Easter is Jesus.....

Or not. I hate those signs people put in their yard. Just drives me freakin' nuts.

I don't bemoan anyone their religious beliefs or practices, but I find it irritating when people blindly make ignorant comments like, "You're not even Christian, why do you celebrate Easter?" (or Christmas, for that matter.) Hmmmmm, really?

What do Easter bunnies and colored eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Very little, if anything at all. Can we accept that it's common knowledge that in the days the Catholic church was conquering the world, they took pagan tradition and gods and practices and intertwined it with their faith to make it easier for the pagans to accept and therefore convert? This IS fairly common knowledge. Those who deny it are simply not accepting the facts.

The name of the holiday itself comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring "Eostre". The month attributed to her happens to coincide with the month we now call April and her annual festival was held on the vernal equinox. She is similar to the Germanic goddess Ôstarâ. And both are often credited for being virgin mothers of a special child fathered by a sky or sun god.

While eggs were a popular Easter treat because their consumption was traditionally forbidden during Lent- during that season they were hard boiled to prevent spoiling, then gifted to the children after the conclusion of Lent, but their involvement in spring festivals predates Christianity back to the Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Greek, and Roman cultures. Eggs have long been a symbol of new life and fertility. The ancient Romans believed all life came from an egg, while Christian tradition viewed the egg as the "seed of life". At the Passover Seder, a hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water symbolizes both new life and the Passover sacrifice offered at the Temple in Jerusalem.

The coloring of them seems to stem from a conglomeration of traditions- here, there, and everywhere. In ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia eggs were dyed for spring festivals. In medieval Europe, beautifully decorated eggs were given as gifts. The Orthodox tradition is to paint the eggs red as a symbol of the resurrection* while many pagan traditions painted them green to celebrate the onset of spring.

Hares and rabbits have been a symbol of fertility since the dawn of time. Hares and eggs are both attributed to Eostre and Ostara, and the Greek goddess Eos, a fertility goddess, but one or both appear to be sacred to many other deities throughout the world; Unut, Aphrodite, Holda, Freyja, Andraste, Cerridwen - not to mention several Asian and Middle Eastern goddesses.


I could get into resurrection myth and how Jesus wasn't the first to pull off that trick, but I'll save it for another day.

Please, don't get me wrong, I don't really have anything against any religion. I just get frustrated with people who are stubborn to the facts. I, personally, accept religions as different versions of the same thing, sharing soooooo many similar stories, to me that continuity is my "proof". It's okay to say that you don't quite believe this or that version, but you can't claim that any singular one is uniquely original in it's concept and tradition. That is part of the beauty of Easter. In little ways, it's part of everyone's history and heritage, Christian or not.

Happy Easter!

* I wanted to include this little tid-bit in reference to painting eggs red. The Orthodox Church has a tradition that evolved from two stories it has handed down over the last 1500 years. One is that after Christ was resurrected Mary Magdalene approached the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar, and told him "Christ is Risen." He pointed to an egg on his dinner table and said Christ is no more risen than that egg will turn red. At that point, the egg turned red. Another story I've come across is that after the Resurrection, Mary approached a group of women and handed out boiled eggs that said "Christ is Risen" and they turned red. I have found no scriptural support for these stories, if you do- please let me know! In most Orthodox artwork, she is depicted holding the red egg. Interesting!!