Should Christian’s Celebrate Pagan Festivals

[Secret Chief]

Easter probably comes from east, where the sun rises, hence the resurrection

Source?

Not just the UK. The goddess is venerated in some German paganism.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

So why is it called Easter? It is derived from the name of the Germanic spring goddess Ēostre, who was celebrated with feasts during April ("Ēostre's month").

The actual historical backing of Oester as an actual worshipped figure is flimsy at best. It's talked about more by people who interacted with that nonsense Zeitgeist 'documentary' than actual historians.

It is definitively not where the term Easter came from. Which was the same Germanic and Anglo-Saxon root Oestra would have come from. The word for dawn, which is fitting of any spring equinox placed ritual.

I'm sure @Augustus would be happy to roll out the annual debate points if you asked him.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

The OP is from the UK tho.

So was Alan Moore. Which Guy was the good guy and role model for the titular character. (Alan Moore was an anarchist.)

 

[Secret Chief]

The actual historical backing of Oester as an actual worshipped figure is flimsy at best. It's talked about more by people who interacted with that nonsense Zeitgeist 'documentary' than actual historians.

It is definitively not where the term Easter came from. Which was the same Germanic and Anglo-Saxon root Oestra would have come from. The word for dawn, which is fitting of any spring equinox placed ritual.

I'm sure @Augustus would be happy to roll out the annual debate points if you asked him.

Gawd no! Easter to me is eggs, hares and fertility!

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Gawd no! Easter to me is eggs, hares and fertility!

Easter to me means discount chocolate the day after the event.

 

[Secret Chief]

Easter to me means discount chocolate the day after the event.

@JustGeorge mentioned that. I find in the UK most of it bombs out before the Easter weekend. Maybe I just go in the wrong shops!

 

[Augustus]

So why is it called Easter? It comes from the name of the Germanic pagan spring goddess Ēostre, who was celebrated with feasts during April ("Ēostre's month").

Even if we accept that origin (which is debatable), its naming in English and German says nothing about its actual origins though given its dating and significance had been established centuries prior to it reaching England.

It's a bit like if Guy Fawkes Day had been introduced in Ghana by colonial Brits and the Ghanains gave it some name in the Twi language. It might be an interesting question for etymologists, but would say nothing about the origins and significance of Guy Fawkes Day.

Guy Fawkes (UK) (Also known as Celebrate a Criminal day)

Celebrate a Protestant victory over "vile Popery" is it not? Its sectarian origins are why it remains particularly popular in certain Northern Irish communities...

 

[The Hammer]

Clearly, the event recognizes him as a terrible Guy.

Oh for Fawkes sake.

 

[The Hammer]

An amalgam of innate response mechanisms, positive associations, and cultural icons.

He is Odin: the All-Father, old and learned in lore.

He is the Horned God: Coming from the Wilds to bring light and life.

He is the Saint: Concerned about the welfare of humans and bestowing gifts to help us on our way.

Wonderfully poetic. Bragi has been visiting you I see.

 

[McBell]

I did not leave out anything… The list I presented was not, in anyway, exhaustive.

Moreover, I stated that you are welcome to add your own PAGAN festivals and PAGSN Celebrations.

EASTER, is not Pagan…!

It is TRUE, however, that the people THOUGHT they were welcoming a WARRIOR MESSIAH.

A few days later they realised they were wrong and were after his death.

The CELEBRATION was not wrong - only the projected reason for it by the Jews who had wrongful outcomes for THEIR celebration.

Define "pagan".

I ask because if "Hide The Eggs From Jesus Day' isn't pagan....

 

[1213]

• Christmas (Otherwise known as Self Indulgent day)

Why do you think Christmas is Self Indulgent day?

 

[Augustus]

Define "pagan".

I ask because if "Hide The Eggs From Jesus Day' isn't pagan....

Why would it be pagan?

At the start of Lent you have “pancake day”/ Shrove Tuesday to use up the eggs you can’t eat during Lent.

At the end of Lent you have lots of eggs you didn’t eat but you can eat now it is Easter.

It’s not like your hens would stop laying them during your period of abstinence, and it’s not like people were rich enough to waste food they could eat.

