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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15 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.
i think soon all holidays will merge into one n its only soo celebrated because of shops
I for one will never outgrow the need for God or for religion. I was merely pointing out that paganism has crept into Christianity.
I am praying because it breaks my heart to see the lack of knowledge in the Lord and Savior 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
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,
8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death
“Ishtar”, which is pronounced “Easter” was a day that commemorated the resurrection of one of the ancient Babylonian gods that they called “Tammuz”, who was believed to be the only begotten son of the moon-goddess and the sun-god.
In those ancient times, there was a man named Nimrod, who was the grandson of one of Noah’s sons named Ham.
Ham had a son named Cush who married a woman named Semiramis. Cush and Semiramis then had a son they named “Nimrod.”
After the death of his father, Nimrod married his own mother and became a powerful King.
The Bible tells of of this man, Nimrod, in Genesis 10:8-10 as follows: “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad,and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.”
Nimrod became a god-man to the people and Semiramis, his wife and mother, became the powerful Queen of ancient Babylon.
Nimrod was eventually killed by an enemy, and his body was cut in pieces and sent to various parts of his kingdom.
Semiramis had all of the parts gathered, except for one part that could not be found.
The missing part was his penis! Semiramis claimed that Nimrod could not come back to life without it and told the people of Babylon that Nimrod had ascended to the sun and was now to be called “Baal”, the sun god.
Queen Semiramis also proclaimed that Baal would be present on earth in the form of a flame, whether candle or lamp, when used in worship.
Semiramis was creating a mystery religion, and with the help of Satan, she set herself up as a goddess.
Semiramis claimed that she was immaculately conceived.
She taught that the moon was a goddess that went through a 28 day cycle and ovulated when full.
She further claimed that she came down from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River.
This was to have happened at the time of the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Semiramis became known as “Ishtar” which is pronounced “Easter”, and her moon egg became known as “Ishtar’s” egg.”
Ishtar soon became pregnant and claimed that it was the rays of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive.
The son that she brought forth was named Tammuz.
Tammuz was noted to be especially fond of rabbits, and they became sacred in the ancient religion, because Tammuz was believed to be the son of the sun-god, Baal. Tammuz, like his supposed father, became a hunter.
The day came when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig.
Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to his father, Baal, and that the two of them would be with the worshippers in the sacred candle or lamp flame as Father, Son and Spirit.
Ishtar, who was now worshipped as the “Mother of God and Queen of Heaven”, continued to build her mystery religion.
The queen told the worshippers that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree, and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred by the blood of Tammuz.
She also proclaimed a forty day period of time of sorrow each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz.
During this time, no meat was to be eaten.
Worshippers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz, and to make the sign of the “T” in front of their hearts as they worshipped.
They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a “T” or cross on the top.
Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made.
It was Ishtar’s Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and eggs.
Ishtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.
By now, the readers of this tract should have made the connection that paganism has infiltrated the contemporary “Christian” churches, and further study indicates that this paganism came in by way of the Roman Catholic System.
The truth is that Easter has nothing whatsoever to do with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We also know that Easter can be as much as three weeks away from the Passover, because the pagan holiday is always set as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.
I found this. Not sure how true it is though.
many times Jesus told people-as a wake up call, and it stands to this day:”if you have eyes to see and ears to listen”.If you do then seek the truth as it is written. regards:p.b.
open your bibles to read Act!!!!! no where in any bible does it say Easter!!!! easter come from the spring godess!!!! bunnies represent fertililty gods!!!!! Read your bible and see wht God says about pegan whorship and false idols!!!!! do what right in your heart reaserch!!!!! jesus taught like a child!!!! stay child like!!!!! use common sense!!! Passover was for isrealiies , when the angel of death came, the angel passed over the house!!!! the angel did not bring eggs and candies!!!!!!! and do bunnies really lay eggs!!!!