Is Easter really a Pagan celebration?
ByThe date of Easter is determined by the first Sunday after the first full moon preceding the Spring Equinox. If this is the deciding factor for when Easter is celebrated then is it not in fact a Pagan celebration disguised as a Christian one?
Yes.
You may appreciate these quotes:
Confirming its pagan background, The Catholic Encyclopedia, edition of 1909, states in Volume 5, on page 227:
“A great many PAGAN customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a PAGAN SYMBOL and has always been an emblem of fertility.”
In harmony with this The Encyclopedia Americana, edition of 1956, states in Volume 9, on page 506: “According to the Venerable Bede, English historian of the early 8th century, the word [Easter] is derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostre, meaning the festival of spring at the vernal equinox, March 21, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the returning sun and the northern lights or aurora borealis.”
“Children roll pasch eggs in England. Everywhere they hunt the many-colored Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit was the escort of the Germanic goddess Ostara who gave the name to the festival by way of the German Ostern.” – Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, edition of 1949, Volume one, page 335.
That the celebration finds no authorization in the Holy Scriptures or precedent among early Christians is pointed out by The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Volume 8, page 828:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. . . . The ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl. v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival . . . and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, ‘just as many other customs have been established.’” The old usage was the practice of pagans to have a festival in honor of their goddess of spring.
Yes its pagan
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Yes.
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The name "Easter" derives from Eostre, a Pagan goddess.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre
well then you need to brush up on your history
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most holidays are.
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yup so is christmas
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atheist
It is named after the Germanic goddess Eostre. Rabbits and baby chicks are included in Easter because it is a celebration of new life in spring.
The reason that Christians chose Easter and Christmas (Pagan name,Yule) to celebrate Christian holidays was to conform to the Pagans and not stand out.
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Atheist.
It was a Pagan celebration on the first day of spring, but not any more. Now it’s a Christian observance. How the date is calculated is written in the Bible, I think.
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Very, very pagan. There’s hardly anything Xian about it. There was even a goddess named Eostere and her symbol was a rabbit, also a symbol of fertility.
The Easter Egg hunt is taken from an old tradition that was used to determine hoe fertile a child would be.
@ dbraunava, the fourth sunday after the first full moon is the date picked in the bible…are you crazy? The date is one of the more pagan elements of it.
@ anthony and tophah, it is true that the jewish community may have been celebrating the spring equinox but since the Easter celebration mirrors pagan festivals and the celebration of ‘Christmas’ is also taken from that area, it’s only reasonable that our current Easter celebrations are taken from that area’s festivals
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Date is insignificant, what is being celebrated matters.
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Yes, it is. So is "christmas." These were long-existing "holidays" that christians adapted to their magic jesus stories.
Peace.
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When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, officials changed holidays a little bit. They kept the same dates as Roman Pagan festivals, but put a new story behind it. They thought people would be more accepting of the religion.
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So what if its pagan?
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Easter is tied to the date of the Jewish Passover. The date of the Passover is tied to the Jewish calendar. The Jewish calendar is based upon the lunar month; not the solar year. Hence the date of Easter is indirectly tied to the phases of the moon. But that has got absolutely nothing to do with paganism.
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Yes as is all holidays of christendom.
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yep. it’s a festival of new life…hence the bunnies and eggs.
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Yes, it has pagan elements. It was absorbed into Christianity with Christianized symbols.
The egg as a symbol of the earth coming back to life in Spring became a symbol for Christ’s resurrection.
Ancient Persians were coloring eggs for Naw Ruz (Persian New Year) for centuries before Christianity began.
The rabbit is a fertility symbol; I have no idea how that fits in with Christianity.
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Anthony has it right. Also, its only called ‘Easter’ in English and Germanic countries. Everywhere else, what we call ‘Easter’ is called ‘Pascha’ or some variant of ‘Passover’ and lacks many of the trappings of the English/Germanic versions which *did* subsume other traditions into itself. It doesn’t change the core message, though.
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It is Pagan. Ostara (There are five ways to spell this. My calendar spells it this way, sorry…) is known as the first day of spring, a time of birth and rebirth. Symbols include rabbits, chicks of ducks and chickens, eggs (fertility), and soft colors that remind people of babies and births.
Now understand that the HOLIDAYS are NOT on the SAME date. But when the Christians were trying to convert the Pagans, they put their holidays near Pagan ones. Such as: All Saints Day (a few days after Halloween), Christmas, and Easter!
Now I respect Jesus and what he taught, of course. I respect Gandhi and Buddha as well.
But it’s true that the holiday was placed on purpose near a Pagan holiday.
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Pagan
Please see the goddess "Eostre" and her Germanic festival. Please also see Ostara, which miiiiiight be a Celtic thing? I’m sorry, I can’t remember at the moment -__-
Yes, it is a Pagan celebration, or at the very LEAST was stolen from the ancient Pagans to get them to convert more easily.
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Ya. This is true, young man.
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Christians were martyred for refusing to bow or sacrifice to pagan gods. Their internal conflict was whether to set it on a fixed date or have it move according to the equinox and the lunar calendar. It is more likely that they could have a large gathering and festivities without attracting attention and getting arrested.
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Yes, Easter IS held on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the Spring (vernal) equinox.
But its’ association with the date of Spring Equinox doesn’t make it pagan.
The paganism lies not in when the date is calculated but in HOW the holiday is observed. Colored eggs and bunny rabbits have nothing to do with Jesus and the sacrifice that he commanded us to observe.
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Yes.
You may appreciate these quotes:
Confirming its pagan background, The Catholic Encyclopedia, edition of 1909, states in Volume 5, on page 227:
“A great many PAGAN customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a PAGAN SYMBOL and has always been an emblem of fertility.”
In harmony with this The Encyclopedia Americana, edition of 1956, states in Volume 9, on page 506: “According to the Venerable Bede, English historian of the early 8th century, the word [Easter] is derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostre, meaning the festival of spring at the vernal equinox, March 21, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the returning sun and the northern lights or aurora borealis.”
“Children roll pasch eggs in England. Everywhere they hunt the many-colored Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit was the escort of the Germanic goddess Ostara who gave the name to the festival by way of the German Ostern.” – Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, edition of 1949, Volume one, page 335.
That the celebration finds no authorization in the Holy Scriptures or precedent among early Christians is pointed out by The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Volume 8, page 828:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. . . . The ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl. v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival . . . and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, ‘just as many other customs have been established.’” The old usage was the practice of pagans to have a festival in honor of their goddess of spring.
References :
http://www.lijit.com/search?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lijit.com%2Fusers%2Felijah&start_time=&p=g&blog_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fsearchforbibletruths.blogspot.com%2F&blog_platform=&view_id=&link_id=63731&flavor=&q=easter&x=19&y=6#blog