Is Easter Pagan?

[Augustus]

I'm glad that you now feel better about your own emotionally and ideologically satisfying nonsense.

I hope this will bring you peace and understanding.

You'll have to find an example of it first, clowny...

Seriously thou, why would I "now feel better"?

I've always been perfectly clear that humans are only intermittently and inconsistently rational, and that I don't consider myself to be a magical exception to this rule.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Generalising about any group is inaccurate, but we ned to generalise about the world to some degree. Many exceptions always apply, the important thing is whether the generalisation contains enough truth to be meaningful.

On this issue, I'm highly confident that it does.

It is good that you are bucking the trend though and unlearning all the New Atheist history of religion mythology. Next one to do is the Galileo Affair

I wouldn't say the various differing accounts of the Galileo affair come from New Atheism (even if they're repeated by some "New Atheists"): they've been around for centuries and promulgated by all sorts of religious and non-religious groups for different reasons.

Whether it's propagation of an exaggerated and oversimplified account meant to portray Galileo as a martyr and the Church as the Devil or endorsement of a sanitized one intended to advance apologetics for the Church's tyranny and abuse (of which there are numerous examples, aside from the hyperbolic and fabricated ones), there's hardly a primary source for these stories nowadays. I've seen them repeated by atheists, Christians (of differing denominations to boot), Muslims, and Pagans, among others.

 

[Kooky]

I've always been perfectly clear that humans are only intermittently and inconsistently rational, and that I don't consider myself to be a magical exception to this rule.

Everybody acts in practice like they alone are immune to the common faults of humanity.
As an example of this, see your own words from above:

You'll have to find an example of it first, clowny...

 

[mangalavara]

The name Easter is the English term that's used the most for a Christian festival that celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The same festival is called Pascha in Greek, Fasika in Amharic, 'id il-'iyama in Egyptian Arabic, 'eda rabba in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Pascha in Latin, and Pasxa in Russian. Some Western Christians in the Anglosphere call it Resurrection Sunday, which I think is a more suitable name than Easter. If you were to ask any Christian minister or clergyman what text the festival is based on, he would cite one or more of the canonical Gospels. This narrative of a Jewish man who was crucified, died, was buried, and resurrected on the third day is not found in Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Ovid, Sophocles, or any other 'pagan' writer. This is why I think Easter, Pascha, or whatever you want to call it is not a pagan festival. It is a Christian festival.

 

[exchemist]

You know what? You're right. I had completely forgotten about the part of the gospel where an egg laying rabbit hidden it's delights in Christ's empty tomb.

Haha very funny.

The rabbit - or rather, hare - comes from German Lutherans in the c.17th, apparently. The hare seems to have some sort of religious significance: Easter Bunny - Wikipedia

Coloured eggs are a symbol of rebirth and renewal (cf. the Resurrection) and seem to have been taken over by the early Mesopotamian church from Persian tradition.

Nothing in any of this about pagan goddesses, though it looks as if Ukrainian practice of colouring eggs may predate Christianity - as did the Persian practice.

 

[Left Coast]

Connections of the Germanic/English word "Easter" to some Middle Eastern Goddess are tenuous at best. Christians celebrated what we call Easter long before that word was invented for it. The word seems to have more to do with Spring than some far-flung goddess that germanic pagans (or Christians) would've never heard of. Bunnies and eggs are signs of fertility, which is associated with Spring. Easter happens in Spring. No Canaanite goddesses are required to make that connection.

On the other hand, I think there's a much better argument to be made that Christianity borrowed elements in its mythology from other mystery cults, which include dying and rising gods/demigods.

 

[Augustus]

Everybody acts in practice like they alone are immune to the common faults of humanity.
As an example of this, see your own words from above:

Good example, you failed to comprehend the next words.

"Seriously though..." indicating the previous was a light-hearted remark

Seriously though, there is a difference between accepting we have biases and blind-spots and being able to spot them in real time.

We are irrational because we cannot consistently identify our cognitive failings as our brain often hides them from us.

 

[Augustus]

I wouldn't say the various differing accounts of the Galileo affair come from New Atheism (even if they're repeated by some "New Atheists"): they've been around for centuries and promulgated by all sorts of religious and non-religious groups for different reasons.

Whether it's propagation of an exaggerated and oversimplified account meant to portray Galileo as a martyr and the Church as the Devil or endorsement of a sanitized one intended to advance apologetics for the Church's tyranny and abuse (of which there are numerous examples, aside from the hyperbolic and fabricated ones), there's hardly a primary source for these stories nowadays. I've seen them repeated by atheists, Christians (of differing denominations to boot), Muslims, and Pagans, among others.

I agree, it's just a shorthand for the type of nonsense that almost al New Atheists believe in.

New Atheist history is basically all just anti-Catholic polemic filtered through 18th/19th C Rationalism, with a twist of 19th c Romanticism and New Age type myths on top.

 

[Father Heathen]

Haha very funny.

The rabbit - or rather, hare - comes from German Lutherans in the c.17th, apparently. The hare seems to have some sort of religious significance: Easter Bunny - Wikipedia

Coloured eggs are a symbol of rebirth and renewal (cf. the Resurrection) and seem to have been taken over by the early Mesopotamian church from Persian tradition.

Nothing in any of this about pagan goddesses, though it looks as if Ukrainian practice of colouring eggs may predate Christianity - as did the Persian practice.

The point is that a lot of traditions and practices associated with Christmas or Easter don't have judo-christian origins. Of course the celebration of Christ's birth and resurrection in and of themselves aren't pagan, but elves and decorated fir trees weren't present at the manger.

