by
Keith Hunt
When people think of SPRINT time, they usually think of sunshine,
longer days, warmth and new life. A young man's heart turns to
love, so they say. The older, middle aged and young will also
equate spring time with the Easter celebrations The old song "In
Your Easter Bonnett" will be played and sung. There will be
Easter Parades in many towns and cities - eggs will be decorated
and exchanged between loved ones - chocolate BUNNIES will be
everywhere sold in the stores. People will "GO WITHOUT" while
they observe a 40 day "LENT" prior to Easter Sunday. Then there
will be the SUNRISE service in many churches on that Easter
Sunday, and the familiar Hot CROSS buns.
Those that call themselves "CHRISTIAN" will tell you that Easter
is in commemoration of Christ's Resurrection - that it is the
principal feast of the Christian year, the most joyous of feasts.
But WHY the decorated eggs and BUNNIES? Did they originate with
Jesus? The word "Easter" itself, where did it come from? Why is
this festival not called "Resurrection feast" or "Christ-risen
Day." Why is it called Easter?
A DATE FOR EASTER SLOW IN COMING
If Easter was the natural outcome of the New Testament church
wanting to observe the time of Christ's resurrection, then it
should have been easy to establish the date - in fact the date
would have been immediately established by the early apostles.
But we read this very CANDID statement in the book
"DAYS AND CUSTOMS OF ALL FAITHS" by Harper p. 109, "It took the
Christian Church THREE centuries to settle the question of a DATE
for Easter. The Council of Nicea in 325, decided it should always
fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after
the vernal equinox....."
We can find many passages of Scripture that show plainly that the
Resurrection of Jesus was preached and proclaimed by the early
Church, but nowhere can we find where they set a DATE or DAY to
celebrate His resurrection. Not once did Paul in his epistles
mention or command us to keep a certain DAY of the year in
commemoration of Christ's resurrection. This fact alone will help
us answer why it took the large Roman Church until 325 A.D. to
decide WHEN Faster Sunday should be observed.
Easter or Easter Sunday celebrations are not even specifically
named in the New Testament - certainly not as a Christian
institution. But someone may say, Oh Yes it is! Easter is
mentioned in Act 12,4. No it isn't. The original word translated
"easter" in our King James Bible is "PASCHA" which is the Greek
word for PASSOVER and has no connection with the English word
"Easter" whatsoever. See ANY Bible dictionary.
The Easter feast and when to observe it, not only had its
troubles back in the early centuries of the Christian era, but
even more recently in America, "For many years, in America, the
observance of Easter was not by any means general. This was
because of the Puritan anti-festival influence, which was very
strong in many parts of this country...." Days and Customs of All
Faiths p.109.
Did the early settlers of America know something about Easter
that we may have largely forgotten or never been told. Most of us
grow up being taught the established customs that are part of our
society and never question where they came from. Most of us never
question why we do the things we do, why we observe the customs
we observe.
Let's begin to investigate. We shall start by looking into the
word "EASTER" itself. Where did it come from - what does it mean?
THE MEANING OF THE WORD "EASTER"
Francis X Weiser in his book "Christian Feasts and Customs" p.211
has this to say on the word easter: "The English word Easter and
the German OSTERN come from a common origin (EOSTUR, EASTER,
OSTARA, OSTAR), which to the Norsemen meant the SEASON of the
RISING (growing) SUN, the season of new birth. The word was used
by our ancestors to designate the Feast of New Life in the spring
..... The word Easter, then, originally meant 'the celebration of
the SPRING SUN....'" (emphasis mine).
Notice, originally the Faster celebrations were in honor of NEW
life and the SUN. New life comes through the MATING process. The
WORLDBOOK DICTIONARY gives us another clue to the meaning of the
word Easter, it states: "....Old English EASTRE (originally) name
of a goddess." Now who was this goddess called EASTRE?
Mr.HISLOP in his scholastical work "THE TWO BABYLONS" p.103 tells
us this: "What means the term Easter itself? It is not a
Christian
name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead.
Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis,
the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, whose name, as pronounced by the people of
Ninevah, was evidently identical with that now in common use in
this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian
monuments is ISHTAR....." (emphasis mine).
Looking under the word ASTARTE in the World Book Encyclopedia we
discover this, "Astarte....was the most important goddess of the
PAGAN Semites. She was the goddess of LOVE, fertility and
maternity for the Phoenicians, Canaanites, Aramaeans, South
Arabs, and even the Egyptians.....Some Old Testament stories
call her ASHTORETH, and describe the construction of her altar by
King Solomon and its destruction by King Josiah.
Astarte was identified with the planet VENUS. The Greeks called
her Aphrodite, and the Romans knew her as Venus." (emphasis
mine).
The same Encyclopedia as above tells us that VENUS was the
goddess
of LOVE and BEAUTY who fell in love with the god of war, MARS.
Their son CUPID was the god of love. Venus was a great friend of
lovers and helped them with their problems.
So the Romans called ASTARTE by the name VENUS. She was the
goddess of LOVE, and fertility. It is from the name of this
goddess that our modern words "venereal" and "venereal disease"
have come. ISHTAR-ASTARTE-EASTRE-VENUS- the goddess - of LOVE,
fertility and life had her greatest festival in the SPRING when
nature was having its RE-birth.
The word "Easter" is then directly connected with the season of
the RISING SUN - season of birth and with the pagan goddess of
LOVE - ISHTAR (as known by the Assyrians) or VENUS (by the
Romans).
The word "easter" is of purely PAGAN origin - it has nothing to
do with Jesus Christ or His resurrection.
