What Do a Rabbit, Colored Eggs and Candy Have to Do With Jesus? The History of Easter Revealed
Ever stopped to wonder how bunnies, eggs and scavenger hunts are related to Easter's religious celebration of Jesus dying on the cross and rising again? Strange bedfellows they are. I never had any idea as a kid. No one seemed to question the whole odd mix: why would a rabbit have a basket of eggs in the first place, and how that tied in to crucifixion and resurrection was another matter. Let's explore some Easter myths while popping a few chocolate Cadbury treats, shall we?
I grew up in a vaguely Christian family, and today am sort of a floating generalist. Our kids celebrate Jewish and Christian holidays, and are exposed to Buddhism, Hinduism and Native American practices. God has many names to us and we are not members of a church.
It seems I am not alone in that vague religious category. According to John Meacham- in his Newsweek article, "The Decline of Christian America" :
"the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008--roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)"
This article was the subject of a hot debate on Hardball with Christopher Hitchens and Kenneth Blackwell and featured on Friday at the Huff Po. For me, the depth of our faith is a highly personal matter, and can change in its form and intensity as life takes its often bumpy course. Yet, what about the depth and quality of our holidays? So many have become empty- devoid of meaning and filled with consumerism.
In graduate school I studied the historical progression of religion from the first Sumerian myths over 3,000 years ago, and explored the impact on our collective psyche. It is interesting to note many Christian holidays blend together with more ancient or "pagan" holidays celebrated for thousands of years prior. Before Moses was around to have the first Seder, or Jesus walked the Earth, we celebrated the rites of Spring at this time of year, with the perfect balance of light and darkness, called the Vernal Equinox.
I love learning about these ancient celebrations, and exposing them to my children. They do not interfere with any specific religious faith, but add a broader context and history to the occasion. The Vernal Equinox is on March 21st and on that day, there is an equal amount of light and darkness.
As an adult, thinking about balance during the Spring is highly appealing to me. A time to quiet down, toss out what is weighing me down and center myself for the rising energy of Spring. How motivating to know from that day forward there will be a little more light outside than the day before. Regardless of your faith, this is a practice of worthy note.
It turns out the celebrations of modern Easter's egg-toting-rabbit evolves from a mythic German goddess named Ostara, (Oestre / Eastre) who was the Germanic Goddess of Springtime. According to the Encycolopedia Mythica:
"In ancient Anglo-Saxon myth, Ostara is the personification of the rising sun. In that capacity she is associated with the spring and is considered to be a fertility goddess. She is the friend of all children and to amuse then she changed her pet bird into a rabbit. This rabbit brought forth brightly colored eggs, which the goddess gave to the children as gifts. From her name and rites the festival of Easter is derived."
All other European words for "Easter" derive from the Hebrew word "pasah," to pass over, thus reflecting the Christian holiday's Biblical connection with the Jewish Passover. I find it ironic the holiest day in the Christian faith, dedicated to celebrating the Son of God, is named after a goddess.
According to www.godchecker.com: Ostara was very popular with the Anglo-Saxon people, who worshiped her under the name Eostre.
Yet there is something odd about how little there is written about her; the myth only resides in one area, and is recorded to exist for a fairly short period of time. Most Sumerian, Greek and Egyptian figures like Isis, Kali, and Demeter were widely worshiped for thousands of years, and many of the stories had moral components or attributes to emulate. What's the moral element of the Easter bunny? Something about it just doesn't fit with other myths.
Was it all a joke?
Recent research suggests that the Ostara myth was potentially invented during a mischievous moment by the Venerable Bede. This well-known monk mentioned her in connection with the pagan festival Eosturmonath in a book written in 750 A.D. -- but extensive research has failed to find a trace of her prior to that. Talk about the "stickiness factor" of Malcom Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. Imagine: a famous monk makes up a weird story about a goddess who never existed who turns a bird into a rabbit that lays colored eggs; and it morphs into a mega-watt holiday celebrated the modern world over.
Wow. Bet that gets your bonnet in a tizzy. Imagine the irony in making up a goddess myth, which becomes linked with the "greatest story ever told," and simultaneously serves as a mecca of commerce for Hershey's, hat makers and basket weavers. For those who are devoted Christians: does this affect the power of His word and His teachings? No, but come on; it is a pretty darn good story.
A little food for thought this holiday weekend! Whatever you celebrate: Happy Passover, Happy Spring and Happy Easter to everyone. Enjoy the sweet balance you find with your family, friends and the emergence of Light. And please save some of those marshmallow chicks for me!
