Happy Easter or Resurrection Day?

Christianity vs. Paganism

Yes, it’s true, my thoughts are a product of my environment. With Easter having just passed i’ve been wondering a lot lately about the origin of the word Easter. Knowing that other Christian holidays borrow many traditions from pagan festivals i assumed that the word Easter was too, i just wasn’t sure which festival exactly.

i must say that what i found was in some cases a bit surprising. i’ve found it’s easy to read something and take it at its word. However, if you read what is actually being said you find that people don’t use a lot of common sense or any of their own thoughts, they simply re-spew what they’ve read elsewhere. You know, i also found that there is a lot of controversy over the topic of Easter and its origins.

Well, here is what I’ve found mixed together with some of my own thoughts and my SUPER-human skills of common sense. ;) Please enjoy.

Easter is the day that many, if not most, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the one and only Jesus Christ. For many churches Easter is referred to as Resurrection Sunday. Most churches do this to disassociate with any pagan culture. So, what pagan culture did Easter come from?

According to most people Easter is derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, Eostre being the goddess of spring. The only problem with this theory is that Eostre only exists very rarely, and mostly in an article by a man named Venerable Bede in 725 AD. The problem with that is that in 325 AD the church officially decided on the celebration of Easter, 400 years earlier.

Some will say that Easter comes from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. However, there is no solid evidence for this and it too is heavily controversial.

It does seem that there is a couple of things that everyone agrees with. One is that the Easter bunny is a pagan representative for fertility. While its purpose was for fertile land/crops its practice was that of sex. So, the Easter bunny is nothing more than a cute and cuddly sex symbol.

The second thing that seems to be agreed upon is that eggs too represent fertility or new birth. Originally given as gifts between friends and family they have somehow become a popular marketing campaign. i’m not really sure when they started being used for Easter egg hunts - i didn’t really research that part.

My thoughts…

First, i guess we’re witlessly teaching children, Easter bunny = good, sex = good. Yet we get mad when they have babies and aren’t married yet. Boy are we ever confused.

Second, i think the egg hunt could have very easily started as a way for parents to teach their kids a lesson in a rather fun way. Since what i am going to call the fertility festivals were in the spring time, the time when the crops were either harvested or planted, i think parents came up with a clever way to teach their children the rewards of hard work. “Why do we have to work so hard mommy?” the child might have asked. “Well, honey, it’s similar to the egg hunt. You see, you have to search hard to find the eggs, just like we have to work hard to plant (or harvest) the crops. But, once you find the egg your reward is very good, the same as when we finish our work, our reward, food, is very good.”

Third, i believe that the Easter bunny should become road kill. No where in church should a bunny named Easter appear. It’s a simple subliminal message that points to ritualistic sex acts as part of a ceremony that celebrates pagan gods/goddesses. However, i think the Easter egg (so long as you don’t believe a bunny laid it) is perfectly acceptable. Since the egg represents new life i think it can easily be redirected into spiritual symbolism. After all Christ transformed baptism and the Passover into symbolic events, so too do i think we can do the same with the egg.

Finally, I’m certain the Easter bunny is bad news. I’m also certain that the Easter egg can be a good thing. I am also also certain that no one really knows for sure where the word Easter came from. While there may be a lot of circumstantial arguments we don’t have anything concrete. So, if you want to say happy Easter, you are free to do so, and free to do so without thinking that you are making mention of some ancient pagan holiday. However, it still is very possible that as with other things the early church fathers did change something from a pagan festival to a Christian tradition, however that may never be known for sure.

So, you are quite free to have a happy Easter, though i still like Resurrection Day better. :)

Did i mention the bunny should be road kill? Happy hunting, and enjoy the stew.

references:
www.celtic-catholic-church.org/oak_tree/easter.html
www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn69/easter.htm
www.allabouthistory.org/origin-of-the-word-easter-faq.htm
www.biblestudy.org/question/what-does-the-word-easter-mean.html
www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/eostre.html (for the meaning of Eostre)
www.eddolls2004.freeuk.com/mill.htm (for the date of Bede’s writing)