. Teacher Armon called this game the Easter spoon-egg race.  His Easter activity class was really fun.

We learned a lot about Easter. I also won some candy when playing Easter bingo. Learning and playing made my classmates and me very happy.

504班  江政霖

        Today in teacher Armon's English class, we played Easter games and learned about why this holiday is important to Christians all over the world.

They were both fun and interesting. we had an egg-and-spoon race, an egg hunt, and we learned about the Easter custom of dying eggs. Most Americans,

Christians or not, like Easter, and they go on egg hunts. Teacher Armon told us that even the White House has an egg hunt every Easter. He taught us that most egg hunts do not take long, sometimes less than 5 minutes. Once all the eggs are found and put in a basket, the game is finished.

        During the egg-and-spoon race, as I pushed my egg forward with a wooden spoon, the other team tried to knock my egg out of the spoon. Even though I lost in the race, I was very happy to have played the game, it was a little difficult, but fun. I really want to try dying eggs, but of course, I do not have the color dyes and materials to do so. If I could, I would dye eggs green and red, my favorite colors. I like celebrating Easter, and I wish I can do this every year!