Is Easter a Christian Holiday?

[Niflmir]

Well, normally I only start thinking about these things around Christmas time. Christmas has been obviously secularized and so you start seeing those signs that say, "Jesus is the real reason of the season." So, I got to thinking...

Is Easter a Christian Holiday anymore? Was it to begin with? Where did the name Easter come from? What is the deal with the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs?

Well, just like Christmas, Easter celebrations predate Christianity. In fact, the main reason for the pagan celebration around the date of Easter is related to the pagan celebration of Yule: worship of the sun. Pre-Christian Easter festivals were celebrated because of the Spring equinox, of course the dates have become fuddled what with our manipulation of the calendars specifically to alter the date of Easter.

Even the name Easter comes from an old Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess. The use of the symbol of a hare, comes from their bizarre mating ritual which begins in the spring time. As always, an egg is a potent symbol of fertility.

However, it is coincidental that the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus happened to fall on the same day. In their devious ways of conversion, the early church allowed the Anglo-Saxons to continue to celebrate the holiday, but heavily Christianised it. Clearly, they did not eliminate all symbols of the pagan's original festival.

So, although it has become disgustingly commercialised (Seculars and sectarians agree on this point right?) the egg is a part of our tradition. A celebration of the fertility of the coming spring and summer, and so is the mad dance of the heated rabbits.

So, isn't the celebration of Easter now more akin to its early pagan celebrations?

 

[A N Otter]

Hello

Yes, Easter is pagan in its origins, just like Christmas! They are an invention of religious institutions, and were not ordained by God

As you mentioned, Easter originates from a pagan goddess called Eastre aka Ostara. Christmas celebrations are full of pagan-inspired rituals and events e.g. Christmas tree, yule, drunkenness, mistletoe etc etc! Let me give you an example about Christmas:

Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Jer 10:1-4

These festivals are vain

 

[sanctus]

Hello

Yes, Easter is pagan in its origins, just like Christmas! They are an invention of religious institutions, and were not ordained by God

As you mentioned, Easter originates from a pagan goddess called Eastre aka Ostara. Christmas celebrations are full of pagan-inspired rituals and events e.g. Christmas tree, yule, drunkenness, mistletoe etc etc! Let me give you an example about Christmas:

Jer 10:1-4

These festivals are vain

Oh please, give your head a shake. Everytime there is a Christian holiday, somebody has to pop up to point out the origins of that holiday. So what? Easter is a Christian holiday NOW, and that is all that should matter.

 

[Niflmir]

Oh please, give your head a shake. Everytime there is a Christian holiday, somebody has to pop up to point out the origins of that holiday. So what? Easter is a Christian holiday NOW, and that is all that should matter.

Taking away from the Christian celebration was not my intent. If it was not for the over commercialization of candy during holidays, I think that the secular aspects would not trouble people so much.

I was hoping to discuss about whether the secular aspects were coming to be more of the focus again, as opposed to the Christian aspects, alternatively, I wonder if commercialization has swamped both aspects.

 

[A N Otter]

Oh please, give your head a shake. Everytime there is a Christian holiday, somebody has to pop up to point out the origins of that holiday. So what? Easter is a Christian holiday NOW, and that is all that should matter.

You can't "christianize" a pagan festival!

 

[Niflmir]

You can't "christianize" a pagan festival!

I wouldn't have tried to start this discussion if I didn't think that that was what had happened.

 

[sanctus]

You can't "christianize" a pagan festival!

Sigh,, if Christ is the intention, it is Christian. Don't you "Prot's" read your Bibles at all?

 

[sanctus]

Taking away from the Christian celebration was not my intent. If it was not for the over commercialization of candy during holidays, I think that the secular aspects would not trouble people so much.

I was hoping to discuss about whether the secular aspects were coming to be more of the focus again, as opposed to the Christian aspects, alternatively, I wonder if commercialization has swamped both aspects.

For most people perhaps, this is true. Not for the Church though. To me it is a matter of what is important to the individual. Either they get wrapped up in the secular mindset or they do not. They can have both, nothing wrong with candy and Easter bunnies. However, as long as the focus is on the Resurrection in the home, and the purpose of the Holy Day is remembered by the household, and honoured, they should be fine.

 

[sanctus]

I wouldn't have tried to start this discussion if I didn't think that that was what had happened.

Mayhaps, but whether it should have been or not, the deal is done, as they say, for now it is a Christian festival in most people's minds.

 

[Niflmir]

Mayhaps, but whether it should have been or not, the deal is done, as they say, for now it is a Christian festival in most people's minds.

