The Origins of Christian Holidays and their Traditions

[metis]

Honestly, pretty much every "tradition" today started out with pagan origins. If you want to invoke the Bible with regard to "pagan practices" then you really need to do a lot of research and avoid pretty much everything.

Especially since cultures learn from each other, including sharing of some beliefs.

It is not intrinsically "evil" to take a symbol from another faith and then modify that to fit a different narrative.

 

[Cherie Faye]

The link is just another "We're the only true Christians" kinda garbage.

And welcome here to RF.

Just wanted to put the link out there and get the discussion going again. I would really just love to hear more. Thank you for the welcome.

 

[Falvlun]

@SalixIncendium

• Why is there an Easter bunny?

Because the rabbit/hare was a popular motif in medieval Christian art. For some bizarre reason, classical Greek zoologists had believed that the hare or rabbit produced offspring virgin-ally. This appealed to the early Christians, therefore, as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

In many ancient cathedrals throughout Europe, if you inspect the architecture closely you will find 'three hares' or rabbits being used to signify the Holy Trinity. This was it's second usage.

The Easter Bunny proper, however, was first popularized as a symbol of the feast by the German Lutherans. It is likely they invented the myth of the Easter Bunny for their children.

Your post was very informative and this was something I hadn’t heard before.

My understanding was kinda the opposite— bunnies (and eggs) were associated with fertility, Spring was the time to celebrate and promote fertility and new life, and since the Resurrection was also about new life, it all just got rolled together. But the point was that bunnies were pretty much the opposite of virginal.

I wonder how bunnies got associated with fertility then.

 

[Cherie Faye]

Your post was very informative and this was something I hadn’t heard before.

My understanding was kinda the opposite— bunnies (and eggs) were associated with fertility, Spring was the time to celebrate and promote fertility and new life, and since the Resurrection was also about new life, it all just got rolled together. But the point was that bunnies were pretty much the opposite of virginal.

I wonder how bunnies got associated with fertility then.

I do remember watching a video about the pagan origins of Easter and they mentioned that the English word for Easter is named after the Germanic goddess, Ēostre or Ostara and the Easter bunny may have come from the pagan worship of Austere, who was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.