Why Easter is pagan and NOT Christian!
Aug 15, 2017 14:42:55 GMT -6
Post by Ron on Aug 15, 2017 14:42:55 GMT -6
The legend of Easter as told by pagans.
Oestre/Easter
Although the Chrsitian festival of Easter celebrates the torture and death of Jesus on a cross and, especially, his alleged resurrection, and has links to the Jewish Passover, most people, including Christians, unkowingly celebrate its pagan influences, including the bunny,a symbol of fertility, and colored eggs, representing the sunlight of spring.
It took over 300 years before Christians established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the March equinox at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. The pagan Easter, however, was celebrated long before Christianity (although the festival went by many names).
In the 8th century, Christian scholar Bede claimed in his book, De temporum ratione, (The Reckoning of Time) that Easter derived from the Saxon Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). The ancient Saxons in Northern Europe worshipped the goddess Oestre at the time of the Spring equinox. The goddess Easter represents the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life.
Pagan, Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to her at the vernal equinox. They placed them at graves especially, probably as a charm of rebirth. (Egyptians and Greeks were also known to place eggs at gravesites).
Only later did the Christians pilfer the name for themselves and graft their religion onto a pagan celebration.
Vernal Spring Equinox
The early Romans used a lunar calendar in which months alternated between 29 and 30 days. The calendar produced inaccuracies because it gradually fell out of step with the seasons. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar by switching its base from lunar to solar. The Romans established the day on which the vernal equinox occurred as March 25th.
The length of the year got fixed at 365 days, with an additional leap-year day added every fourth year. This made the average length of a year equal to 365.25 days, which came fairly close to the actual value of 365.2422 days.
The astronomical vernal equinox occurs when night and day appear nearly the same length at around March 21 and establishes the first day of spring (in the northern hemisphere). The moment the sun crosses directly over the earth's equator marks the vernal equinox (in the southern hemisphere, the moment equals the autumnal equinox).
Translated literally, vernal means "spring" and equinox means "equal night" because the sun sits above the equator and day and night appears in equal length.
Rituals
Pagans celebrate Ostara with various rituals celebrating fertility, nature and new growth. Egg races, egg hunts, egg eating and egg painting are common activities. A man and a woman might be chosen to act out the roles of spring god and goddess, playing out courtship and symbolically planting seeds.
Neopagans also celebrate by eating fresh spring foods like sprouts, dandelion greens, and nettles. Some undertake a fast during this period, to clear away toxins of the winter. Many wiccans plant an herb garden (for later use in spells) on Ostara. Home altars might feature spring flowers, seeds, jasmine or flowery incense, and the gemstone of jasper.
The Goddess Ostara
Ostara (Oestre)-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring
Ostara, the Germanic goddess of dawn who was responsible for bringing spring each year was feeeling horribly guilty about arriving so late one year. To make matters even worse, the first thing she saw when she arrived was a pitiful little bird who lay dying, his wings frozen by snow.
Lovingly, Ostara cradled the shivering creature and saved his life.
Legend has it that she then made him her pet or, in the adult-rated versions, her passionate lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly because of his wings had been so damaged by the frost, the goddess Ostara turned him into a rabbit, a snow hare. She named him Lepus. She also gave him the wonderful gift of being able to run with such astonishing speed that he could easily evade all the hunters. And to honor his earlier incarnation as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less). He was, however, only allowed to lay eggs on one day out of each year.
But all good things must come to an end.
Eventually Ostara lost her temper with Lepus (some say the raunchy rabbit was involved with another woman), and she flung him into the skies where he would remain for eternity as the constellation Lepus (the hare), forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion (the hunter).
But later, remembering all the good times they had enjoyed together, the goddess Ostara softened a bit and allowed the hare to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring.
The only thing we need to know about easter is...
If we want to celebrate the TRUE Godly holidays, we need to go back to Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29. No "holiday" on the gregorian calendar is Christian! STOP SINNING! STOP WORSHIPPING IDOLS!!
Oestre/Easter
Although the Chrsitian festival of Easter celebrates the torture and death of Jesus on a cross and, especially, his alleged resurrection, and has links to the Jewish Passover, most people, including Christians, unkowingly celebrate its pagan influences, including the bunny,a symbol of fertility, and colored eggs, representing the sunlight of spring.
It took over 300 years before Christians established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the March equinox at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. The pagan Easter, however, was celebrated long before Christianity (although the festival went by many names).
In the 8th century, Christian scholar Bede claimed in his book, De temporum ratione, (The Reckoning of Time) that Easter derived from the Saxon Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). The ancient Saxons in Northern Europe worshipped the goddess Oestre at the time of the Spring equinox. The goddess Easter represents the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life.
Pagan, Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to her at the vernal equinox. They placed them at graves especially, probably as a charm of rebirth. (Egyptians and Greeks were also known to place eggs at gravesites).
Only later did the Christians pilfer the name for themselves and graft their religion onto a pagan celebration.
Vernal Spring Equinox
The early Romans used a lunar calendar in which months alternated between 29 and 30 days. The calendar produced inaccuracies because it gradually fell out of step with the seasons. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar by switching its base from lunar to solar. The Romans established the day on which the vernal equinox occurred as March 25th.
The length of the year got fixed at 365 days, with an additional leap-year day added every fourth year. This made the average length of a year equal to 365.25 days, which came fairly close to the actual value of 365.2422 days.
The astronomical vernal equinox occurs when night and day appear nearly the same length at around March 21 and establishes the first day of spring (in the northern hemisphere). The moment the sun crosses directly over the earth's equator marks the vernal equinox (in the southern hemisphere, the moment equals the autumnal equinox).
Translated literally, vernal means "spring" and equinox means "equal night" because the sun sits above the equator and day and night appears in equal length.
Rituals
Pagans celebrate Ostara with various rituals celebrating fertility, nature and new growth. Egg races, egg hunts, egg eating and egg painting are common activities. A man and a woman might be chosen to act out the roles of spring god and goddess, playing out courtship and symbolically planting seeds.
Neopagans also celebrate by eating fresh spring foods like sprouts, dandelion greens, and nettles. Some undertake a fast during this period, to clear away toxins of the winter. Many wiccans plant an herb garden (for later use in spells) on Ostara. Home altars might feature spring flowers, seeds, jasmine or flowery incense, and the gemstone of jasper.
The Goddess Ostara
Ostara (Oestre)-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring
Ostara, the Germanic goddess of dawn who was responsible for bringing spring each year was feeeling horribly guilty about arriving so late one year. To make matters even worse, the first thing she saw when she arrived was a pitiful little bird who lay dying, his wings frozen by snow.
Lovingly, Ostara cradled the shivering creature and saved his life.
Legend has it that she then made him her pet or, in the adult-rated versions, her passionate lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly because of his wings had been so damaged by the frost, the goddess Ostara turned him into a rabbit, a snow hare. She named him Lepus. She also gave him the wonderful gift of being able to run with such astonishing speed that he could easily evade all the hunters. And to honor his earlier incarnation as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less). He was, however, only allowed to lay eggs on one day out of each year.
But all good things must come to an end.
Eventually Ostara lost her temper with Lepus (some say the raunchy rabbit was involved with another woman), and she flung him into the skies where he would remain for eternity as the constellation Lepus (the hare), forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion (the hunter).
But later, remembering all the good times they had enjoyed together, the goddess Ostara softened a bit and allowed the hare to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring.
The only thing we need to know about easter is...
If we want to celebrate the TRUE Godly holidays, we need to go back to Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29. No "holiday" on the gregorian calendar is Christian! STOP SINNING! STOP WORSHIPPING IDOLS!!