Couple of questions about Easter?

Question

1) Why is it called "Easter"

2) What does the egg have to do with Christianity?

3) What the the bunny have to do with Christianity?

Answer 1

First, it is only called Easter in Germanic language countries, in the rest of the world, it is called pascha which means passover from pesach. Oestara had a celebration during the equinox and Pascha tends to fall near the equinox. Gradually Christianity destroyed the religion of Oestara but the name remains as a vestige.

Second, eggs have nothing to do with Christianity, however eggs are a sign of life. The original Easter eggs were called pysanki and had Christian images on them. All animal products were banned during the Christian fast to replicate the pre-Noah period. Easter was the first day Christians could eat eggs so they dedicated them to Christ through art. The practice of decorating eggs preceeds Christianity but Christianity coopted it. In fact, Easter basked with eggs, cheese and meat are blessed every Easter morning following the Resurrection services for the first meal of the day.

Rabbits reproduce at extraordinary rates, they are a symbol of life and innocence. It also is the case that a handful of societies worshipped animals and Easter falling near the solstice happens to overlap many other observances. Christianity co-opted other people symbols to destroy their religion. They took the bunny over in the process.

Answer 2

I actually lean toward being a gnostic. Which is not an agnostic. Agnostics don't say there is a God, and don't say there isn't.
Gnostics believe there is a Source to Life, through personal
experience.
Gnostics have an understandng of the underlying spiritual
forces at work in our material dimension. But unlike those
who try and control them, and only get more bound to them. We try to overcome these things, and free oursleves from this world
we have trapped ourselves in.
I recently realized that Halloween, The Day the spirits
are supposed to be DRAWN to Earth. Is 6 months after Christ
ROSE from "death".
I would imagine it is called EASTer, because the East is where
the best of the creative forces is said to come from, as far as coming to our world.
The "egg" and "bunny". Well, we all know what bunnies do.
The WILD THING! And they produce babies at a fantastic rate!
Both the egg and bunny are pagan fertility symbols.
They didn't worship sex, they worshipped fertility. The ability
to make babies. Thus the symbols of male and female sex.
Like we need magic to make babies, right?
The "christ"mas tree was also a fertility symbol. (Jeremiah 10).
I asked the Spirit what was wrong with it one Christmas, and
I noticed all those BALLS on it!

Answer 3

1) the holiday's name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked
2) Originally Easter eggs were painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring and were used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts. After they were colored and etched with various designs the eggs were exchanged by lovers and romantic admirers, much the same as valentines. In medieval time eggs were traditionally given at Easter to the servants. In Germany eggs were given to children along with other Easter gifts
3) The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the Spring season.
The bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have it's origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s.

Answer 4

I don't know why it is called Easter. The egg and the bunny are fertility symbols which were used by pagans to celebrate spring and the earth coming back to life after the long dead cold winter. Christianity scheduled holidays for about the same time as the old pagan holidays, and used many of their symbols to make the people comfortable with converting to the new religeon. Christmas is the same time as the pagan holiday for midwinter, the winter solstice which was always celebrated to ask the sun to return from the darkest day of the year etc.

Answer 5

The Christian festival of Easter derives from earlier religions. Like so much of Christianity, it is simply an adaptation of other major religious festivals ." Eostre" (Old English/ Germanic) the Pagan Goddess had a festival celebrated in the Spring; Easter also coincides with Passover, the Jewish festival. The egg is a Pagan symbol of rebirth, associated with the the Earth/Life being "born again". Rabbits are a notoriously fertile animals - again , another Pagan reference to fertility. Scratch the surface of any Christian practice, and find a Pagan!

Answer 6

the Christians were trying to recruit members to it's church many years ago. Some of these people were pagans. The Christians knew that the only way to get them to convert was to let them hold on to a little piece of what they used to believe. This is why Easter for instance is celebrated every year on a different date. The original holiday it coincides with was celebrated on the first full moon in spring. Easter is celebrated after the first full moon in spring. The original holiday (sorry I don't know the name of it) was celebrated during the first full moon after the spring equinox to celebrate the fertility of the earth, this was when they planted crops in the ground. Popular symbols of fertility were rabbits and eggs, hence the Easter bunny. The Goddess of fertility they worshiped was named Ester, which sounds allot like Easter. The holiday was celebrated during the full moon because of the moon's symbolism toward fertility, basically a women's monthly cycle. Even the name Ester is derived from the word Estrus meaning ovulation.

Answer 7

1. "Easter" I guess was made up or something...
2. The egg, well, I've heard that cracking the egg symbolizes the opening of the tomb in which Jesus Christ rose from.
3. The bunny has nothing to do with Christianity.

Answer 8

The egg and the bunny are just made up traditions that man has used to cover up the true meaning of Easter. ( The Resurrection of Christ) Did you know that Christ actually rose and went on preaching for years after he came out of the cave. He did not die He was in a trance. They did not break his legs as they normally do to people on a cross because he died quickly. But it was not death. You can not kill the pure son of God. He was taken out of the cave and they took him out of the country. He was in India and all over the world for years. This is not some myth or some divincy code. Thees are facts and there is evidence of cultures who knew him. Go to www.essene.org for the original teachings of Christ

Answer 9

It should be called "Resurrection Day".There was a Spring Rite named after the goddess Ishtar,the eggs and the bunnies symbolize when the mating season of spring and they hope it would rub off on them."BOING" .
It should be 3 days after Passover to be correct.The Catholics engrafted a lot of Pagan rituals to get the heathens into church,and it don't bother me a bit.I'll celebrate all those dog gone holidays with Ham and Turkey and candy and Mistletoe and thank the Lord and pass the presents!I'm FREE in Christ,not all bound up in ritualistic garbage like some cults and religions.Where's my Halloween mask?
MAN,there's some long winded SOBs on here!!!

Answer 10

the celtic festival of spring, the vernal equinox was called Ostara, close to the word easter. the egg was an ancient symbol of the mystery of life, as lots of eggs hatched into a living bird but simpler people a few thousand years ago didnt understand why, and in spring one of the first animals to visably show mating rituals were rabits, such as the dancing in the moonlight that gave us the term mad as a march hare. and since they only have a 30 day gestation period little bunnies are one of the first baby animals seen too. christianity took over many celtic holiday dates or near them ostara was the equinox where as easter moves around a bit but is fairly near. they also absorbed many celtic traditions such as taking in evergreens and holly and mistletoe at yule. and they built many early churches over ancient celtic ritual sites. it was easier to convert celts if they incorporated the rituals, the power sites and the dates of holy days. halloween didnt transfer well so they made the next day all saints day.