Question by STAX: If Easter has Pagan origins, do you think Jesus cares?
Since the Easter Bunny, the colored eggs and so forth, come from Pagan origins, do you think Jesus cares that his resurrection is mixed in with pagan teachings? If people are so interested in recognizing Jesus ressurection, then why not celebrate it without pagan influence? I can’t imagine Jesus would be happy with paganism, a rivel, being mixed in with his death and ressurection.
Christians, please read 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-9, to see how God views this.
The Encyclopædia Britannica comments: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians.”—(1910), Vol. VIII, p. 828.
The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: “A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.”—(1913), Vol. V, p. 227.
In the book The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, we read: “What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, . . . as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. . . . Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now.”—(New York, 1943), pp. 103, 107, 108
I am a Christian and so wonder why other Christians celebrate this when on this forum, they are constantly bashing pagans. I do not celebrate it as I view it is offensive to Jesus.
Best answer:
Answer by Psycho Warning
Yes he does…it’s an abomination to him…as it is to God…
It’s just a good reason for the Pope to get dressed in his sunday best pajamas and throw water on the masses…
What do you think? Answer below!
Why would he care? God gave the pagans “hints” of the coming Christ to facilitate their conversion. He taught them that they should celebrate life and fecundity, as we do when we celebrate his utter conquest of death in the resurrection.
No, but Hercules cares.
hope Jesus is not a pagan also
All of humanity comes from pagan beginnings. God accepts us where we are and helps us understand deeper truths by identifying what we know with what we can not see. The pagan symbols often become tools to teach us a deeper message about God. In this way, God takes what is pagan, blesses it and uses it to teach us deeper truths.
absolutely! go read in exodus the story of the “golden calf”, a pagan symbol and s*x festival that the “priest of yhvh” declared to be a “feast to yhvh”…. well, god wasn’t all that pleased about it!!
If your family were to decide to celebrate the anniversary of your graduation on the same day that another family across town celebrates their daughter’s birthday; would that offend you?
I don’t think Jesus gives a shit mate! Just as long as we appreciate what He did for us on Good Friday and remember that He conquered the grave, defeated death and lives forever.
Yes. You are correct about Easter having pagan origins. But, some of us celebrate Resurrection Day. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus. God knows what’s in our hearts. And He will judge accordingly.
As far as Catholicism goes, well, they have lots of pagan practices to worry about. They were all brought in by the Roman Catholic Church, anyway. They combined Christianity with paganism, and added a bunch of mysticism with it. So, I think the Roman Catholic religion has more to worry about than just Easter. Although, I have heard Catholics say they worship Mary, and I have heard them call her the “Queen of Heaven.”
This comes from the Mother/child cult. I think there a lot of people who are really misled into thinking they are worshiping Mary, the mother of Jesus (which is also wrong!)
“The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.”
Jer.7:18
Read Jer.44 for more about the “queen of heaven.”
HE probably could care less its humans who look for points of contention
Ostara (pronounced “O-STAR-ah”) is one of the Lesser Wiccan Sabbats and is celebrated on the Spring Equinox, most often March 21st, but varies somewhat from the 20th to the 23rd. The variance, as with all Solar festivals, is due to the differences between the actual astronomical event and our calendar, so be sure to check the calendar each year.
Other names this Sabbat is also called by are the Vernal Equinox or the Spring Equinox, Oestara, Eostre’s Day, Rite of Eostre, Equinozio della Primavera (Aridian Strega), Alban Eiber (Caledonii Tradition or the Druids), Bacchanalia, Festival of the Trees, and Lady Day. Christians celebrate their holiday – Easter – near this same time and it is based on basically the same principles as ours in the Old Religion. Easter is actually determined in a very Pagan manner… it is always the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.
This Sabbat is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, when light and darkness are in balance but the light is growing stronger. The forces of masculine energy and feminine energy are also in balance and this day marks paves the way for the coming lushness of Summer. Ostara is a time for the celebration of fertility and balance, a time when all elements within and without us are brought into harmony. A time of new life and rebirth, as well as the end of Winter.
Symbols used to represent Ostara include the egg (for fertility and reproduction) and the hare (for rebirth and resurrection), the New Moon, butterflies and cocoons. Symbolically, many Pagans choose to represent Ostara by the planting of seeds, potted plants, ringing bells, lighting new fires at sunrise, either in the fireplace (if the weather us still cold enough), in the the cauldron, or light a balefire (if outdoors).
Easter, the Christian holiday, does NOT have pagan origins.
Over time, some pagan practices of pagan holidays that occur in spring have been added to the festivities of Easter, but Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is what it honors, and that is it’s origin.
The fact that some people brought other cultural and relgious practices into it when they joined Christianity does not mean that Easter is pagan. Easter is firmly and wholly Christian, though some people also continue to enjoy some pagan based traditions on that day.
I am a pagan, and I am tired of people always claiming that every Christian holy day is really just a pagan day dressed up. The fact that different faiths have holy days on or near the same time, even if they share a similar theme, does not mean the people are honoring or celebrating the same thing.
The bunnies, dyed eggs, etc are cultural things, and indeed may stem from pagan traditions, but the point of Easter, for Christians is not bunnies or eggs, it is resurrection and salvation.
Halloween is a Christian (specifically Catholic) Holiday, Samhain is a Wiccan holiday (and some other trads) and the Days of the Dead is a holiday of Central and South America…they all fall on the same day, they share the theme of death, but they are different holidays, honoring different things.
Same with Ostara, Vernal Equinox and Easter. They may fall on or near one another, and renewal may be celebrated, but they are NOT the same holiday, and no one “stole” anything from anyone else…imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
A cat may have her kittens in the oven, but that doesn’t make them biscuits.
The pagan celebration was, is, and always will be very real. They have done this since the beginning of time.
I did not say that the “GODS” are real. But the celebrations are real.
Jesus isn’t.
Yes, Jesus cares. People dishonor him when they claim to celebrate his death/resurrection by taking part in pagan customs and rituals.
People who claim that Easter is not pagan are either ignorant or dishonest.
Jesus said at Matthew 15:7-9, “You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”
I think that anyone celebrating pagan holidays created by ungodly men and then claiming that it is a “Christian” holiday certainly falls into the above category.