Iqaluit (Apr 14/03) - It's that time of year again -- when pink bunnies, coloured eggs and religious symbols are thrown into one candy-coated holiday.

But even in the North, Easter, like Christmas, is facing new challenges as commercial and religious interests collide each spring.

Captain Cyrus Blanchet, of St. George's Anglican Parish in Cambridge Bay, said churches have had to compete to some extent with the commercial aspect of the holiday.

Easter Egg hunts, and inter-denominational services have been used as ways to get people to celebrate the religious aspects of the holiday.

But like most Christian holidays there has been wide-spread commercialization hopping onto religion. And not only do churches compete against the commercialization of the holiday but also the normal community activities on Easter Sunday.

Blanchet said there is normally hockey or other events that coincide with church services.

"That probably wouldn't have happened 20 or 30 years ago," said Blanchet, who noted everything was usually closed.

Symbolic goodies

A quick hunt for historical eggs on the Internet may be a modern way of looking beyond the commercialism.

Onliners can learn that Easter, in fact, is not rooted in Christianity.

It began as a pagan holiday paying homage to Ishtar (or Easter) -- the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love and war and the Germanic goddess of spring, respectively.

Also, rabbits and coloured eggs, widely used in the modern version of the holiday, actually date back long before even Christ himself.

Did you know the Easter Bunny is the Earthly representation of the goddess?

How about the fact that eggs were a symbol of rebirth in many cultures predating Christianity?

These eggs were wrapped in gold leaf or coloured with dye and exchanged.

Easter egg hunts and inter-denominational services, including sunrise services, have long been used as ways to get people to celebrate the religious aspects of the holidays.

Of course, the service was once used to worship the Summerian Sun God Tammuz, but is now a representation of the resurrection of Christ. Back at the Parish in Cambridge Bay, there's acceptance that Christian and non-Christian aspects are melting together.

But the key, Blanchet said, is to remember what the holiday is about.

"It's about Christ."