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EASTER – PAGAN ROOTS?
Topics: Religion, holiday
Posted by BostonGal Mon Mar 3, 2008 13:50:53 PST
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Nowhere does the Bible indicate that early Christians observed

either a weekly Sunday or a yearly Easter to commemorate Christ’s

resurrection.

 

The night before he died, Christ ordered quite a different

celebration. He served his disciples a simple meal of wine and bread

and commanded them “keep doing this in remembrance of me” (Luke

22:19).  It was Christ’s death, not his resurrection, that Jesus

wanted memorialized and was to be celebrated once a year on Nisan

14.  Jesus intended for it to replace the yearly Passover

celebration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.  (Matthew 26: 19-28)

 

In obedience to this scriptural mandate, certain Christians hold this

observance every year on the 14th of Nisan or the first Sunday after

the full moon that follows the spring equinox

 

Clerics may argue that such practices become acceptable when

brought into the church.  However, it was this same line of

reasoning that once nearly led the Israelites to ruin. (Exodus 20:4;

32: 1-14.)

 

Both Jesus and the apostle Paul predicted that Christianity would be

infiltrated by false teachings. (Matthew 13:24-40; 2 timothy 4:3).

True to their words, after the death of Jesus’ apostles, the idea

took root that it would be appropriate to hold a fast (now known as

Lent) followed by a feast, at Passover season.  The thinking was

that this was a way to commemorate Christ’s resurrection.

Christendom argues that Easter replaces the Jewish festival of

Passover but ignores the fact that Jesus replaced the Passover, not

with Easter, but with his memorial supper.

 

 

FOOD CUSTOMS

Ham on Easter is a long-standing custom among many Catholics.

However, the custom is a relic of English bigotry.  The American

Book of Days says that the English had a habit “of eating a gammon

of bacon (the bottom piece of a side of bacon including a hind leg)

on that day to show their contempt for the Jewish custom of not

eating pork.”

According to the book of Celebrations, William the Conqueror changed

the bacon to ham to suit his liking.

 

 

Hot cross buns with the sign of the cross made in their top

crusts symbolize the Friday when Christ died on the ‘Cross’

according to English tradition.

In olden times the eating of hot cross buns was said to protect the

house from fire for the following year.  Some even believed that the

ground up crumbs could be added to water and used for medicinal

purposes.

Different types of cakes traditionally eaten during the Easter

season go back to the pagan practice of eating cakes in honor of the

goddess Eostre at the time of the vernal equinox.

 

The egg was symbol of life and fertility among idolaters. The custom

of egg giving can be traced back to ancient Egyptians, long before

the time of Christ.

Egg rolling contests such as held on the White House south lawn on

Easter Monday represent the ‘rolling’ away of the stone from the

tomb of the risen Christ.

 

Easter hares and rabbits have long been a traditional symbol of

Easter.  The hare, in ancient Egypt, was a symbol of fertility so

when children hunt for Easter eggs, supposedly brought by the Easter

rabbit, this is not mere child’s play but the vestige of a fertility

rite.

 

Easter sunrise services originated with sun worshipers and may be

traced back to heathen customs when the spectators themselves danced

at a festival in honor of the sun, after the vernal equinox.  Early

Christendom believed that on Easter morning the sun danced in honor

of the Resurrection.

Catholic priest Francis X. Weiser admitted: “Some of the popular

traditions of Lent and Easter date back to ancient nature rites.”

The rites of spring were originally designed to ‘frighten the demons

of winter away.”

 

HOW DATE ARRIVED AT

The New Encyclopedia Britannica explains the “earliest Christians

celebrated the Lord’s Passover at the same time as the Jews, during

the night of the first (paschal) full Moon of the first month of

spring, Nisan 14-15.

However, in time, people also began to celebrate Jesus’

resurrection.  By the middle of the 2nd century, most churches had

transferred this celebration to the Sunday after the Jewish feast.”

The book Seasonal Feasts and Festivals says: “It was apparently not

until towards the end of the fourth century in Jerusalem that good

Friday and Easter Day were kept as separate commemorations.”

 

In the year A.D. 325 Constantine had the uncertain date of this

‘holy’ day settled for all time by taking the matter before the

council of Nicea.

 

Some scholars believe that because of the growing enmity between

professed Christians and the Jews, some leaders of Christendom did

not want their most important holiday to correspond exactly in date

with the most important Jewish holiday.  This attitude led to a

change.  In time most of Christendom began to celebrate the

resurrection of Jesus on the first Sunday after the full moon that

follows the spring equinox and made this its most important

religious celebration.

 

In effect they downgraded to a lower position the celebration of

Jesus’ death.

According to these sources, then, Christendom’s Easter actually

usurps the original anniversary of Jesus’ death.

 

Eostre was the Anglo-Saxon name for the Teutonic goddess of

spring, Ostera.  There is no doubt that the fair goddess had

considerable influence on the early ‘Christian’s’ naming of Easter.

The pagan observance of the awakening of Earth from her long

winter’s sleep was naturally adaptable to the symbolism of the

Awakening or Resurrection of Christ.  Thus, the holiest of all

Christendom’s holidays derived its name from a pagan festival.

 

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