Love to hear your comments of how you celebrate the coming of Spring, Easter or Passover, and how you find deeper meaning in the holidays. To receive notices of each weekly column, click on 'Become a Fan' above.
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John-if there was a God, what would you need to believe? what evidence would make you stop and think? What would He have to do, to get you to believe in Him?
He could make himself visible and known to everyone at the same time, just give one big stadium speech. Is that really asking so much from a guy that can do anything? Why does he always speak to prophets in private?
Romans1:20-23 "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they know God, the did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like a corruptible man-and birds, and four footed animals and creeping things."
Through the prophets He has spoken to us. We have His Word. We have creation, we have prophecy fulfulled. He appeared to many and yet they crucified Him. I don't know what more He can do?
John - take the dog species-Noah's ark wasn't filled with every different breed of dogs. We just needed 2. We can get different breeds of animals from 2. How about dinosaurs-most were the size of sheep, most animals were young-Noah didn't have to pack the very old large animals-compare the size of a cub to its mother-more than likely young animals were brought on the ark.
Let's talk about the size of the ark. Don't think it was the size of a tug boat found in most children's books. the actual dimensions were: 300 cubits long-510 feet, 50 cubits wide-85 feet, and 30 cubits high 51 feet-that's almost 12 school buses long, 4 school buses high and 10 buses wide. A cubit is about 20inches. The most amazing thing about Noah's ark-there was plenty of room for people too except no one believed Noah when he tried to talk to his neighbors and friends. Sadly,they laughed at Noah-just like people laugh today when you try to talk to them about God's Word. The Bible warns us of Christ second coming- Matthew 24:38-39 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Sadly, today people still do not believe.
Your fantasies are elaborate (to say the least).
You''ll have to do better than that if you want to discredit my postings. Your opinions do not matter. I think I've already clarified that. We all can't determine our own truths. If that was the case than there would be no difference between Hitler and Mother Theresa. Each decided what was right in their own eyes. Giving me your opinion won't hold up in a court of law. Just the facts please, just the facts.
I wanted to comment as a Greek Orthodox Christian on RebeccaJane basically pronouncing judgment on JohnFromCensorati and by association of course other atheists that they will burn in hell for not believing in Jesus Christ. First, Jesus himself said: "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." So how can you judge a single person? Don't you feel a sense of hospitality toward everyone you are here having a discussion with? Aren't we taught by Christ's own words that in order to inherit eternal life, we are to love God with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul AND we are to love our neighbor as our very self? We can't get out of that pretending John or other atheists are not our neighbors. The kind of statements you make are dangerous and harmful.
Orthodox Christians, whose history as a community of faith reaches back 2,000 years, do not believe that believe that a pronouncement of faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient. If that were true, I could confess with my lips that I believe and then do horrible things to people and it wouldn't matter because I have faith. St. Paul said: If I have so much faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. So where is your love to accompany your faith?
2 Timothy, Chapter 3 and 4.
Diogenis, you should also check out: 5 Danelion, Chapters F and 3.515. That'll clear up any confusion for you.
Diogenis, haven't you been listening to people's stories of why they hate Christianity or the church? Do you expect them to be a better Christian than you are not be hurt and incredibly angry for some of the pain we have put them through (we in a very broad sense)?
Min-syn-Jesus also said that He came to testify to the truth. John 14:6Jesus also said, I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE-no one comes to the Father except by Me. You are wrong on eternal life.
John 3:16-21"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotton Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of theonly begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation , that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." – continued on the next posting
So God (R) created man in his own hypocritlcal image, in the image of the GOP created he him; male and female created he them. And God (R) blessed them, and God (R) said unto them: Be horny and multiply and pollute the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the few fish left in the sea and make foul of the air and shoot at every living thing that moveth upon the earth from a helicopter.
Cont. from previous posting- Do you understand MIN-SYN that if you don't have JESUS you do not have eternal life. JohnFromCIn does not believe in Jesus, atheists do not believe in Jesus, Muslims do not believe in Jesus. Those without Christ do not have eternal life-and because I know this from God's Word-explain to me how I should not be telling people this. I have tried to come up here to get people to first believe that they can know truth. Then they can begin to see the deception in all those other religions. Then they can search out the truth which is found in God's Word. Not my opinion, not what I believe, not to follow a follower of Christ, but find out for themselves the truth. The reason I can say that I am going to Heaven for sure is because I have a promise by God in the Bible. If you believe the Word of God than you have that promise too and you can know for sure you are going to Heaven. Look up 1 John 5:13- you can KNOW. But if you want to pick and choose parts out of the Bible, if you want to make up in your mind what you THINK God is like-go right ahead-except that is idolatry. Read your Bible to know Him. I am not judging anyone; I'm sharing what I know.
