Happy Easter: Celebration of the Spring Equinox Oestre/Easter
Although the Christian festival of Easter celebrates the torture and death of Jesus on a cross and, especially, his alleged resurrection, and has links to the Jewish Passover, most people, including Christians, unknowingly celebrate its pagan influences, including the bunny, a symbol of fertility, and colored eggs, representing the sunlight of spring.
It took over 300 years before Christians established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the March Equinox at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. The pagan Easter, however, was celebrated long before Christianity (although the festival went by many names).
In the 8th century, Christian scholar Bede claimed in his book, De temporum ratione, (The Reckoning of Time) that Easter derived from the Saxon Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). The ancient Saxons in Northern Europe worshiped the Goddess Oestre at the time of the Spring Equinox. The Goddess Easter represents the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life.
Pagan Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to her at the Vernal Equinox. They placed them at graves especially, probably as a charm of rebirth. (Egyptians and Greeks were also known to place eggs at gravesites).
Only later did the Christians pilfer the name for themselves and graft their religion onto a pagan celebration.
Vernal Spring Equinox
The early Romans used a lunar calendar in which months alternated between 29 and 30 days. The calender produced inaccuracies because it gradually fell out of step with the seasons. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar by switching its base from lunar to solar. The Romans established the day on which the vernal equinox occurred as March 25th.
The length of the year got fixed at 365 days, with an additional leap-year day added every fourth year. This made the average length of a year equal to 365.25 days, which came fairly close to the actual value of 365.2422 days.
The astronomical vernal equinox occurs when night and day appear nearly the same length at around March 21 and establishes the first day of spring (in the northern hemisphere). The moment the Sun crosses directly over the Earth’s equator marks the vernal equinox (in the southern hemisphere, the moment equals the autumnal equinox).
Translated literally, vernal means "spring" and equinox means "equal night" because the sun sits above the equator and day & night appears equal in length.
- Today the pagans of Easter celebrate with an atmosphere of giving and happiness, a renewal of life.
Good Friday and the Christian Easter, on the other hand, represents a time of suffering, their minds filled with the horror of a tortured man dying on lumber and then magicaly rising into heaven like superman for the selfish purpose of getting you into heaven, as long as you flatter God with your own insignificance and suffering. If you don’t accept their beliefs, well, sorry, you go to Hell, a place of eternal torment.The pagan Easter celebrates happiness and life. The Christian Easter consecrates suffering and death.
The pagan Easter celebrates a birthday (renewal). The Christian Easter solemnizes an execution (death).
Pagans give. Christians take.
Pagans prepare for life. Christians prepare for an alleged afterlife.
Pagans don’t require faith or belief to celebrate life. Christians, however, require belief in their deicidal mythology.
Which of these practices do you think has the best chance to promote the most good will?
- The Pagan origins of Easter
- The Pagan roots of Easter
Where Did The Name "Easter" Come From?
The Rite of Spring
How the Christians stole the Easter holiday