
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 14, 1995                   TAG: 9504210016
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HUCKSTERISM

WHAT ARE parents to do? Try as they may to follow the dictates of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. surgeon general, it's hard to convince young children of the joys of kale when there's a holiday icon like the Easter Bunny pushing chocolate rabbits, marshmallow chickens and neon-colored jelly beans.

So it's just a one-day sugar high. Why be a spoilsport?

Because unlike Santa Claus, who arguably carries an underlying message of love and kindness somewhat connected to the religious holiday he symbolizes, the Easter Bunny seems to have no socially redeeming purpose.

An agent of candy manufacturers, the Bunny's message is: Eat sweets. And these rabbits are proliferating. Now they're in the malls.

Yes, yes, we know of the Easter Bunny's ever-so-remote lineage from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring - and the association we're supposed to draw: spring, birds and bees, the fecundity of rabbits. As myth would have it, Eostre once got ticked at her favorite bird and turned it into a hare - which is why, at Easter, there's this rabbit that builds nests out of plastic grass in cellophane-wrapped Easter baskets and lays colored eggs.

Family-life-education teachers doubtless can straighten out any confusion in children's minds resulting from egg-laying rabbits. But what about the confusing benediction given all-you-can-eat sucrose, lactose and maltose?

Of course, the parent who'd try to load an Easter basket with apples and oranges or, God-forbid, carrots would be a meanie, a heartless monster - worse than the Grinch who stole Christmas. Easter is, after all, just one day.

Though a relative was known to ask, "What's up, doc?," the Bunny can hardly be blamed for the rising number of American youngsters who are seriously overweight or have rotting teeth.

Even so, if you believe that candy-eating binges can't harm children, and that the Easter Bunny's sponsors have no interest in promoting same, we know this real sweet Tooth Fairy you'll want to meet.

by CNB