So, why did god make me & the muslims unbelievers? Why does he hate us?
"God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.(Pr
Who goes to Heaven? Everyone?
The question above was directed at Min_syn but it got buried down here.
From James 4:11-12 "Do not speak evil of one another brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?"
cont. Josh McDowell's -8. I would try to squelch inquiry or investigat
End article.
Are you sure what you believe in is true? If you don't think truth can be known, than how do you know anything???
I wanted to say something about RebeccaJane's and generally the Fundamenta
Sister RJ sounds like GodIs to me (only not as funny). She's clearly stated that she's going to heaven and I'm gonna roast. Why are you not posting warnings about her? I may have to goad her into posting again.
Actually, I have been composing a response to her about that. But I have gotten distracted since new comments have appeared that I wanted to read first. I have to go somewhere for a few hours, but later this evening I definitely want to post something about that. In short I think she is totally wrong and I think she is arrogant to believe that.
I do not idolize the Bible. I know who God is., I worship the one true God. The Bible is a book, paper with words on it, that I mark up, written on, and the cover torn. Not an image of worshiping. Trust me, my worship is in Christ alone. When Christ sat with His disciples at the "Last Supper" I do not take that literal in the sense that I believe the disciples were actually cannibals eating Jesus's flesh and drinking His blood, when He said, take this and eat, this is my body which was given up for you. You may want to take that up with the Catholics as they believe in transubstantiation which is the literal eating of "THE BODY OF CHRIST". You are getting me confused with the Catholics-which I am not. I do not believe when Christ said, He is the door, and all those who enter will have eternal life-I do not believe Christ was an actual door-I understand metaphors! You do need to take the Bible in context, and understand who the writers were writing to and what was going on during that time. You should not read into verses, and make them mean something they don't. The issue we have on this blog is people don't even believe any of the Bible or they pick and choose parts of the Bible that suits them. This is what I am trying to point out to people.
"You should not read into verses, and make them mean something they don't."
Yep. When it says to stone somebody, it means stone her to death.
Christ is risen! (It was just Orthodox Easter) What an interesting difference. Orthodox would never mark up their Bibles, or even drink coffee or wine while reading them. We would treat them with absolute reverence. However, we would not idolize them the way Fundamenta
cont. from previous post below: Language is used metaphorically, even by people who take things literally in general. How many days do you think it took to create the world? How exactly was Eve created?What is the relation between Adam and Christ? Was Jonah literally in a giant fish for 3 days? Evangelica
cont. Josh McDowell-If I Had Faked the Resurrection-4. I would surround the event with impressive supernatural displays and omens. According to all NT reports, no human eye saw the Resurrection itself, no human being was present, and none of the disciples asserted to have apprehended, let alone understood, its manner and nature.5. I would painstakingly correlate my account with others I knew, embellishing the legend only where I could be confident of not being contradict
I wanted to respond to John's question about whether I believe in the literal resurrection of Christ which he asked in response to my comment that the Bible is not meant to be interpreted literally. Let me first say I do believe in the literal resurrection of Christ although I cannot imagine what He was like after the resurrection. Even His own disciples did not initially recognize Him. People who report to have mystically encountered the risen Christ are forever changed by their encounter. By whether I believe He flew away I am guessing you mean ascended to heaven. That is not really flying... I have no idea what the event was like--it was both mystical and physical, but I believe it happened. Also, I believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Orthodox might say Mary was impregnated by her ear-- through hearing: she heard the word of God and kept it. She literally kept it so that it became embodied within her (Jesus is the Word). As for the zombie meme that has become popular among some atheists here, you must all look at an Orthodox icon of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Here is a link: http://www
Hey min_syn. That sounds quite literal to me. What is the part we should not take literally?
First I want to know if you liked the real zombie icon (the raising of Lazarus)? I do believe certain events in the Bible are real. But they might not be real in the most literal way you imagine (such as the physical reality behind the pregnancy of the virgin Mary). However, in no way should the Bible be interpreted as literally true: each word, each sentence, each part separate from the other.
John,
I guess since you didn't respond to what I posted that you do not wish to continue this. That's fine. I thought you would be able to defend what you believe in.
Here you say "I thought you would be able to defend what you believe in.", and just below, you say "I can defend what I believe in and you can't.".
I think you are confused. I'm not surprised.
People that say, "the Bible isn't true" have never read the Bible.
Have you ever tried to disprove it...Not by your opinion but by facts.
