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We are well into Holy Week, that is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. On Sunday, Christians of the Roman tradition (Roman Catholics and most protestants) will celebrate Easter.
Usually, here on CD, about this time if not well before, some anti-Christian will point out the shocking news that most of our Easter traditions come from pagan religions and cultures. This elucidation is generally stated in a snarky manner, as if mainstream Christians had never heard this stuff before.
Mind you, when I say anti-Christians I do not mean the many people here who are simply non-Christian. I'm talking about the militants, who want to be sure all Christians know their religion is, in the mind of the anti-Christians, a farce. I have a feeling a lot of people who post such crap have just found this out themselves, and have never cracked open a Bible, where they would learn that no, there is no mention of Easter rabbits, baby chicks, colored eggs, baskets, and the like.
Without further ado, I decided to start my own thread about this. In researching this topic, I learned something new, to wit:
Feeling guilty about arriving late one spring, the Goddess Ostara saved the life of a poor bird whose wings had been frozen by the snow. She made him her pet or, as some versions have it, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly (in some versions, it was because she wished to amuse a group of young children), Ostara turned him into a snow hare and gave him the gift of being able to run with incredible speed so he could protect himself from hunters.
In remembrance of his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but only on one day out of each year.
Plus much more. That is the best explanation I have ever seen about why the Easter Bunny brings colored eggs.
Eggs are, of course, a fertility symbol. Eggs do become chickens. All tied to sex. Baskets resemble bird's nests.
There is another interesting custom in Sweden that I have to thank the University of Colorado newspaper, the Colorado Daily for. FRITZ: Jesus, Easter and the bunny - Colorado Daily
**So instead of dreaming up all the ways I can break Lent, I've been just thinking about Easter-time traditions and wondering what the rest of the world does.
I found some pretty fascinating ones, such as the smaller, pseudo-Halloween that takes place in Sweden, where little girls dress up like witches and go door to door collecting candy while everyone else lights things on fire to drive witches away. (Those Nordic folk seriously love lighting things on fire, bless their hearts.) The bonfires are lit to scare away the witches who fly to a German mountain to chat with Satan every Easter.
Now I did some more research about this, and if my sources are correct, The witches fly to a mountain to "consort" with the devil on Maundy Thursday. An interesting blend of Christianity and, well, whatever.
Little girls with painted faces, wearing head scarves and long skirts, go from door to door with a coffee pot which they expect to get filled with small change or candy. Known as påskkärringar - Easter witches or hags - their origins are to be found in the old superstition that Maundy Thursday was the time when witches stole household brooms and flew to dance and consort with the devil at a feast hosted by him on “Blue Mountain”, a fictitious mountain, possibly in present-day Iceland. . . . All doors and windows were kept closed on Maundy Thursday and the dampers of the fireplaces were firmly shut. Thresholds and door jams were marked with the sign of the cross in tar to keep the witches at bay.
The belief in witchcraft is the basis of another Easter tradition, especially in western Sweden where firecrackers are let off on Easter night and great bonfires are lit. Firecrackers and fires were considered to be a proven method to keep witches at bay.
A number of our other Easter customs come from the Swedes as well.
Well this makes it easier to accept it. I wonder why the wife wants to do an easter supper I tell her its just another day! I don't see the need to spend money on a big supper...I like it for the easter egg hunting.
We are well into Holy Week, that is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. On Sunday, Christians of the Roman tradition (Roman Catholics and most protestants) will celebrate Easter.
Usually, here on CD, about this time if not well before, some anti-Christian will point out the shocking news that most of our Easter traditions come from pagan religions and cultures. This elucidation is generally stated in a snarky manner, as if mainstream Christians had never heard this stuff before.
And yet, I had not seen a single such thread before you posted yours...
Alas, you are correct, religious holidays are always accompanied with the inevitable thread that it has pagan origins. Just like every year around Christmas, threads about the War on Christmas appear. Admittedly, I haven't seen roysoldboy post lately (and he appears to be in charge of such threads), so perhaps we'll all be spared the WOC posts this year.
I must admit, I don't care about any of it. My daughter will partake in a few Easter Egg hunts, including one at her Catholic pre-school and she will be very happy to do so - whether those eggs are pagan or have been usurped by Christians.
Then again, I am not anti-Christian although I am undoubtedly an atheist.
In that sense, Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it.
You joined after Christmas. There were several about the pagan origins of Christmas customs then, as there are every Christmas.
Nah, I've been around - I just decided to start posting after Christmas. Like I said, Christmas always brings out those threads, particularly those about the Christmas tree.
I was commenting on the absence of such threads about Easter before you posted this one.
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