For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 26, 2016

Ask a simple question to a parent, you get a lengthy answer.

“Mommy, where did I come from?” Somewhat lengthy and realistic answer to a five-year old. "Oh, Sally says she came from Boston.

So yeah, mom answers the question she things was asked, but gives no answer useful to the child.

Sorry, very old joke.

That’s what you tell your kid? Somebody is light headed for the books.

On the money, Elizabeth

You’ve got to be the sharpest comic strip writer, because you are very thoughtful, Lynn——to me anyway……………….from a fellow Canadian…EH!

Like a lot of religious customs, this was borrowed (look up Nowruz) then overlaid with appropriate symbolism.

According to Eastern Orthodox tradition: According to the tradition, everyone visiting the Emperor was supposed to bring him a gift. Rich and influential people, of course, brought expensive gifts whereas the poor offered whatever they could afford. Mary Magdalene took an egg to the Emperor’s palace and handed it to Tiberius Caesar with the greeting: “Christ is risen!”

Tiberius Caesar, naturally, could not believe what he heard and responded to her: “How could anyone ever rise from the dead? It is as impossible as that white egg to turn red.” While Tiberius was speaking these words, the egg in the hand of Mary Magdalene began changing color until it finally became bright red.

Thus the Pascha greeting — in universal Christendom, both East and West — has ever since remained “Christ is risen!” and it became traditional for Christians throughout the world to color eggs in red.

The decorating of eggs pre-dates the story of Jesus by some 3000 years. Originally it was to celebrate Ostara or the festival of Ishtar (pronounced “es -tar” in Arabicm and later refered to as Oestra by the Celts) the Goddess of fertility and prosperity.

The symbol of the egg as a sign of fertility carried over int the Jewish religion, where among the orthodox it is still traditional to place a decorated in the water of a female baby’s first bath in the belief that this will cause her to become a good mother when she grows up.

Incidently, in the original Babylonian tradition, the shell of the egg was originally decorated with blood from the infants unbilical cord at birth. Then the rabbit or hare, which was the sacred animal of of Ishtar / Oestra, was thought to collect the decorated eggs and bring them to the Goddess to be protected.

Would it kill her to tie it in to The Resurrection of The Lord? Or had political correctness already asserted itself back then?

Eggs have nothing to do with Christianity other than man made traditions with no basis in fact. The same as with Santa Claus, nothing to do with Christmas. I seriously doubt Christ would be thrilled at the way we spend money on new Easter Outfits (which kids wear once and outgrow them) and candy. I thought we were to love and care for each other, not spend on ourselves to show off.

The dyed egg was left outside the cave where Jesus’ body lay. When they came to collect the egg they found the rock before the cave was moved. Then Jesus came out and saw his shadow there was another four weeks of winter.

Whatever happened to the one who used to post those fantastic photos of pysanky?

So here’s the real story — Colored eggs are left out in the carrot patch, and the most sincere collection gets a visit from the Great Daucus carota, who will bring gifts of chocolate bunnies to all the good children of the world.

To answer her question…I don’t know…..

HAPPY EASTER

Why do the longest answers begin with “I don’t know”? Because few people can resist the primal urge to spout BS to cover up their ignorance and uncertainty

The pointing up to the sky when holding forth – I’ve noticed John doing the same thing when pontificating. In 70+ years I’ve not seen this before. Is it a Canadian thing?

Bloviate. A great word, recently used by the Des Moines Register and Tribune to describe a certain presidential candidate.

I was gonna say “just google it” but then I remembered this is an olde strip.

Kids like simple,short answers to questions about the mysteries of life.Grownups,not so much.

Then again,if you don’t bloviate a bit ,they’ll keep pestering you with follow up questions!