By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Today from Sandy Bay, Maine to San Diego, California, Americans will don their Sunday Best, attend a religious service, and enjoy the Spring air while their kids search for candy and eggs. A joyous celebration on both the Christian and secular calendar, it wasn’t always that way — or maybe it was.
Easter was looked on with some skepticism by the ultra-religious Puritan sect when they showed up at Plymouth Bay. According to author Steve Englehart, these earlier settlers had bona fide religious reasons to eschew the holiday. “They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter…for the first two hundred years of European life in North America, only a few states, mostly in the South, paid much attention to Easter.”
It took the Civil War to bring Easter celebrations to the American parade of holidays. Starting about 1870, Christian families began to commemorate the holiday with brightly colored eggs and small treats for the kids. Churches in the South saw Easter as a source of hope for an American spirit beaten down by four years of civil war and its aftermath of grief. Easter was called “The Sunday of Joy,” and war widows traded the dark colors of mourning for the happier colors of spring.
The Bible’s story of Christ’s resurrection was the basis for the celebration which coincides with the Jewish Passover. In the fact, the Biblical origins of Easter were decidedly Jewish.
Acts 12:1 tells us that King Herod began to persecute the Church, culminating in the brutal death of the apostle James by sword. This pleased the Jews so much that the apostle Peter was also taken prisoner by Herod. The plan was to later deliver him to the Jews. Verse 3 says, “Then were the days of unleavened bread.” The New Testament Church was observing these feast days described in Leviticus 23. Verse 4 of Acts 12 explains: “And when he [Herod] had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions [sixteen] of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”
The word “Easter” in Acts was clearly referring to the days of Passover. The word translated “Easter” is the Greek word “pascha”(derived from the Hebrew word pesach; there is no original Greek word for Passover). It always means Passover.
But the festival likely has origins before the Hebrew feast of Passover. Two thousand years before the accepted birth of Christ, ancient Babylonians were marking the beginning of Spring with a gala celebration honoring the resurrection of the god, Tammuz, who was killed by a wild boar. Tammuz was returned to life by his mother/wife, Ishtar (after whom the festival was named) with her tears. Ishtar was actually pronounced “Easter.”
Ishtar was quite the racy goddess, as historians Will and Ariel Durant explained in their monumental work, The Story of Civilization:
“Ishtar … interests us not only as analogue of the Egyptian Isis and prototype of the Grecian Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, but as the formal beneficiary of one of the strangest of Babylonian customs…known to us chiefly from a famous page in Herodotus: Every native woman is obliged, once in her life, to sit in the temple of Venus [Easter], and have intercourse with some stranger.”
Need anyone wonder why the ancient Hebrews would want to amend this legend and the Puritans to forget about it all together? They didn’t consider Babylon “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” for nothing.
Another theory, adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, is that Easter celebrations have their linguistic origins in the Anglo-Saxon fertility rites of the goddess, Eastre. “Since Bede the Venerable (De ratione temporum 1:5) the origin of the term for the feast of Christ’s Resurrection has been popularly considered to be from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre, a goddess of spring…the Old High German plural for dawn, eostarun; whence has come the German Ostern, and our English Easter” (The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. 5, p. 6).
But what about Easter eggs? How did they enter the mix? Christians have always used the egg to symbolize the rock tomb from which Jesus emerged into new life. But the symbolism predates the Christian era. Pagan theology considered the egg as a symbol of Spring’s rebirth from Winter. (Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, p. 233). The Egyptians had a slightly different spin considering the egg the symbol of the passage of life from one generation to the next.
“Eggs were hung up in the Egyptian temples. Bunsen calls attention to the mundane egg, the emblem of generative life, proceeding from the mouth of the great god of Egypt. The mystic egg of Babylon, hatching the Venus Ishtar, fell from heaven to the Euphrates. Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in Egypt, as they are still in China and Europe. Easter, or spring, was the season of birth, terrestrial and celestial.” (Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, James Bonwick, pp. 211-212)
The pagan tales of gods and goddesses was quite an ecumenical affair with many civilizations sharing the same deity but branding each with a different name that suited their populations. Thus Ishtar became Astarte to the Greeks and Ashtoreth to the Jews. Nimrod, the Biblical figure who built the city of Babylon (and was mentioned in Genesis) is another example. He was worshiped as Saturn, Vulcan, Kronos, Baal, and Tammuz by succeeding civilizations but the story remained more or less intact for centuries.
Easter thus is an international affair going back centuries and spanning civilizations from the Babylonians to ourselves. Who says things really change?
So Happy Ishtar, Eastre, or Easter Day to us all!
UPDATE: In her comment, Elaine M mentions the ubiquitous Easter Bunny. I neglected him/her and I’m sorry. The Easter Bunny seems to have it origins in ancient Babylon, too. Seems the god, 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 father, became a hunter and his favorite prey was–you guessed it– the Ishtar Bunny. And the legend kept going … and going … and going. A lot like a bunny we know today!
Source: The Real Truth
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
anon:
Isnt asking Ken to “blow you” on a religious holiday a little over the top as well?