I read an interesting article by Josh McDowell titled If I Had Faked the Resurrection. Josh was an atheist who went out to prove the Bible untrue. He now is a strong believer in Christ.
Due to limited space I'll try to summarize:
"...if I had been some first-century propagandist trying to fake the resurrection of J.C. I would have done a number things differently. 1. I would wait a prudent perid after the events before publishing my accounts. Few historians dispute the fact the disciples of Jesus' began preaching the news of His resurrection soon after the event itself.(wi
Due to space, I'll continue in the next posting. (Sorry)
John from C- I apprecriate your replies. why don't you start a new comment since our replies back and forth are getting buried down in the post. If you want to continue the conversation. Thanks, RJ
No need to continue, really. We got to the heart of the matter.
You're going to the promised land (because you believe ludicrous zombie stories) and I'm going to garbage incinerator (because I don't and never will).
The difference though is i can defend what I believe in and you can't. If there is no accountability at the end, if we just close our eyes and that's it, then we should all just do what ever we want and there should be no distinction between good and evil. After all, we just all have our own beliefs right, what I may think is good you may think evil. What about Hitler? Hitler BELIEVED what he was doing was good-so we can't say that is evil. You can't say abortion is evil because people can do whatever they believe is good. We should all just believe what ever want and no one should claim that one is evil over the other.
Before you all go off on me. Yes, I think what Hitler did was evil. But who gets to determine what is good and evil? Everyone wants to claim their own goodness but we all have different ideas of what good and evil are. Someone has to set the standard and I believe someone has---GOD.
some reply comments are being missed because they are collapsed under the original comments, you need to click on "more comments" on some of them.
I know. It's highly annoying, isn't it?
What's worse is when such comments get lost because of a malfunction in that feature. Which is fairly often.
Thank you for the article. I believe it is positive for thinking people to ask questions about why we follow certian traditions and where they came from. You are correct in observing that many of the traditions from paganism have been incorperated into Christianity. This process was accelerated after the "conversion" of Constantine. He tried to blend Christianty and paganism so that both religions would be content. The Roman church took many of these pagan traditions and baptized them into Christianity. The main holidays we have in the Christian church today as you have said are based around the time that sun worshipers had their holidays. Christmas and Easter.
Oh here we go...the surest way to draw out the pseudo-int
I agree, let's not talk about religion. I can't stand it either. Jesus had problems with the relgious leaders, too.
Good. Now we can talk about faith.
Indeed. What's hilarious is the presumption that any historical analysis of religion will serve to shock and offend "religioni
As a Christian, I believe in Eternal life after death in this life.
That is the Christian belief. Jesus (God incarnate) came to earth in the form of man so that we would know Him and His ways. Humility and compassion etc.
He was also sent to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world...he
Fascinating article by someone that obviously knows her religious history. All religions serve a purpose for man and they all claim to be the source to Truth. Yet, "truth" is certainly a subjective subject. Perhaps religion should have its credibility based on tenants that promote survival for all and whatever myths comfort and guide people towards a higher level of survival for everyone and their environment should be considered a viable discipline to follow. Entertaining children certainly enhances their survival and welcoming the presence of more light isn't, in any way, destructive, so Easter works for me.
With all of these beliefs that we find in religion unsupported by scientific scrutiny, it is a wonder to me why so many ridicule other's religious choices. Man has the need to find that feeling of knowing the "truth" and if their religious beliefs help them get to that point, than there any faith is better than no faith and we should all accept other people's decisions to subscribe to any or no religion.
Hog wash. Knows her religious history?
Truth is absolute, not subjective. I'll repeat, truth is discovered not invented. What's true for me is true for you. It's absolute. In simple terms, if 2+2 =4 that's true for me and true for you and true even to the 4 year old that doesn't know it yet. If holy jihad is true for the Muslim than it must be true for me. If completing the sacraments in Catholicism is true for Catholics it must be true for me. It is EITHER - OR but it is not BOTH. EITHER there is a God OR there isn't, it is not BOTH.
There is evidence to support Christianity and there is a lack of evidence to support the alternative, evolution.
Who was Jesus? Liar, lunatic or God. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be God, if He wasn't God than He was either a liar or a lunatic. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
Evolution is not incompatible with Christianity unless you believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
You owe royalty payments to the estate of C.S. Lewis.
Maybe you should rip off the quotes of someone more obscure.
Macbooker-really? How do you know all this? You claim to know so much-what is this based on? Where do you get this information from-is this really true?
Unclench..
Wouldn't a better article be called, "What's a guy nailed to cross got to do with an ancient spring fertility festival?"
A little crudely put...but you are basically on the right path.
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