I guy I work with told me that the Easter holiday is a big scam, and that it really is a Pagan fertility festival. Hence the reason for eggs and rabbits. I've always wondered what they had to do with the reseruction of Jesus. Could it be true? Have we been lied to be our religious leaders? Could it be possible we have been doing wrong ?
2007-04-06 09:43:05 · 15 answers · asked by burdawg 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Other - Holidays
Religion is about cultural control. Sometimes it is motivated by the wise who wish to give the benefit of their wisdom to the uneducated and illiterate. For example, imagine a god of brilliant and shining that smites those who don't preform the sacred ceremony of (the Bath) by killing them. We now know this as hygiene and the terrible product of poor hygiene it the plague.This power to manipulate, is used by kind wise people to get people to do things that are good for them without having to explain to them why. However this same power to manipulate is also used to conquer and dominate. Many of the Christian holidays are modifications of pagan ceremonies. The dates practiced and some of the symbols and practiced were assimilated or modified to enhance Christianity's appeal to the pagans that the Christians wanted to conquer and subject. Most of these people became servants and second class citizens to the holy roman empire. Today we see Christianity being modified, it's holidays and practiced being manipulated to serve a new god. We see an emphasis on all aspects of holidays that stimulate travel and consumption. The new god is money. Ask yourself this, would you be willing to lite aflame a sacred Benjamin?
2007-04-06 10:06:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Easter is not necessarily a pagan holiday - christians have just taken on some pagan traditions. Such as easter eggs, for example. Many Christian holidays were rearranged to overlap pagan holidays. For example, Jesus was NOT born in December - and the Christmas tree started as a pagan tradition.
The thing to keep in mind is that any holiday is whatever you make of it. If you celebrate it as a pagan holiday, it is. But if you celebrate Easter as the resurrection of Christ, then that's exactly what it is. Same thing with halloween. You can let your kids dress up and go get candy - that doesn't mean you are worshipping Satan, even if other people use Halloween to do just that.
2007-04-06 09:49:21 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It has pagan origins, yes, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's celebrating life, after all. Same thing.
Rabbits and eggs are both symbols of the fertility goddess Eostre/Ishtar/Ostara. Her symbol is also the moon, in which some cultures see a rabbit instead of a face. Eggs also symbolize the moon and are the ultimate symbol of creation and new life. The basket is a symbol of the womb in which this new life is carried.
The feast day is pagan and was widely celebrated way before the time of Jesus. Like pretty much all holidays, it was adopted by Christians to help get more converts. However, since the point is to celebrate new life and the hope of continuance, Christian symbols of a Resurrection day and the old pagan symbols mean the same thing. Just like Christmas, we are all celebrating the same thing, just using different symbols.
2007-04-06 09:46:46 · answer #3 · answered by KC 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
He's telling the truth. But there's no "wrong" way to celebrate a holiday. Celebrate however you want! As far as being lied to. This is so old that it really isn't anyones fault in the present day. Most "Christian" holidays were morphed from the pagan ones when Christianity first came to Europe so that the people in the past would come to accept Christianity easier.
2007-04-06 09:48:44 · answer #4 · answered by pandora 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pagans had the spring holiday and eggs symbolized new life and rabbits fertility
many Pagans became Christians and the story of Jesus is celebrated
2007-04-06 11:00:12 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Easter is not pagan but a lot of the stuff that got attached to Easter (eggs, bunnies, etc.) comes from pagan/folk beliefs.
That being said it is important to know that Christian holidays were intentionally places on or near pagan holidays in order to win converts and take the place of the older beliefs.
2007-04-06 09:47:02 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Many Christian holidays have pagan trappings: Christmas trees, wreaths, Easter eggs. All of these, and many more, have nothing to do with the Christian holiday. As Christianity grew, and people began having celebrations for certain Christian events, often these events took place around the same time as existing pagan festivals. Over time, as Christianity took hold and paganism died out, people kept the traditions, but used them now for the Christian holidays.
2007-04-06 09:46:22 · answer #7 · answered by Steven D 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
What we know as "Easter Eggs" were once considered by Pagans as a sign of fertility. They have nothing to do with the resurrection. Now it's just a marketing technique.
2007-04-06 09:54:21 · answer #8 · answered by Ruben E 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no longer me. what's the muse of Easter and the customs linked with it ? The Encyclopædia Britannica comments: “there is not any indication of the observance of the Easter pageant interior the hot testomony, or interior the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of specific cases replaced into an concept absent from the minds of the 1st Christians.”—(1910), Vol. VIII, p. 828.
2016-10-21 05:26:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The early church parked its holidays on top of the established ones so that they could keep their flock in control, tie up their attention when they might wander off somewhere else for a good old fertility ritual. It's not that you were lied to exactly, manipulated would be more appropriate and less judgmental.
2007-04-06 09:52:05 · answer #10 · answered by Chris H 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