Why do Christians celebrate easter with fancy hats, chocolate bunnies and egg symbols?

Question

It al seems so sacreligious and nothing to do with the Resurrection. Is it because, like Christmas, their religion could not survive without stealing the fun parts of Pagan religions?

no1hoe2 - What planet do you live on? Go to almost any Christian church on Easter, look at the clothes they are wearing, and show me howmany kids didn;t get an easter basket....

Samurai - you observe bias where none exists; I am truly curious, though I certainly would be brain-dead not to have my own theories.

Answer 1

The hats are to dress up. The bunnies and eggs represent new life.

Personally, I think these things are more about spring than Easter but I can see how someone can take them to represent a resurrection

Answer 2

well this is a rather loaded question that I don't think anyone would make the mistake in assuming the asker was actually interested in any answer that they did not already have in their head to begin with.

As mentioned above, much of the symbolism you speak of is the secular part of the Christian world. While churches will do easter egg hunts and such, none look on it as a religious activity.. If the asker could sacrifice his overwhelmign bias for a moment, a brief objective scrutiny (the basis of true scienctic observations) would assure him of this.

As to Christmas and Easter, the asker is apparently in ignorance of the origins of the Church's organization when in the early centuries following 300AD when it became official by Constantine, missionaries were charged with being tolerant to other religions (a far cry from later ones) and trying to incorporate elements that would entice converts. Hence sunday, christmas, and easter to name but a few which made accepting Christianity more palatable to pagan converts.

Now with easter, spring and the resurrection go hand in hand as both are about new life something pagans could easily accept. The egg became a medieval Christian symbol because it symbolized new life. Eggs have been such symbols in many cultures going back to the Egyptians The rabbit was the creature of spring and fertility and the familar of an Anglo-Saxon spring deity - however only Bede is the source for this.

The fancy hats and clothes have to do with new things - out with the old, in with the new. It's a shame this question is so lamely aggressive as the roots of Easter are fascinating from any perspective.

http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/the-easter-bunny-conundrum/

Answer 3

Well, we Christians like to have fun too! It isn't that we have forgotten what we believe. Christ rising on Easter morning is a glorious celebration! So we celebrate!! Do any of you? As far as the bunny, and eggs and so on, I just Googled it and found the info amazing. There is way to much to address here. I will say, and please be patient, the Ancient Saxons prayed to the spring godess Eastre, who was embodied by a rabbit. The early Christian, knowing conversion wasn't going to be easy with these people (man, I can hear teeth crunching already...am I gonna get it) and considering Christ's Rising was during the same period of time, combined the two. In Europe the "Easter Rabbit" and "Eggs" (which were s symbol of hope for a rich spring..I think) continued to be practiced. The Easter Bunny, Basket, Eggs and all the rest didn't find it's way to America until after the civil war. These traditions were brought over by the German people! I don't know what religion the Germans were. Anyway, that's what I just learned. I hope you find it interesting...I did!

Answer 4

You are lumping all Christians into one category. That is unfair! At our church we do not celebrate Easter with fancy hats, chocolate bunnies, nor do we have an Easter egg hunt for our children. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ at Easter. We celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Savior, even though we don't know exactly the day he was born.

By the way, it doesn't matter if you have an old faded dress, or a new modern one, or have a hat on your head, or not. Celebrating and worshiping The Lord comes from the heart, and not what you have on your body. If a person can afford nice clothes, then they should be able to wear them without condemnation of others. Likewise, if a person can't afford nice clothes to wear to church; then we don't need to look down on them either.

I think picking little things out like that is just an excuse to keep from going to church. If you don't like that church, then by all means find another. Just don't pick on the folks who by choice decided to go to church instead of the lake or the mall.

Answer 5

YES, PAGAN ORIGINS

Did you know that the very name “Easter,” is of pagan origin? Says an early eighteenth-century Catholic scholar, a Benedictine monk, in a work that may well be said to have been the forerunner of the modern Bible dictionary:

“Easter is a word of Saxon origin; and imports a goddess of the Saxons, or rather, of the East, Estera, in honor of whom sacrifices being annually offered about the passover time of the year (spring), the name became attached by association of ideas to the Christian festival of the resurrection which happened at the time of passover; hence we say Easter-Day or Easter Sunday, but very improperly; as we by no means refer to the festival then kept to the goddess of the ancient Saxons.”2

To the same effect testify other authorities, from the eighth-century English historian Bede to the lastest encyclopedias.

Concerning the use of hot cross buns at Easter time we are told:

“Like the Greeks, the Romans ate bread marked with a cross . . . at public sacrifices, such bread being usually purchased at the doors of the temple and then taken in with them—a custom alluded to by St. Paul in 1 Cor. x. 28. The cross-bread was eaten by pagan Saxons in honour of Easter, their goddess of light. The Mexicans and Peruvians are shown to have had a similar custom. The custom, in fact, was practically universal, and the early Church adroitly adopted the practice, grafting it on to the Eucharist and so giving us the hot crossbun.”3

What about the Easter eggs? It is a well-known fact that in the ancient pagan cosmogonies, or theories about the origin of the universe, the egg looms up prominently. One tells of the “Egg of Light,” another of the “World-Egg.” From one or another of these eggs was supposed to have issued the first god, the Maker and Ruler of the World. Eros, the god of “love,” is also said to have issued forth from an egg.4

Answer 6

The pagan festivals celebrate life, each aspect of life in the corresponding season. I think most people find this irresistable. It makes so much sense, and it's so much fun. This is why I became a pagan.

Honestly, though, we really all are celebrating the same thing, only using different symbols. I don't mind sharing. There is much more that unites us in the human experience than what divides us.

Answer 7

Christians are the assemble of call out people; the believers. Celebrating easter this way is not biblical and does not show forth a true christian faithful at easter. Those that did that are ignorant about what easter is all about.
Jesus died and resurected to give believers victory over sin,death and the works of the Flesh,and reconcile us back to God.

Answer 8

The bunny does not LAY them, He in simple terms supplies them out! have you ever seen in a photograph or on television around easter time a bunny poppin a squat and lettin out a set of coloured eggs? Nooooooo, he's often wearing them in a basket.

Answer 9

How do you figure? Christians celebrate with praise and worship and sacrifice, as they should. The secular world we live in has made the Easter Bunny more important than Jesus dying on the cross, and Santa Claus more important than baby Jesus coming to us to save us. Man-made is key, think about it. Reword your question, it is severely inaccurate and unintelligent. Think about it, Christians, not secular humans DO celebrate the resurrection.

Answer 10

I've never seen anyone wearing a fancy hat at easter.
The bunnies and eggs symbolise new life.