Hares, Hatters and the Dormouse

It is fitting that in Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter have tea together, for it is always tea time in Wonderland and the March Hare and the Mad Hatter are erratic and unpredictable characters.

In reality, hares were thought to have a special kind of madness in March, only because that’s when they were visible. The fields had yet to be covered with vegetation. Hares behaved no less erratic the rest of the year; it was just hidden from our view. People who made hats used mercury, which caused many of them to lose their sanity, thus the term “Mad Hatters,” who no doubt exhibited erratic behavior, just like a March Hare.

The Dormouse, in March, is still asleep. But for us, March holds a special place in our telling-of-time because it’s when the Vernal Equinox occurs, which is also known as the first day of Spring. (Although, the actual timing of the Vernal Equinox varies from year to year it always happens within the same 72-hour period.)

“Two days wrong,” sighed the Hatter. For the Church, we chose March 21 as a fixed date for the Vernal Equinox. Not that it makes a difference but now we can predict the date of Easter Day well into the future. Easter Day is the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after March 21.

And when you’re waiting for something so special, it might as well be that time has stopped, as if it is always tea time. Lent is kind of like tea time in Wonderland, without so many sweets.

I wish it was the other way around, that Hares, Hatters and Dormice were more predictable, and Easter—unpredictable.

If that were the case, then Easter for us might be more like it was for the Apostles and others who were his followers—a great surprise. I know that for us, we wonder why they didn’t get it. Imagine though, what a great shock it was to first learn of the resurrection. How totally outside of one’s personal Wonderland such news fell. How very curious it would make us.

On Easter morning this year, try to imagine that you were experiencing the news (the Good News) for the very first time.