Easter
1:23-
"Why don't we have school tomorrow, Donnie?" Charlie asked as he and his big brother walked home from school.
"'Cause tomorrow's Good Friday." Donnie replied with the wisdom of his eleven years.
Charlie giggled. "An' a Friday without school is a good Friday."
Donnie ruffled Charlie's hair. "I thought you liked school, Buddy."
Charlie shrugged. "I like learning new stuff. But some of the other kids are mean." Charlie looked down at his feet and sighed, then looked back at Donnie. "What's Easter? Billy said I was weird because I don't celebrate Easter."
"Billy's weird," Donnie scoffed. "We're Jewish, and Easter isn't a Jewish holiday."
"Oh. Mommy buys Easter candy."
"Yeah, and she puts up a Christmas tree too. And we don't believe in Christmas. I think some of the stuff you just do because everybody else is doing it, you know?"
"We're not s'posed to do stuff just because everyone else does it."
"This is different, Squirt. See, most of the people in this country are Christians. So they have these holidays, like Christmas and Easter, and everybody kind of celebrates 'em, even if they don't believe in it, just 'cause most people are celebrating 'em. Get it?"
Charlie scowled and shook his head. "Not really." He suddenly grinned. "But I like the jelly beans!"
Donnie laughed and put his arm around his little brother's shoulders. "Me too. And the peeps. You gotta have peeps for Easter!"
"Yeah," Charlie grinned. "You gotta have peeps!"