Vegan eyes wide open concerning holiday traditions

Coloring Easter eggs costs many lives. Read on to find out why.

It goes deeper than you think. I'm talking about the enormity of the exploitation involved in holiday celebrations. Making the connection that holiday traditions of the past are cruel and inhumane can be hard. But inventing new traditions is uplifting!

When vegans think about holidays like Easter, they see things that others may not, due to their extensive education on issues that others may not even realize exist. Take those Easter eggs. Do you have any idea how many male baby chicks were ground alive or suffocated so you can have eggs to color. It's astounding!

If you eat lamb for Easter, do you ever think about this? That was a baby who died painfully to fill your plate when they just wanted to live. The same goes for Christmas ham, Thanksgiving turkey, corned beef for St. Patrick's day, etc. All “food” animals are killed well before maturity. They're all babies. Even the whipped cream on your pie or fruit salad and the marshmallows in your sweet potatoes cost many other baby animals their lives.

(And aside from that, I'm sorry, you guys. Really I am. More so than you can imagine. But there is also absolutely no such thing as humane slaughter or a humane farm. That's because taking the life of a being that wanted nothing more than to live their life peacefully can never be humane. And breeding/creating/raising another animal for the sole purpose of slaughter is far from humane as well, even if you use “humane” practices, because in the end, they are all going to die before their natural life is over. And that, my friends is what we would call murder if that animal were human.)

It really is sad how many holiday traditions involve the exploitation and/or consumption of other animals. It's hard to face that. It's hard to give up old rituals like coloring easter eggs, that perpetrate the continual use and abuse of other beings. But give them up we must. And that brings us to the good part.

Is there a good side of giving up years of tradition? Absolutely. It's making new, cruelty free traditions a part of your life. You can make your own traditions. Those traditions can be something to be proud of, rather than something to be ashamed of. They can be positive, rather than involving lost lives, slavery, imprisonment and abuse.

It really is possible to celebrate holidays with true joy and without harming other beings. Cruelty free traditions can make you feel so good about yourself! Even if you're not vegan, why not give kinder holiday celebrations a whirl? You might even find out you prefer them!