 

[PruePhillip]

Why? Do you believe that there's something blasphemous about Easter? What are your thoughts on the Eucharist?

Jesus and his church never heard of Easter. The eucharist, more properly the bread and wine,
are integral to Christianity.

 

[Augustus]

The point is that a lot of traditions and practices associated with Christmas or Easter don't have judo-christian origins. Of course the celebration of Christ's birth and resurrection in and of themselves aren't pagan, but elves and decorated fir trees weren't present at the manger.

You are falling into the Protestant fundamentalist trap of thinking that anything non-Biblical is "not Christian" and must therefore be "Pagan".

Is it really that hard to understand that things can be both a) not in the Bible, and b) Christian in origin?

 

[Father Heathen]

You are falling into the Protestant fundamentalist trap of thinking that anything non-Biblical is "not Christian" and must therefore be "Pagan".

Is it really that hard to understand that things can be both a) not in the Bible, and b) Christian in origin?

No, I get that, but some customs and practices actually were of pagan origin and were cultural carry-overs after conversion to Christianity.

 

[exchemist]

The point is that a lot of traditions and practices associated with Christmas or Easter don't have judo-christian origins. Of course the celebration of Christ's birth and resurrection in and of themselves aren't pagan, but elves and decorated fir trees weren't present at the manger.

OK but, as I've pointed out, both eggs and hares have Christian religious symbolism (though the hare is rather obscure, admittedly), as does eating lamb.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Bunnies and eggs are signs of fertility, which is associated with Spring.

That's a pagan influence. Easter isn't related to fertility.

I think that some of the problem in this thread is disagreement about what is being asked. Some are answering the question of whether Easter was created to imitate existing pagan holidays, and others are addressing European adornments which were added later.

I live in Mexico, and Easter, like Christmas, is a very different holiday that I remember in the States. For me, Easter was always about bunnies and eggs. We got chocolate rabbits that we bit the ears off of first, and hunted for eggs that we had died earlier in the week with Paas egg dying kits. Jesus and resurrections weren't a part of the celebration.

Then I moved to Mexico, now see a biblical Easter, and even participate a bit. On Palm Sunday, my wife and I have followed Jesus into Jerusalem over a path of flower petals carrying braided palm fronds:

This is what Good Friday looks like:

All one need do to see the pagan influence of Easter in America (and I presume much or most of Europe) is compare the two.

So, if the question is whether Easter was created in homage to surrounding pagan rituals and celebrations, probably not, although it appears to be a spin-off of Passover, which, being a celebration related to the Jews escaping captivity, is totally unrelated to Easter. But Easter has been transformed from a resurrection holiday into a fertility holiday in some parts of the world.

Incidentally, we see the same thing with Christmas. Whereas in the States, Christmas was a winter holiday that featured Santa and Frosty, tinsel and flocking, in Mexico, it's still a desert holiday featuring mangers and camels and magi and baby Jesus. I've been witnessing the transformation of the holiday as more and more Christmas lights are appearing on homes playing the wintery tune Jingle Bells, not Silent Night. And this is principally because a Wal-Mart opened up here about fifteen years ago, and carries the inventory of American Christmas. We've begun giving Christmas presents of candy and a little money to our neighborhood kids, something unfamiliar to them. They don't have a tree usually, or gifts under it, but check back in ten or twenty years.

And Halloween. I remember the first time kids came to the door saying, "Halloween!" rather than "Trick or treat," but they were in costumes of monsters and princesses, had plastic pumpkin buckets and were expecting candy, nothing like the native Dia de Muertos.

So, the pagans have reached Mexico via Europe, where fertility symbols were added, and Wal-Mart, where the pagan trappings are sold at everyday low prices.

 

[1213]

...Many of the rituals are loosely associated with Celtic druidism.

By what I know, people know nothing about druidism, so how do you know about their rituals?

 

[Polymath257]

By what I know, people know nothing about druidism, so how do you know about their rituals?

We know some, but admittedly not too much.

But we do know that Christians co-opted pagan beliefs in order to gain followers. They also liked to build churches on pagan sacred sites. For example, Charlemagne's destruction of Imrminsul and the construction of a church on the site.

During Roman times, Christians co-opted spring festivals into Easter. Those spring festivals had components of the worship of Ishtar.

 

[Augustus]

No, I get that, but some customs and practices actually were of pagan origin and were cultural carry-overs after conversion to Christianity.

Just none of the ones you have mentioned in this thread...

 

[Augustus]

That's a pagan influence. Easter isn't related to fertility.

Neither are Easter eggs or hares...

 

[Left Coast]

That's a pagan influence. Easter isn't related to fertility.

Pagans don't have a monopoly on seasons. Seasons are global (more or less). Easter happens in Spring. Spring is associated with fertility all across the world. Thus Easter came to be associated with typical Springtime imagery, since they coincide. None of that connection has anything to do, specifically, with Middle Eastern goddesses.

Again, the better argument for Easter's pagan roots would have to do with similar pagan mystery cults that commemorated dying and rising gods or demigods.

 

[Augustus]

Thus Easter came to be associated with typical Springtime imagery, since they coincide.

I'm always surprised by people's complete inability to understand this point.

As if the only possible way Christians could ever think of associating festivals with seasonal fauna and flora was if they 'stole it from the pagans' as some sort of devious marketing ploy.

It's not like it is a near universal feature of all human cultures or anything...