The Ten Commandments and Easter Memories
Woman in the Middle | April 9, 2012I turned on the TV Saturday night and immediately called to my Hubby, “Hey, your movie is on!” Are you wondering which movie it was? Well, here is the story….
My husband was in Boy Scouts for many years as a boy. Here in our area we have a hill on which they have held Easter sunrise services for 103 years. The Boy Scouts help every year by climbing up the hill early early in the morning and then shining their flashlights on the trail, helping the hundreds of people who attend this service get up the hill safely. My hubby’s Boy Scout leader, Mr. Hamilton, and his troop became the group that cooked breakfast for all the other scouts before they went up the hill. Well, if the Boy Scouts with their flashlights got up early, the troop providing the food got up even earlier. So early, my Hubby and his troop members usually just stayed up watching TV at Mr. Hamilton’s until it was time to go to the staging area and start cooking up the grub. And what was on every year, around midnight, the night before Easter? “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston. Hubby says that if, on the off-chance the “Ten Commandments” was not on then it was alway the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” with Charles Laughton.
And here it is 2012 and what should be on the night before Easter? The “Ten Commandments” yet again. So, what is it in the minds of TV programmers that made them decide many years ago that a movie about Moses seemed to be the appropriate thing to put on television on Easter Eve? And if that wasn’t available, a movie based on a Victor Hugo novel would be the next best choice? Must be the religious theme running through both movies, or at least that big old church in “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
If you missed “Ten Commandments” Saturday night and don’t feel like Netflixing it, don’t worry. As sure as the sun rises each morning it will be on TV next year on the night before Easter. Just ask my Hubby, he knows.
After Easter lunch at the in-laws, “The Ten Commandments” was turned on. I’d never seen the movie, but I sat there, silently wondering what “The Ten Commandments” had to do with Easter. If the TV programmers were going with the “religious” angle, why not show “The Nativity Story”? That has as much to do with Easter as “The Ten Commandments” – maybe more, since at least it’s about Jesus.
I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in questioning the Easter / Ten Commandments link Thanks for sharing!