by Jedediah McClure | Apr 15, 2017 | Easter
Easter is arguably the most important of all Christian holidays. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ - the very foundation of Christianity. After all, the gospel (the good news) of Jesus Christ is that through His resurrection all mankind may be saved from eternal damnation. Surely, a holiday celebration so fundamental and integral to Christian theology must, by its nature, be unique and unpolluted by pagan influence, right? Well, as much as we might want that to be the case, we'd be wrong. It only takes a minute of watching your four-year-old run around the park with his peers picking up brightly-colored, plastic eggs filled with candy, with parents cheering them on in an almost competitive fashion while chomping away on a chocolate bunny, to realize that Easter celebration has very little to do with Jesus. No, like Christmas, Easter has its roots in very pagan traditions. The ancient Persians painted eggs, a symbol of the start of new life, for their New Year celebration. These elaborately painted eggs were publicly displayed and often given as gifts. Eggs were also used by the pre-Christian Saxons who worshiped a goddess called Eostre. Eostre (pronounced Easter) was associated with eggs and rabbits, both of which symbolized a rebirth of the land and the cycle of life. An annual feast was held in her honor on the Vernal Equinox, near the end of March (Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal Equinox). Similarly, the Germanic goddess Ostara was also associated with eggs and a spring celebration of rebirth. These were...
