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What are the origins behind our Easter celebrations?
Our modern lives are hectic, eclectic and information overloaded but we all celebrate the spring Easter holiday, but I wonder how many of us understand why we observe the traditions and customs that have been handed down by our descendannts. The images, food and products generated by the Easter merchandising industries offers us mixed and contradictory messages.
Christian teaching tells us that Easter is percieved as one of the most important annual events after Christmas. The narrative of good Friday and Easter Sunday are reflected in iconography and images in our western lives and can be observed, from the cross that appears on our churches, paintings and sculptures from past times and the films and drama we see on our televisions at Easter. But where do all the bunnies, eggs and hot cross buns fit in to the story?
We have to delve far into Pagan and pre-Christian festivals for the answers. Easter falls on the Spring Equinox,the reason why the date is never fixed as it is dictated by the phases of the moon. The date of the holiday falls according to pagan tradition, the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. There are many myths and legends from pre-Christian times that tell the story of death and resurrection that do sound oddly familiar.
The Phrygians observed a spring festival in honour of the fertility goddess known as Cybele, who had a lover named Attis, born of a virgin who died and then, after three days was resurrected, which is celebrated around the vernal equinox. This spring festival commenced as the day of blood on Black Friday, and then three days later, in much rejoicing over the resurrection. Similar resurrected god myths can be uncovered in other ancient lore: the Sumerian goddess Inanna, the Egyptian Horus and the Roman Mithras all came back from the dead.
The word ‘Easter’ is said to come from Eostre, the Saxon mother goddess. The Norse equivalent of Eostre was Ostara, whose symbols are an egg and a hare. Festivals in honour of these goddesses were also on or around the vernal equinox. Rabbits are a powerful symbol of fertility and eggs have always symbolised new life and fertility. Painted eggs are thought to imitate the sun and the brightly colored spring flowers and have been exchanged and used in rituals and since the days of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.
An Easter favorite, the hot cross bun is normally associated with Lent but they also happen to originate from ancient times. It is written in the Old Testament that the Israelites baked sweet buns as offering to idols. Greeks and Romans baked cakes with crosses marked on the top, rumored to have strange magic properties. Two of these cross cakes were discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum having been covered in ashes from Mount Vesuvius. The early Christian church tried to prevent the practice of baking sacred cakes at Easter time, but in the face of the defiant pagan women bakers, they relented and gave the cakes their blessings instead.
Since early civilization, many peoples around the world have associated spring with rebirth and resurrection, nature’s re awakening after the cold, hard, barren winter, Easter is essentially a pagan festival that has been replaced by the Christian celebration of the resurrection. So what better way to celebrate, and help mother nature a bit at the same time, by sending an environmentally friendly Easter E-card to all to wish them a very Happy Easter!
About the Author
Katie Davies e-cards are beautifully animated and creative. There are no sponsored links or banner ads on this e-card site. Find perfect E greeting cards for Birthdays, thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentines, mothers day, Xmas and more.
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