Part One of a Series
Easter has traditions that are not as pure and holy as people would like to believe. Many people know nothing of the pagan origins of the holiday. Many people simply do not care to find out the truth. The following should bring some fascinating reading and something to think about, to say the very least.
Origins of Easter:
Easter is one of the most popular religious celebrations in the world. But is it biblical? The word Easter appears only once in the King James Version of the Bible (and not at all in most others). In the one place it does appear, the King James translators mistranslated the Greek word for Passover as “Easter.”
Notice it in Acts 12:4: “And when he [King Herod Agrippa I] had apprehended him [the apostle Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”
The Greek word translated Easter here is pascha, properly translated everywhere else in the Bible as “Passover.”
Think about theses facts for a minute. Easter is such a major religious holiday. Yet nowhere in the Bible—not in the book of Acts, which covers several decades of the history of the early Church, nor in any of the epistles of the New Testament, written over a span of 30 to 40 years after Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection—do we find the apostles or early Christians celebrating anything like Easter.
The Encyclopedia Americana says:
“Easter is a convergence of three traditions, (1) Pagan. According to the Venerable Bede, English historian of the early eighth century, the word is derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostare, meaning the festival of spring, at the vernal equinox, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs colored like rays of the returning sun, and the northern lights, or aurora borealis.”
And according to the second century historian Eusebius the history is the same. The name of Easter is pagan in origin also. “The Greek ‘pascha’, formed from the Hebrew, is the name of the Jewish festival, applied invariably in the primitive church to designate the festival of the Lord’s resurrection, which took place at the time of the passover. Our word, Easter, is of Saxon origin, … (The church history of Eusebius)
Easter did not become a Christian holiday until the second century after Christ’s death.
End of Part One
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21 Responses to “Easter: Pagan Holiday?”
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Really interesting post. I’ll keep it in mind on Sunday.
Yes this is true just remember it is how your local church handles the easter holiday that is important do they focus on easter as in the last days for christ or do they focus on easter as a message for lost soles
kinda like christmas…it was really the solstice folks were celebrating. from what i’ve read, the culture-hero, jesus, wasn’t even born in the winter…but the folks who forced the religion on the indigenous peoples of northern europe…used the local religions to do so.
Most of Christianity is an evolution of paganism weather or not people want to accept it. They can’t. Because the very religion they have been condeming (even Islam) is their own.
When people start to realise that all is one, then they will start to see a very different story. Because no matter who and or what they hate, what they are afraid of, they are it!
Of course, no one will realise this until enlightenment.
Peace.
i think soon all holidays will merge into one n its only soo celebrated because of shops
Religeous fanatics all over the world have been, and will always be, convinced that they’re “way” is “the one”….Wars of greed, oppression, manipulation, deciept for the purposes of power,control, and profit. None has used theyr’es more effectively than the christians, as is easily evident to any truely enlightened soul. This being said, I believe this fact will be obvious at some point,….As the populations of the world, the common folk,the slaves you could call them, ….. when knowledge can no longer be kept from them, and they are finnaly able to read, and read what they will, they will realize that religeon serves no purpose other than its own, the world will be a better place without it, and we will outgrow the need for it. Like a pacifyer is to a child, so is religeon to man. One day we will all see that it not only looks silly stuck in your face, it makes it hard to communicate. The next step in evolution for humans is the retirement of religeon,..it will be a long time,.. i wont see it. Nor you. But i have faith it will happen. Maybe when we learn to use a little more of our unused brain power ! lol ……… P.S. I would think many will be releived that they have no real purpose ! Life itself is enough of a burden for most. …… Cheers !
I for one will never outgrow the need for God or for religion. I was merely pointing out that paganism has crept into Christianity.
:praying: :praying:It breaks my heart to see the lack of knowledge in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And in general the Bible. There was a comment of wasted brain power. Here’s a piece of knowledge‚ Hebrews 3:7-4:3 please look it up. Christ went through more than we could imagine, just for us. We don’t deserve it, but He believes in us. He lived to teach us, He died to save us, and He rose and lives again so that we might have hope that this life gets better. He is risen!
The practices of dying and hiding eggs, putting a bunch of candy in a basket with grass, decorating trees with lights and ornaments, giving elaborate gifts, etc, etc, is paganism.
