The Easter Bunny and the Blood Moon: Two Worries

Last updated on: April 21, 2014 at 12:36 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Easter Bunny and the Blood Moon: Two Worries 2014-04-21T12:36:41-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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We live in perilous times: Putin moves on Ukraine and Iran is getting the bomb, but if you follow the signs of the times, then you already know that this is true. What signs are these?

Easter season is not just one day, but a period of time, and we are now in that time. As some theologically insightful people have already noted the start of Easter came close to American tax day and that day was marked by a blood moon over America. Lest you think that a geographically limited astronomical phenomenon has no bearing on Biblical revelation, many Americans also watched the insightful classic Here Comes Peter Cottontail.

The naive think this work of high art was part of the secularization of the holiday, but the more astute see it is a bit of subversively Christian art intended as a warning to America. Colonel Wellington B. Bunny, the incumbent Easter Bunny, hands over the reigns of power to Peter Cottontail, despite serious moral failings. He offends the more qualified Irontail, because he sees the bitterness in the heart of the more competent Irontail. Handicapped by careless children, Irontail is no cottontail and bigots have mocked him all his life.

This prophetic account narrates the handover of power from the “greatest generation” (Colonel Bunny) that fought in World War II to the Baby Boomers. There too often the choice was between the talented and irresponsible (Peter) and the talented and evil (Irontail). What had consumer culture wrought? More important, lost to all the next generation of bunnies, were the children. Eggs needed to be distributed, but neither Irontail or Peter seemed to care about the actual delivery of eggs. Instead, they engage in competition for the title Easter Bunny, but with no focus on getting the job done.

In the end, Saint Patrick (symbolically though his Day) will save “ruined” eggs and make the children happy. Easter? It is now in the hands of a Boomer Bunny who is “hippoty-hoppoty down the Bunny trail” without any of the care shown by Colonel Bunny. Give Peter a catchy tune, then he will dance. What about the children?

The crisis of the Colonel Bunny handover has now come. The greatest generation is gone and a blood moon hangs over Washington. Saint Patrick finds his day under fire in bastions like Boston. A blood moon, a red Easter egg, hangs over Washington as the Colonels leave and Peter, the Republican, and Irontail, the Democrat, dominate the scene.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail deals with green eggs and colorful eggs, but no red eggs. The Renaissance minds at Rankin/Bass saw far in the special, but not this far. The bunnies have (to paraphrase that other prophetic seasonal work Watership Down) gone to “silflay,” but not to serve.

Critics will take this post and pick at the details, but the message is the same: if you take blood moons and dates seriously, if correlation is always causation for you, you must face the obvious correlation of the moon to Easter eggs. You must recognize the easy ability to see this show Finally, is there any surprise that in our post-Rankin/Bass era that “Easter egg” has become shorthand for a hidden goodie in a video or a game?

I hope those who wrote on the blood moon will consider this correlation and build on my own humble insights.

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