Celebrated the first sunday after the first moon after The Equinox.
The timing makes it seem originally more moon god/pagan based

Easter started off as Ishtar (or something like that). The Goddess of fertility.
Hence the Easter bunny and easter eggs.

Course, Christians celebrate something completely different then (now).

Funny, isn't it ??

Does it matter if people celetrate/remember a significant event on the "wrong" day ?
More important that it is remembered.



Take care all, drive safely.

I've always been curious about this, sprint. Have you got more links for further reading?

I've always been curious about this, sprint. Have you got more links for further reading?

'Moderator.' You've taken a step up in the food chain.  ;)

ex-member DonaldTrump wrote on Apr 10^th, 2007 at 1:29am:

I've always been curious about this, sprint. Have you got more links for further reading?

The relationship of Easter is closest to the Jewish Passover, not pagan ceremonies. Most non-germanic languages derive the name for the festival from the Jewish term.

The name Easter is based on a germanic derivative of the godess of spring. Spring starts at the beginning of the northern summer equinox (23 March), which also coincides with the Julian calendar calculations for Easter.

The eggs and rabbit are traditional symbols absorbed into Christian culture. Much the same way that Coca Cola made us all associate Santa Claus with the colour red!

Speaking of Christmas, this is definitely Christianity riding on the back of pagan worship. Yule tide ('the twelve days of Christmas') is the western equivalent of the festival, which commences on 25 December and finishes on 5 January. This neatly coincides with the 'true' birth of Jesus, being the Epiphany, on 6 January.

Easter - The Jewish Festival .

As I am aware, Easter for the Jews does celebrate their exodus from Egypt.
As Aushole says, passover.

The pagan easter celebrates the "freeing" of a land from a long hard winter into spring.
In those days, it would be worthy of celebrating to know they had survived a winter

The Jewish easter celebrates the "freeing' of a whole nation from a harsh period of slaveship.
After such a long time as slaves (I have no idea how long !!) , such a supernaturally led event would be worth celebrating and remembering.

The christian easter likewise celebrates a "freeing" of as many who want from the long period of the tyranny of religion.

The pagan easter festival is to celebrate the freedom of spring and growth.
The jewish easter festical is to celebrate the freedom of liberty, self determination and independance.
The christian easter festival is to celebrate freedom of spirituality and life.

Hi Donald,

Sorry, I have no links for these.  Only from what I have heard from various educated people.

Funny really, rabbits and chololate at easter . There is no connection whatsooever !!
The timing of easter varies also.

Anyway, hope everyone made it through easter well.

I thought easter was a European new years (more or less... end of winter, beginning of spring, celebration of cycles etc) celebration that predates both Christianity and Judaism?

And Christmas coincides with the traditional European mid-winter feast, something that also predates Christianity and Judaism?

I don't like to necessarily say these are 'pagan' holidays as the word pagan means many things, but lets say they are from a time when the earth was worshipped, not the sky ;) (paganism I s'pose :) )

I guess I should just stay away from this board :P

Hi Zoso

Yes, the european easter predates christianity and judiasm. As far as I know.
Beginning of spring to be sure


Found this about the origins of christmas

"One of the first facts that comes up in a study of the origins of Christmas deals with a festival called Saturnalia. Beginning on December 15th, the Romans held this seven-day celebration in honor of Saturn, god of agriculture. The winter solstice often fell around December 25 on the Julian calendar—following these seven days of feasting, revelry, and merrymaking. To commemorate the lengthening of days marked by this solstice, many Romans also enacted rituals that glorified Mithra, the god of light from ancient Persia. But Mithra was of older origins yet than the Romans, who had integrated him into their mythos."

Seems as the christian church it "grew" into existing celebrations ?

Pagan means having either no or many Gods, specifically not believing in the single God most faiths do now.

You make good commmnets here. Thanks

Definitely the influence of Mithrites. Isnt that essentially where Christian religion developed from?

What is mithrites ?

Sprintcyclist wrote on Apr 17^th, 2007 at 4:37pm:

What is mithrites ?

Members of the Mithra cult. You mentioned them in a prior post.

Hi aushole,

Ahh, right, thanks .   :-[
Was unfamiliar with that name, so did not associate it with my previous posting !!

My information is,    as christianity grew it grew into these preexisiting celebration periods.
can't quite remember the name that was told to me . "Constantine" , (someone like that) was an astute politician at the time. He saw the rise of christianity and "accommodated"  for it, by aligning the "new" festivals into the same time slot as the old ones.  

Any other info from anyone ?

Hi Dt,
Some guy told me the calculated day that Jesus was born on was NOWHERE near december.
He is pretty learned these things, so is more apt to be right than I am.

had a look up the word ephipiny , think it was the time (12 days) after birth when the new baby is announced.