Who cares what Ken thinks, he doesnt have all the answers. What with atheists thinking they have enlightenment and Christians, Muslims, Jews and other members of religions thinking they do, seems to me there is an awful lot up for debate on all sides.
Mespo:
thanks, very interesting.
It is always amazing to see the similarities of various religions. The same flood, the idea of death and rebirth, eternal life, etc.
I guess people, no matter what epoch, have a need for a spirituality of some sort. It would make sense the ideas/religions would be similar.
anon:
That’s not very civil. Ken McBride is entitled to his opinion and, while a tad brusque, he’s doesn’t resort to profanity or direct attack. Just a shot over the bow and a reminder about civility policing that Professor Turley has entrusted to guest bloggers in his absence. Your contributions are usually a welcome counter-point. Don’t know what set you off today in that last line.
Hope Messpo will allow:
“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but let God be the one who punishes, as Scripture says: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And it adds: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink; by doing this you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not let evil defeat you, but conquer evil with goodness. (Romans 12:19-21)”
anon just proved all that MikeS wrote.
Helig frid och fred vara med Er. Gå var och en till sina och firar livets återkomst på sitt sätt.
Hey Ken McBride,
“All religions are based on misogyny, guilt and fear, they just have different holidays! ”
Want to know what’s really based on misanthropy, guilt, fear and generally being a huge asshole?
Coming to any forum on any religious holiday to spew shit on other people’s religions.
Blow me, asstard.
“All religions are based on misogyny, guilt and fear, they just have different holidays!”
Ken,
Far be it from me to defend religious practice, but as Mark said, you paint with too broad a brush. The content of the prophets and philosophers of most religions are quite pertinent to living a good life, unfortunately religious leaders have a long history of perverting original meanings into vehicles to promote their own, or that of the established state. Confucius, in 600 BCE; Buddha in 500 BCE; Rabbi Hillel the Elder and Jesus almost contemporaneously, came up with the same formulation as the basis of the wisdom they wished to impart. Do not treat other human beings in ways you would not want yourself treated. That is the essence of almost all religions.
The perversion happened by the addition of stringent rules, that over time, became more important than the original message, simply because one could exert power via rules. In tandem with the rules came doctrines casting non conformers as the “other”, who were to be despised and punished for their “free thinking”. It had nothing to do with an image of a creator and everything to do with the need of some humans to exert power over others.
It was my understanding the Easter Egg Hunt was actually derived from an old spring practice as well, the children’s hunt for newly laid wild eggs in both ground and tree nests near the beginning of spring. The Easter basket lined with grass (as a shock absorber) was for the collection of those eggs.
…. Tammuz was returned to life by his mother/wife, Ishtar (after whom the festival was named) with her tears. Ishtar was actually pronounced “Easter.”
Tammuz is another name for Nimrod. The first emperor, the first imperialist.
Xmas has the Sinter Claus, Easter the Bunny, July 4th the Flags and fireworks. It takes more than prayer or revolutionary yak to get the yokels out of their dens to listen and pay up to the captains of religion or politics.
There is a neighbor kid who asked her parents about the role of the Easter Bunny in bringing back Christ from the dead. The dad replied that: There is Easter and there is Easter. The mom said: There is morning obligation and afternoon fun. Go look for the eggs and shut up.
Elaine M:
Thanks Elaine. I updated the post to include our hoppy friend and his/her place in the holiday.
mespo,
Very interesting! Let’s not forget the hard work the Easter Bunny does on this spring holiday.
Mespo,
Egg-xactly….. I will repeat….. All christian celebrations and most traditions have roots of origin in paganism…… How do you think they were able to get converts so easy…..
Ken McBride:
“All religions are based on misogyny, guilt and fear, …”
******************
You paint too broadly here. Jainism has no such beliefs as is true of several Eastern religions, and many other religions have rejected the flaws you cite. Of course, that is no proof of their validity as a religion but it is proof of their utility as a moral reinforcer.
All religions are based on misogyny, guilt and fear, they just have different holidays! All religions have embraced “Faith” and enshrined it as a noble human achievement, blind trust or belief without evidence. It is compellingly obvious that religious worship has been and still is astronomical and astrological, solar mythology, given a veil of mythical historicity as the story of Jesus Christ, Horus or Krishna, a myth, a fable, a legend woven into tradition. The ancient Greeks certainly had devout faith in Zeus, the Romans in Apollo, Dionysus, and the Egyptians in Isis, Osiris and Horus, yet we now think them as myths. As Emerson said, “Religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.” However, we still are experiencing the blessings of the Desert Religions of Death, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are essentially the same religion with similar intolerance, bigotry, and hatred. Voltaire stated, “Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities!” Who is more misogynistic, the Roman Catholic Church or the Iranian Mullahs? If not for Science, then everything is a divine mystery like transubstantiation! Happy Spring Equinox!
Good work.
Absorption of strong local ideas and loans have existed as long as we have. Religions are culture and are skills in meeting life. So they are passed on.
Thanks for the FYI,Mespo
“But what about Easter eggs?”
Answered a lot of question.
Rafflaw:
Thanks for the atta-boy. I find “paganism” is in the eye of the beholder.
Great history lesson Mark. It amazes m how much of our religions is rooted in paganism.