Throughout all of last week, I heard people saying, “Happy Easter!” in a way one would say, “Merry Christmas!” throughout the entire month of December. After 19 years on this earth, I still do not understand Easter as a secular holiday.

The commercialization of the day, and the need to make it into a retail “season,” absolutely perplexes me. While many observed Sunday as a day with religious meaning, what were others celebrating?

Spring?

Then why not celebrate on the first official day of spring?

Why hitch the corporate wagon onto another religious day and use it as an excuse to market springtime when there are several other logical days throughout the season that could occur?

The fact that businesses are treating Easter with the “Christmas in July” approach is nonsense. Stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target, advertising blowout sales on toys and encouraging children to make wish lists doesn’t make sense. I was in Wal-Mart recently and the store even had Easter-themed wrapping paper a couple of paces away from the toy aisles.

This practice makes sense at Christmastime. The Wise Men brought Jesus gifts, so let’s incorporate gift giving into the holiday. At least part of the commercialization derived from the religious holiday.

But where in the original Easter story does it say anything that could result in a commercial practice that involves kids asking for an Xbox for Easter and a giant bunny will hide it in a basket in the yard?

I’m willing to overlook the corporate hijacking of Christmas and the creation of Santa Clause – who derived from the story of St. Nicholas.

But the Easter Bunny? Really? I want to know who came up with the idea of a rabbit that lays eggs filled with candy instead of baby chickens, and how that became the unofficial mascot of a national holiday.

I mean, yes, the rabbit fits the whole spring theme, but it has nothing to do with what Easter is really about.

I love spring, I do, but for businesses to commercialize a religious day in order to make a profit off consumer America’s spring fever is absurd. Trust me, I’m the first one out of bed in the morning when there’s candy involved, but I truly do not understand Easter as a secular “holiday.”