Christianity hijacked Easter from our Anglo-Saxon and Celtic forebears.
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.
To a happy Oestre to all visitors to this Blog!
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