It's Good Friday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar, when Jesus Christ died on the cross so that the sins of humanity could be forgiven.
We're also halfway through Passover, the eight-day Jewish celebration to mark their freedom from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
Sadly, fewer and fewer Canadians like to talk about the holy party of holidays or the Christ part of Christmas. Santa has taken over Christmas, the Easter Bunny (a rabbit that delivers eggs? Who came up with this?) and a chocolate overdose is now what's so great about Easter for many kids and the rest of the year's holidays have been mostly reduced to just another day off work.
Public recognition of holy and sacred people, things or days is frowned upon today, as if there's something foul about celebrating anything that's above the normal and the every day. The word divine is thrown around to describe shoes or a good meal, instead of being properly applied to deeply personal and spiritual experiences.
This shouldn't be mistaken as a cry to return to the good ol' days of that ol' time religion. As Alain de Botton so articulately argues in his book Religion For Atheists, there's plenty to love about religion without being religious.
Strip away the dogma and the ideology - in other words, the worst parts - of religion and what's left is a common sense respect for the rights and welfare of individuals, family and community. Even the fiercest atheists have to admit the last five of the Ten Commandments are pretty sound.
The hate for religion is misplaced. Religious institutions deserve criticism, as do specific religious traditions, but religions at their core were formed to unite cultures and societies with common morals and beliefs. Those goals are as worthy today as they've ever been.
Some may argue that upholding those kind of core social standards is an infringement of individual rights and the first step down the road to tyranny but that's nonsense. Individual rights have a limit when they infringe upon the rights of the community and the law is the new holy book, containing the written code for what is acceptable and unacceptable in our modern secular society.
The law also points to the things that are still holy and sacred in today's world. Whether you believe in one god or many or none at all, whatever faith you may practice or not, we can all unite in believing in the sanctity of fairness, respect, truth, justice and forgiveness.
These words still have meaning and power in a healthy society.
Whether the rejoicing sounds in your home on Easter Sunday are ones of hallelujah and praise to the god of your belief or ones of thanks from the kids for another great Easter egg hunt (or both), please take time on the holy day to reflect on those sacred ideals that separate us from the animals in the forest.
