Easter is known for its bunny rabbits, colored eggs, hot cross buns.But all the fun things about Easter are actually Pagan in origin. Christians
have historically placed and named their holidays after pagan ones, Christmas https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-pagan-roots-of-christmas-happy.html and
Halloween are two well-known examples of this, replacing Yule and
Samhain respectively.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2020/10/samhain-reflections.html
Easter used
to be the Festival of Eostre, originally a Anglo- Saxon word, denoting a
goddess of spring,
dawn, and fertility,in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about
the time of the Passover.According to St. Bede, a seventh and
eighth-century Northumbrian monk and historian, who reported that pagan Anglo-Saxons in medieval Northumbria held festivals in her honor during the month of April.
Rabbits, thanks to their tendency to have lots of babies very quickly, so they are a perfect animal to symbolically represent the fertility of springtime, that has been absorbed into Easter. But no
one is quite sure how the idea of an “Easter Bunny” that delivers eggs
and treats to good children came about. The egg tradition traces back to
Germany and eastern Europe, where painting eggs was popular in the
spring, and the Osterhare, or Easter bunny has a curious relationship with the Goddess that gave the holiday her name.
In Germanic mythology,
it is said that Ostara a.k.a. Eostre “healed a wounded bird she found
in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the
hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts.” Eostre, originally a Anglo- Saxon word, denoting a
goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about
the time of the Passover.
The origins of Easter are wrapped up in a celebration of seasonal
renewal that has taken place in numerous cultures for thousands of years
around the time of the Spring Equinox. Some argue that even the
Christian version of Easter merely perpetuates an age-old, familiar
theme of resurrection rather than honoring an actual person or event in
history.
Ishtar, was the Assyrian and
Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and
bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols. After
Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to
represent Jesus.
For obvious reasons, eggs have been a symbol of fertility for many
cultures since antiquity. The egg is literally new life, so what better
representation of the spring, when the time of winter, scarcity and
darkness had ended. Eggs, like many traditions that were tied to the
fertility of the earth and cycles of the season, became associated with
Easter as pagan traditions were absorbed.
Easter Eggs or painted eggs are a Middle Ages tradition which is
borne out of the Lenten fast. Since people were fasting, eggs weren't
being eaten and were stored up until Easter Sunday. During this time,
people began to decorate them to give to children. They were often
painted red to symbolise the blood of Jesus, and the shell used to
represent the empty tomb of the resurrection.
Chocolate eggs first appeared in the 17th century in France in the
court of Louis XIV based on this tradition and in 1725, solid chocolate eggs were produced. The
first chocolate Easter egg appeared in Britain in 1873 and then in 1875,
Cadbury’s created the modern Easter egg we know today.
According to an ancient “Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife
Inanna (Ishtar), [...] Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and
follows him to the underworld.” Here, “‘naked and bowed low’ she is
judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth
loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing.
Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.”
Inanna is missing for three days after which her assistant seeks help
from other gods. One of them goes “to the Underworld” gives Tammuz and
Ishtar “the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six
months.
After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the
dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him,
prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus, were the cycles of
winter death and spring life.” Since this myth
was discovered on tablets dating back to around 2500 BC, Tammuz and
Ishtar might be the protagonists of the first pagan Easter story.
Commentators have cited numerous reasons why cultures have chosen to
celebrate Easter in some form. Popular themes have included,light conquering darkness; barren winter giving way to spring birth
life conquering death;good vs. Evil, virgin birth and sacrifice
Often,
these themes are regarded as part of recurring cycles, like the
seasons. Every spring, the world comes back to life. Flowers emerge.
Birdsong fills the air. Animals give birth to their young. Death always
leads to new life. Some elements, such as the three-day timeline and the
hero going to Hell, are also scattered among the myths.
One
writer draws “parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of
Inanna.” This “doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person,
Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story is
structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that
was very ancient and widespread.”
Other sacrificial heroes have included Attis,
lover of Cybele, both of them gods, but Attis “was born of a virgin.”
“Attis was Cybele’s lover, although some sources claim him to be her
son.” Attis “fell in love with a mortal and chose to marry.”
In response to Cybele’s rage,
Attis “fled to the nearby mountains where he gradually became insane,
eventually committing suicide.” She regained her sanity, and “appealed
to Zeus to never allow Attis’s corpse to decay.” Every year, “he would
return to life during the yearly rebirth of vegetation; thus identifying
Attis as an early dying-and-reviving god figure.”
Other gods associated with resurrection include Horus, Mithras, and
Dionysus. “Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother.
Dionysus also brought his mum, Semele, back to life.” The Sumerian
goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake and was
subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld.
Hot cross
buns are related to “Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and
religious leaders trying to put a stop to it.” Eventually, “defiant
cake-baking pagan women” were successful and a cross was added to the
buns to Christianize them.
The only time the word “Easter” is found in the Bible (Acts 12:4), it is
there by mistranslation. The word in the original Greek is “Passover.”
Jesus died at the time of the Passover feast, but the Passover is
not Easter and Jesus did not die at Easter time. Passover is the historical and still-celebrated Jewish festival commemorating the
exodus led by Moses of the Hebrews from Egyptian captivity.
Passover traditions include the consumption of unleavened bread, and Jesus distributed the same to his disciples at the Last Supper.
The Passover celebrations also included the sacrifice of lambs. (Hebrew slaves in Egypt marked their doorsteps
with the blood of such sacrifices so that the angel of death would
pass-over their families.) Similarly, mankind can be saved from
spiritual death through the blood spilled by Jesus through his sacrifice
on the cross
Unlike Christmas,
which is always on the same day each year, Easter is a moveable
celebration where the date is set by the Church and computed according
to the cycle of the moon.
There have been several attempts to have a fixed annual date, but like many other things tradition has prevailed and the old Pagan calculation remains to this day.
Since the 10th century, there have been 15 attempts by senior Church leaders to regulate the date of Easter.
In 1928 the UK Parliament passed an act that allowed for Easter
Sunday to be always the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April,
but there was neither agreement with other governments, nor the Roman
or Eastern Churches.
In 1990 the Vatican agreed to a fixed date, but there was still no
general consensus. And as recently as 2016, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Justin Welby launched an attempt by the Anglican Church.
Anyway whatever your beliefs I hope your having a wonderful blessed, peaceful weekend, am sure Cadbury's and other confectionary merchants are very happy.