“Easter” and Christmas are sacred holidays and should be revered as such by Christians. Don’t get caught up in the spectacle of each.
My family uses the verbiage “Resurrection Sunday” instead of “Easter”.
I don’t think it matters to Him if you know the exact day or season of His birth and resurrection. Just as long as you acknowledge both glorious events and praise Him (daily, not just on holidays)!
http://www.aroodawakening.tv/
This fellow has some great teaching on how Yashuah fulfilled the true Spring and Fall feasts of the Hebrews in the Old Testament, to include Passover, and he talks about the origin of Ishtar.
About how the temple priests of Ishtar would impregnate virgins, and then when they gave birth, they would sacrifice the babies on the altar and dye eggs in their blood, which is where the egg dying tradition came from.
About how Nimrod married his mother and they has a son… but you can look into this fellow and find it out.
Then Nimrod was murdered and his body cut into pieces and spread throughout the kingdom, and they found all of the pieces except his reproductive organ, and the tradition of the egg hunt is to replicate the hunt for his body parts.
Look it up.
How Sad that people are so concerned with the origins of RELIGION AND HOLIDAYS. IT’S TRULY NOT ABOUT THAT!!!! IT’S ALL ABOUT A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CREATOR THRU HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. BE WHATEVER YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO BE BUT KNOW THAT THERE IS 1 GOD
AND 1 SAVIOUR AND THE SAVIOUR IS COMING SOON.
MAY GOD OPEN YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS TO THE TRUTH AND BRING YOU TO THE FOOT OF THE CROSS AND REDEEM YOU THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF THE RISEN CHRIST
Christianity spawned from Paganism. Not the other way around. You can’t use the Bible as a reference for anything because it was written by Man for Man. Pick up any historical book on religion and they all say the same thing. Christianity came AFTER paganism. If Jesus existed, he was simply a man who helped others-no son of a single god. Christianity is born from fear, murder, and lies. Paganism is based on truth, love, light, and the earth. Ignorance is not bliss.
im sorry there are a few factual errors in this, im an atheist and don’t believe in this the whole Easter crap, but I know propaganda when i see it. i wish this was all right, but i really don’t think its derived from the whole Eostere and pagan holiday idea.
chill with the capital letters you bible banger. haha, if you check the dates and history of a few of these things, theres no way it can be true. sucks to say, i wish it was so i could throw it in the face of crazy christians.
They got you believing, brainwashed since birth. Ever hear of gravity. Aint nobody going to drop out of the sky to save us, SO, lets all just be kind to each other!! Take an intriguing journey and research why mankind thinks as he does today. Get on a computer and seek, it will be opened to you, but you won’t like what you find if you believe. It will give you a reality check. Go back as far as possible to the beginning of religion etc. Facinating journey, everyone should take it. Enjoy, ENLIGHTENED!!
Do you know the oldest religion? Did you ever read, The Sixteen Saviors Before Christ by Kersey Graves? What is the oldest passion play? Seek and it will be opened unto you. ENLIGHTENED.
ENLIGHTENED was the author of the last two comments shown to be authored by anonymous. Search on, curious, I hope!
i always wondered what rabbits and eggs and hiding them and all that had to do with the crusifiction and resurection of christ…now i know…absolutely nothing…all these years…wow
I think it’s most likey that as with many other things the christians merged in pagan beliefs and customs to help convert pagans into christianity. I also believe with most churches the priests and ministers are to afraid of public rejection and people removing them or people no longer going to the church so they just do not discuss the origins or simply deny the truth. Ofcourse some denominations mayl not acknowledge it because they dont want to come clean as in admit they made a mistake or are not in faulable ( imay have mispelled). Here’s a small laugh funny thing is one minister I heard on the radio acknowledged some of the truth about christmas and pagan backgrounds but then went on to say but it’s still okay to celebrate it. Ugh. I myself am a christian but I believe the churches should acknowledge and remove all pagan customs that exist and tell the people the truth about easter, eggs bunnies , christmas and so forth. Pulling to teeth just to find truth. Good luck to all of you,
Ps also about the author notice above for your site address it has the american flag upside down hmmm that also makes me wonder about the validity of this site. Lol terrorists trying to take down america? who knows
@anom3 the flag is upside down because I feel the USA is in distress. That is the international distress symbol. I am just an ordinary woman who feels that our country is going the wrong way, and is in distress.