As Francis Weiser admits in his book "Christian Feasts and
Customs" the word Easter, then originally meant the celebration
of the spring sun and brought new life upon the earth. This
symbolism was TRANSFERRED to worship the RISEN Christ, p.211.
But does God allow us to take a PAGAN custom from a false pagan
god invented by the mind of man,and put Christs name to it - call
it Christian and use it to worship him with?
We shall answer that question later!
THE EASTER EGG - ITS ORIGIN
From the "egg-rolling" on the White House lawn to the yard of the
most humble home, eggs are colored, hid, hunted, and eaten - each
year at the "Easter Season". Did Jesus or the apostles practice
such customs? Do eggs have anything to do with Christ's
resurrection? The answer is obvious - NO! Such usage was foreign
to the people of God and the early Church - they did not worship
the true God with such customs.
On the other hand, the egg was a sacred symbol among many pagan
nations.
The Babylonians taught that an egg of wondrous size fell from
heaven into the river Euphrates. From this marvellous egg the
goddess ASTARTE (EASTER) was hatched. And so the egg came to
symbolize the goddess of fertility and birth - ISHTAR or Easter
(the Two Babylons p. 103).
The ancient Druids bore an egg as a sacred emblem (Davies' Druids
p 208). The procession of Ceres is Rome was preceded by an egg
(Encyclopedia of Religions, Vol. 2 p,13). In the mysteries of
Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal
ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. (Col. KENNEDY,
p.207).
In China yet today, dyed or colored eggs are used in their sacred
festivals. In Japan, an ancient custom has been to make their
sacred egg a hard brazen color. In northern Europe in ancient
times eggs were colored and used as symbols of the goddess raster
(Babylon Mystery Religion. p.153)
The ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA p. 859, Art., "EASTER" says, "The egg
as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the
ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom of
coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival."
None can dispute the fact that the egg has been a sacred symbol
of pagan festivities from the time of ancient Babylon. From
Babylon - the tower of BABEL (Gen. 10) - humanity was scattered
to the various parts of the earth and with them the mystic idea
of the EGG.
How did the egg come to be associated with Christianity?
It was the church fathers of "Roman Catholicism" that adopted and
adapted this pagan symbolism. It was suggested that as the chick
comes out of the egg - new life - so Christ care out of the tomb.
The egg then was to be a symbol of the resurrected Christ. In
this way the "church" could help the pagans accept Christianity
easier because they would not have to "give up" their ancient
customs that they so enjoyed. Pope Paul V even appointed a prayer
in connection with the egg! "Bless, 0 Lord, we beseech you, this
thy creature of EGGS, that it may become wholesome sustenance
unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus
Christ etc." (Scottish Guardian, April 1844).
For more information on the rites and ceremonies connected with
the egg at Easter time see FRANCIS WEISER'S book "Christian
Feasts and Customs" and HISLOP'S "The TWO BABYLONS."
Your public library will probably have these books or will obtain
for you.
THE EASTER "BUNNY"
What has the RABBIT or HARE got to do with the resurrection of
Christ? As Francis Weiser points out - nothing really. He says
the
Church (meaning his Roman Catholic Church) have never performed
special blessings for rabbits or hares. But he states, "The
Easter bunny had its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. Hare
and rabbit were the most fertile animals our forefathers knew,
serving as symbols of abundant new life in the spring season."
(Christian Feasts and Customs p.236).
The "BUNNY" is immediately associated then with the SPRING
festival and FERTILITY - associated with the goddess of fertility
and LOVE - VENUS, ASTARTE, ISHTAR or EASTER.
The Encyclopedia Britannica gives us more clues as to why the
rabbit is associated with the Easter season, "Like the easter
egg, the easter hare came to Christianity from antiquity. The
hare is associated with the moon in the legends of ancient Egypt
and other peoples ....Through the fact that the Egyptian word for
hare, UM, means also "open" and "period" the hare came to be
associated with the idea of periodicity, both lunar and human,
and with the beginning of new life in both the young man and
young woman, and so a symbol of fertility and of the renewal of
life. As such, the hare became linked with Easter...." (Article
Easter").
Thus both the Easter RABBIT and Easter eggs symbol of sexual
significance - symbols of fertility - symbols used in the spring
festival of ISHTAR.
HOT CROSS BUNS
Another custom that is closely connected with the Easter season
is the baking and eating of "hot cross buns". As noted by Francis
Wiser in his previously mentioned book - many nations have
distinctive Easter breads and pastries which are blessed by
the priest and eaten during Easter Week. Among the Slavic people
this Easter bread is called PASKA. The Russian PASKA is made :f
flour, cottage cheese, sugar, raisins, eggs and milk. It is put
in a mold and shaped in form, square pieces, about eight inches
high, with a cross on each side. Germany and Austria have their
special style of Easter buns. Ireland, Poland, Transylvania,
Hungary and many other nations have their form of the "HOT CROSS
BUN" at Easter time.
Special "BUNS" at the spring festival time are NOT new to the
Christian era.
Hislop says, "The buns" known too by that identical name, were
used in the worship of the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, the goddess EASTER,
as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens - this is,
1500 years before the Christian era." (The TWO BABYLONS p.103 -
emphasis mine).
In the book "CURIOSITIES OF POPULAR CUSTOMS," p. 483 read, we
read, "The history of the cross bun goes back to....the LIBA
offered to ASTARTE" (emphasis ours).
Byrant's MYTHOLOGY, vol.l, p.373 says, "One species of sacred
bread, which was to be offered to the gods, was of great
antiquity, and called BOUN."
.................
TO BE CONTINUED
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