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This Day in History
no:2 ~ Easter
Ever wondered why we have eggs & bunnies associating with Easter? Or why every year it seems to be on some random date in April? Well they have nothing to do with Jesus, these are all pagan traditions that fall on a pagan calendar. To begin with, us southern hemisphere folk seem to follow the northern hemisphere in holidays, so let's pretend it's spring and not autumn.
EASTER ORIGINALLY CELEBRATED THE SAXON GODDESS OF SPRING
The word Easter comes from Ostara, also known as Ostera or Eostre, who is the Saxon Goddess of Spring. Her date of celebration would always be on the first full moon that follows the first new moon that follows the Spring Equinox. This is why we have Easter on different dates each year. The only difference is that it gets rounded up to the closest weekend.
Ostara celebrations would consist of hares, painting eggs & egg hunts. Why? Well hares and eggs are symbols of fertility, and spring time is the time where plants 'resurrect' and animals, including humans, would hump like rabbits. The egg hunt was a way to bring the spirit of seeking fertility into the lands.
So how and why did this ancient holiday become a christian holiday? A monk in the year 725 by the name of Bede wrote to the Roman Emperor saying, now this is a long story short version, "The pagans are stubborn and many refuse to give up their faith because they hold their holidays so dearly, so let them keep their holidays but slowly convert the holidays into our own."
CHRISTMAS, HALLOWEEN & EVEN MAY DAY HAVE PAGAN ORIGINS
Celebrations and offerings to Ostara still exist today. Many across northern Europe still honour the Spring Goddess this time of the year, and if you're in the southern hemisphere, well then it's Autumn so wait another 6 months.
Hope you learned something!
Skål.