Days that bookend Lent and involve eating eggs is just a pretty obvious side effect of the Christian period of abstinence where folk couldn’t eat eggs.

 

[McBell]

Why would it be pagan?

Depends upon ones definition/usage of the word pagan.
Thus the reason I asked for their definition.

I see lots of people using the word to mean "any beliefs that I disagree with".

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Wonderfully poetic. Bragi has been visiting you I see.

Yes! Gods of poetry have always appealed to me.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Why would it be pagan?

"Pagan," generally referred to anyone not Christian, correct? Often referring to rural folks with rustic traditions?

In this way, customs involving eggs that weren't used due to Christian abstinence, like decorating them for children to find during Easter seems like a rural custom not connected to any theology of Christianity except perhaps tangentially. In that way, it doesn't seem necessarily wrong to refer to it as pagan using the original definition. That's assuming it's the rural folks who were keeping chickens.

 

[Augustus]

Depends upon ones definition/usage of the word pagan.
Thus the reason I asked for their definition.

I see lots of people using the word to mean "any beliefs that I disagree with".

Well the “X is pagan” tropes that relate to Christian festivals are primarily the product of historical Protestant polemics against “popery” rather than actual pagan practices so it is traditional.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

A person who declares himself as a God but who must LEARN will err many times - and there can never be ‘ALMIGHTY GOD’.

He (Odin) will always be CHANGING - not a Constant. Who was he learning the ‘Lore’ from?

From himself. Sacrifices of his eye, his Raven friends who fly around the world, sacrificing himself to a tree dedicated to himself.

Jesus changes many times in his life and even makes errors and is shown as mortal and defecidnt in knowledge except where his constant God and Father (No Oxford comma!) taught him or informed him:

Odin and Jesus have change and knowledge in common then.

• ‘The truth I heard from God’).
• God made him immortal after being raising him from the dead.
• God seated him at His side in the kingdom of Heaven as His Right hand MAN
• God gave him power to rule for a limited period of time
• God GRANTED him to have the ability to give eternal life to those whom he deemed worthy of it at the judgement seat

Worship God…
Glorify Jesus Christ…
Celebrate BOTH!

Worship whoever brings meaning to you...
Glorify whatever connects you to the living world...
Celebrate life!

 

[Guitar's Cry]

“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the [Pagan] land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.” (Exodus 34:15)

Barbecue! Sign me up...

 

[Augustus]

"Pagan," generally referred to anyone not Christian, correct? Often referring to rural folks with rustic traditions?

In this way, customs involving eggs that weren't used due to Christian abstinence, like decorating them for children to find during Easter seems like a rural custom not connected to any theology of Christianity except perhaps tangentially. In that way, it doesn't seem necessarily wrong to refer to it as pagan using the original definition. That's assuming it's the rural folks who were keeping chickens.

People celebrating Christian feasts with foodstuff left over from Christian fasting would not be pagan in any meaningful sense of the word imo.

 

[Colt]

The one Almighty God of the Jews prohibited the worship of other Pagan Gods and also any festivals associated with them.

But, contemporary ‘Christian’s’ openly, and even advocate, taking part in pagan festivals so as to attract non-Christians and younger audience who indulge in the festivities with no regard to its actual Christian meaning for people who live in countries who’s religious belief is that of ‘Christian’.

Pagan Festivals include:

• Christmas (Otherwise known as Self Indulgent day)
• Guy Fawkes (UK) (Also known as Celebrate a Criminal day)
• Thanks Giving …
• Halloween (Celebration of non-existent disembodied spirits)
• Mothering Sunday (Weirdly called ‘Mothers Day’)
• Pointless Day (Weirdly called ‘Fathers day’)
• Animal Day (weirdly known as Celebrate your Pet with fluffy toys and gay body waste coat and treats day)

It’s an open question and no explicit pagan festival is implied in the question so you can add your own.

Ironically blood sacrifices was a practice adopted by the Israelites from the Pagans. Paul’s Gospel of the atonement is a theory from the Pagans. In fact one of the greatest distortions of the teachings of Jesus is the backward theory that Jesus came to be rejected and killed, that Gods blemish free Son was sacrificed back to God so that he could then have a technical way to forgive man by his son taking on the sins of the world! Even more bizarre is the claim that all of this was planned long before the world existed!