Why do we celebrate "Easter"? By Beck @ Never Surrender
Apparently there an ancient pagan goddess of Spring, called Eastre, had a festival in the Spring. I checked several places about the origin of the Easter bunny and the eggs and found a few different stories. A few websites said that rabbits and birds were symbols of fertility and that's why it was used in the pagan celebration of Spring. On the other hand, while reading my rabbit 4-H handbook, I do a rabbit 4-H project every year, it said that the pagan goddess Eastre transformed a bird into a rabbit. This rabbit was so thankful for the transformation that laid some colored eggs in gratitude.
So, why do Christians still call our celebration of Christ's Resurrection "Easter"? Most of the sources I read agreed that the Christians had used the celebration of the Resurrection to replace the pagan Springtime festival--both occurred around the same time. And because of that, we ended up with the name "Easter" and the bunny and eggs as well.
So . . . why do Christians still call it Easter? I don't know about you, but I'm going to call this Sunday "Resurrection Day."
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My friend Beck is a very smart girl and I'ld like to thank her for letting me take her post and put it on my blog to share with you all!
Never Surrender: Glorifying God in a fallen world
(her more philosophy blog.Where I got the little post above.)
and her other blog
Of Farming, Faith, and Family.
(she will be going to CA soon,so you'll want to check out her month in a month or so to see photos of that!)
3 thought(s) to note :
You are very brave, Blythe! Good for you. We have gone as far as to not celebrate it at all. He wasnt crucified on Good Friday either. thats only 2 days! Lets count them 1, 2. He rose on the 3rd. day, so Good Friday doesnt count. Its a Catholic Holy day which was formed around their Solstice. If He rose on the 3rd day, He was crucified on a Thursday. :)
We do not celebrate it at all as Christians, because it is a Pagan holiday that became "christian". Also, because both my husband & I got saved out of Catholicism, we cannot partake in this day.
Good post !
I forgot to mention ~ Calling it Resurrection Sunday is a replacement. I in good conscience cannot do that either. :)
Actually back then the Jews counted days differently. Then they would have started with Friday being the first day and counted "Friday, Saturday, Sunday" making three days total.
And, although we do use the pagan name "Easter," our celebration of it is not pagan in any way. The pagan spring festival was, well . . . pagan. But, as Christians we use only the name (well, we do have the rabbit and eggs . . . but that's exclusively secular). It's unfortunate that the celebration of the resurrection of Christ is known by a pagan name. But, almost no one knows--I told a lot of my friends that today and they had never heard that before. I think that we just use the term "Easter" because Christians have no idea that it originally referred to a pagan goddess. I doubt that Christians would continue to use the name if they knew its origins.
This day is most important to celebrate. Although we should honor Christ everyday, Resurrection Sunday should be different--we should celebrate especially on this day. Although we deserved death as the perfectly just punishment for our many sins, Christ took the punishment for us. He died for us. This is reason enough to give thanks to God on this day. But, unlike a normal man, he came back to life. This gives us even more reason to celebrate. Without Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday we would still be lost (not to mention condemned and punished for eternity). In short, this day is REALLY important and should be celebrated.
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