I IMMEDIATELY got into the Easter mood. What is the Easter mood? Funny enough, I’ve never felt it until now.
I mean, there is the Christmas mood, the feteing mood and I have to admit that I am even in the 50th Anniversary mood. But this Easter mood thingis a first for me.
The bunnies probably have a lot to do with this warm, fuzzy feeling inside. I mean, who could look at a bunny and not feel cuddly? Well, I shouldn’t ask that question too loudly because there are some among us who look at a bunny and feel a different kind of feeling inside: the feeling of satisfaction.
Imagine eating a fuzzy bunny. Cuhdear! For me, that would be like eating a puppy. Bunny meat. It doesn’t even sound right; so much so that people have to say “rabbit meat” as if to shield their consciences from the cutie patootie bunny wunny.
Would you eat a bunny?
A bunny farmer maintains that bunny meat is the cleanest meat.I don’t care. I not eating no bunny. Look all around you. It’s Easter Season. Pink, blue and yellow bunnie abound. I asked the farmer if his sales go up during Easter and he surmised that it is because of Lent that his sales are slower. But I think it’s because we can’t bear to eat bunnies during this time.
But, to each his own. I remember my grandmother going to Jerusalem and eating camel. In fact, someone told her it would beef her up; and she deduced that it was beef. When she found out that her vehicle was in her stomach, she couldn’t stomach it. She was ill for the remainder of the holiday.
Look, there are some things I would never eat – iguana, agouti, frog,mongoose – all those things that may be considered delicacies. My constitution is too delicate for those things. Added to that, they are considered “wild meat”. A domesticated bunny is a companion, a pet. So, to my farmer friend, I’m very sorry, but I cannot support your bunny-butchering practices.
Anyway, don’t think that all I pay attention to during Easter is the plight of the bunny. I know some advertisers would like to make it as commercial an event as Christmas, but there is a certain sacred curtain that has not been trespassed during this time. There is no willy-nilly shopping, no materialistic gift exchange, no wild celebration with ham and grog. If there is, then it is on a much smaller scale than Christmas. And may it evermore be so.
Commercialism has the potential to spoil a good thing. This is why I kinda frighten for my Cuban friends. As much as we would like to criticise Castro’s Cuba, there is a pristine purity of the people who have not been sullied by things like the big brands and The Kardashians and the desire to get all material things at all costs. Cuba is like that fuzzy bunny sitting in my friend’s farm . . . waiting to be bred and butchered.
Veoma Ali is an author, broadcaster, advertising exec and, most important, a karaoke lover.
