There's a lot of talk about how Christmas isn't originally a Christian festival, but rather a Pagan festival that was Christianised and made holy and how this was an important step in the Church's plan to brainwash the heathen and take over the world. Most of the people who say this sort of thing are very confident of this fact, but would be hard-pressed to tell you where this knowledge of theirs has actually come from. It's one of those 'but that's what everyone says!' things. As of late at iamsparticus.com though we've started to take an interest into fact checking and corroboration of stories, old skool style journalism if you will, and in and among our studies of just about everything we've found out some relevant information. So for your intellectual pleasure, over the next few days, we'll be telling you the ever so fascinating story of the origins of the festival known as Christmas
(8) Year 3000 - Busted
(t) Rhiannon
(m) Jaclyn
Well, they certainly did it with Easter... Trackback: Easter -> Eostre, a.k.a Ostara or Ishtar - pagan sun goddess of dawn and the spring, hence easter bunnies, easter eggs, and sunrise services...
Oh yeah, and incidentally, just for those who feel KJV is actualy a GOOD translation of God's Holy Word, in Acts 12:4 the word Easter is CLEARLY mis-inserted, instead of passover. They corrected it with the NKJV.
Now I don't know if this is really relevant to the Christmas thing, but I do think it needs to have a profound effect on how we celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection. Should we really be subscribing to/dabbling in idolatrous, disgusting things such as 'Eostre eggs'..? Are we clearly worshipping the Son, or only the sun with a sunrise service..? Can we really say, if we're Christians, 'Happy Eostre', or would 'happy resurrecton day', or the good old 'he is risen' - 'he is risen indeed' be less of a defaming of God's amazing act of self-sacrifice and saving?
A bit of a rant, but I feel it's important, think how disgusted God must be when we defile his holy day by letting idols in on the scene. Even just references to long-dead idols.
I hate to tell you Phil, but your um... very wrong. In English, German and some Germanic languages we call Easter Easter because the Pagan name for the month of April used to be Eostre (or some spelling) which was named after some fertility God. Other than that (and maybe the Easter Bunny) there's nothing Pagan about Easter. In every other language it's not even called Easter, but generally something deriving from the word Passover. Look, Wikipedia agrees with me.
Well, at least we both hate that.. :-) I'm sure Wikipedia is a much more reliable source than http://www.shalom-peace.com/easter.html
- maybe I shall question them about it...
Oh, but I did find more of the same at http://www.goddessgift.com/pandora's_box/easter-history.htm
(sorry for not knowing quite what to do with links)
The only thing I'm saying is pagan about Easter is
a) the name (although you can possibly disagree with me on that one, but surely you see the link between Easter, the pagan name for April, and the fact it's named after the pagan goddess of spring, however you spell her name), and
b) the traditions that tie in with it, the easter bunnies, easter eggs (a bird, turned into a hare called Lepus, but still had the ability to lay eggs - a possible root of the tradition - from the 'famous' myth about Eostre/Ostara).
Oh yeah, and looked up the bit about Ishtar, you're right, a lot more tenuous (she was the Babylonian goddess of love/sex), especially as she's a 'summer goddess', but still a link, as she's famed for coming back to life...
Saying that though, her festival (celebrated at the vernal equinox - about the same sort of time) is thought to be a precursor to Ostara's, although I'm not sure on the time scale... Oh yeah, and if that was even known about in England. But Babylon's full of scallies anyway, biblically speaking... :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_bunny has some more interesting stuff about Ostara too.
No, I think I'm with you on being annoyed we call it Easter, though I think it matters more that we don't call it Passover than we name it after a long dead pagan celebration. If we called it Passover the continuation of the Old Testament feast would be obvious and would be generally great for everyone, but we can't have everything, so whatever I suppose.
Ah right, I see what you mean... Yeah, I guess if people aren't actually conciously aware of the links to pagan traditions, it's fine... Would it really be best to call it Passover, though? Doesn't that just remind us of something that was only a forerunner/image of what Jesus would do, not the actual event 2000 odd years ago..? Maybe Resurrection day..?
Actually, what I'm saying is pointless. I think I might wait 'till I rule the whole world before instigating such things as re-names celebrations. Not that I plan to rule the world, of course... Not in an Antichrist kind of way...
Did you know that I've done a fair bit of research on background to British customs and culture, including Christmas? Good book to read is "the making of the modern Christmas" Golby & Purdue, both OU academics. Sutton pubishing. Scholarly research but fun to read too. In fact I collect books on Christmas - you're welcome to browse on your next visit...
I will definitely have to browse next time I visit. The local library is dreadful for any church / Christian / religious history and I don't think Ridley Hall will be vastly better.
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Alasdair
I had always understood the early church wanted to mark the birth of Christ and because most the populace were illiterate and uneducated, utilised an already present pagan festival date for the purpose to avoid confusion (although, in my book that woul dhave added quite a lot). Is this anywhere near right?