Yeah, but it always seems ironic to me when someone of a non-Christian religion complains about the secular paraphernalia of Christian Holidays under the assumption that it imposes Christianity upon them.

 

[hermanntrude]

Well, normally I only start thinking about these things around Christmas time. Christmas has been obviously secularized and so you start seeing those signs that say, "Jesus is the real reason of the season." So, I got to thinking...

Is Easter a Christian Holiday anymore? Was it to begin with? Where did the name Easter come from? What is the deal with the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs?

Well, just like Christmas, Easter celebrations predate Christianity. In fact, the main reason for the pagan celebration around the date of Easter is related to the pagan celebration of Yule: worship of the sun. Pre-Christian Easter festivals were celebrated because of the Spring equinox, of course the dates have become fuddled what with our manipulation of the calendars specifically to alter the date of Easter.

Even the name Easter comes from an old Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess. The use of the symbol of a hare, comes from their bizarre mating ritual which begins in the spring time. As always, an egg is a potent symbol of fertility.

However, it is coincidental that the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus happened to fall on the same day. In their devious ways of conversion, the early church allowed the Anglo-Saxons to continue to celebrate the holiday, but heavily Christianised it. Clearly, they did not eliminate all symbols of the pagan's original festival.

So, although it has become disgustingly commercialised (Seculars and sectarians agree on this point right?) the egg is a part of our tradition. A celebration of the fertility of the coming spring and summer, and so is the mad dance of the heated rabbits.

So, isn't the celebration of Easter now more akin to its early pagan celebrations?

You should read selfactivated's posts on ostara

 

[MikeyDB]

C'mon folk give the good Christians their due...

Easter is yet another opportunity for good Christians to sell chocolate bunnies and baskets woven in third world nations by near-slave-labour...

The developed myth of the resurection ....is in many respects very similar to another artificial holiday..celebration...Valentines Day...anohter opportunity for good Christians to sell more candy and keep Hallmark in business....

There

 

[Sparrow]

People of different beliefs celebrate these holidays and not all are Christians. When I look at both Pagan and Catholic reasons I see some resemblance

For instance Easter: Catholics - Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Pagans - After a winter nature comes alive again (at least in my corner of the world).

I also believe that both Easter and Christmas have been commercialized but it is how you celebrate it in you heart that counts.

 

[MikeyDB]

There isn't a single shred of proof that a man named Jesus Christ rose from the dead...if there is...perhaps someone could point it out...

 

[hermanntrude]

at easter time i celebrate the fact I get two days off work. I also give Jesus a thought (he was a nice guy at least) and celebrate the fact spring is springing (to fully understand the irony in the statement you need to know that it's -17°C outside, and snowing)

 

[karrie]

...alternatively, I wonder if commercialization has swamped both aspects.

Commercialization can only overpower a holiday as much as we let it.

For my family, Easter is still as simple as it was when I was growing up. Decorate some eggs, and the easter bunny might bring a new outfit, and a chocolate bunny. Go to church, enjoy a good meal with family (we make mock eggs benedict, chopping the hard boiled eggs into hollondaise sauce and serving over english muffin and ham), and discuss the importance of the resurrection. That's all. We don't decorate the house, buy a great big basket of toys, and go overboard.

 

[MikeyDB]

If you embrace the myth of Jesus Christ as the corporeal god's presence on earth...and you behave in a giving tolerant kindly and responsible manner....great! If you believe this myth and choose to wield the divissiveness of homophobia....patriarchy taken to the extreme and regard the Crusades as a necessary evil....go buy some chocolate...

 

[sanctus]

Commercialization can only overpower a holiday as much as we let it.

For my family, Easter is still as simple as it was when I was growing up. Decorate some eggs, and the easter bunny might bring a new outfit, and a chocolate bunny. Go to church, enjoy a good meal with family (we make mock eggs benedict, chopping the hard boiled eggs into hollondaise sauce and serving over english muffin and ham), and discuss the importance of the resurrection. That's all. We don't decorate the house, buy a great big basket of toys, and go overboard.

Same in our house. The kids wake up and there is the chocolate bunny, a few extra candies and that is it. We gather as a family for Easter dinner, and this after a full day's Masses(1 for them)-4 for me.

On Holy Saturday we decorate the eggs...that is as much as we do for the holiday as a whole. Mind you, in my house the kids are surrounded by Holy Week activities, due to my vocation. Kind of makes them immune to the process somewhat;-)