4 ms·

I believe Christmas does, falling near enough to midwinter celebrations. Easter, however, is conceptually linked to Passover, since it commemorates Christ's de

I believe Christmas does, falling near enough to midwinter celebrations. Easter, however, is conceptually linked to Passover, since it commemorates Christ's death at Passover and subsequent resurrection [1]. Easter's actual date is highly variable and notoriously aggravating to compute, though [2]. For reasons I do not know, the church did not want to just say "the first Sunday following Passover." 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Easter came from Ēostre that tracks back to German paganism. So it seems to have been some sort of merging of the two as it can be seen in pre-unification England long before the adoption of Christianity. If this wikipedia link is to believed she may also have been the origin of Easter hares and rabbits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ēostre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ēostre
- dangerbird2 8y ago
  "Easter" is just the English name, which is indeed related to the Germanic goddess associated with the Germanic month which the holiday occurs. The Latin and Greek name of the holiday is "Pascha", which is a direct cognate to the Jewish holiday "Pesach", or passover.
- foldr 8y ago
  The date of Easter was decided in AD 325 by the council of Nicea (following earlier traditions and precedents), on grounds having nothing to do with German paganism. https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-and-eggs/ https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-...
- Jtsummers 8y ago
  I think it's important to make a distinction between the English (and other language) terms for the holiday and the holiday itself. The holiday existed before the religion spread (or fully spread) to those regions and has a different name in Latin with no connection to Eostre (Pascha). Now, the hares and rabbits and all, that's obviously not from Christian tradition or the Bible. That's clearly a regional adaptation of adopting a local tradition into the Christian celebration. This is a typical way to assimilate a culture. Reuse their traditions, but rebrand them (change masks of pagan gods or entities to be saints, change the parade to focus on the Christian symbols, etc.).
  - foldr 8y ago
    I don't think there's really any "rebranding" going on in the case of hares and rabbits. Easter is round about the time when you'll start to see more hares and rabbits outside during the mating season. Hence "mad as a March hare": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_March_hare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_March_hare There's probably a long tradition of people in Europe associating March and April with hares, but I don't think there's anything particularly "pagan" about it.
    - amanaplanacanal 8y ago
      Well, yes and no. It all depends on interpretation. Pagan religions typically had their festivals following the cycle of the year, and spring is naturally when all of nature is working towards reproductive success. The rabbits as mentioned, eggs are still big around easter. Planting of crops, etc. So the symbols are older than the paganism of pre-christian Europe, and probably a whole succession of religions have used the same symbols. It wouldn't surprise me if the pre-indo-european cultures of the area also had the same symbols for whatever religions they practiced. The fertility symbols of spring have very little to do with Christianity, and I can't see where they are even made part of the theology. So looking backwards from a thousand years later, it seems like the pagan religions did recognize them as fertility symbols and rites. Even if those symbols have always been there, it feels like the pagans used them to make sense of their world in a way that Christians haven't.
      - foldr 8y ago
        Eggs relate to Easter because it's the end of lent (and you can eat eggs again). The Easter bunny has about as much to do with Christianity (or pagan religions) as Santa Claus. So yeah, I'm sure you can loosely trace lots of this stuff back into the distant past. My point was just that this isn't an instance of Christianity taking over or "rebranding" some older pagan tradition.
        Jtsummers 8y ago
        Eggs can be consumed during Lent (I presume you mean the Catholic tradition of fasting, particularly "no meat", on Fridays during Lent). It's not considered meat.
- michaelsbradley 8y ago
  That's a misunderstanding related to the fact that in a few parts of Europe the Spring-related word became commonly used to refer to the Christian feast. In most languages of Europe, the name for the Christian feast is derived from the Latin paschalis or the Greek pascha, in turn derived from the Hebrew pesah. See: https://www.etymonline.com/word/paschal https://www.etymonline.com/word/paschal https://www.etymonline.com/word/Easter?ref=etymonline_crossreference https://www.etymonline.com/word/Easter?ref=etymonline_crossr...

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

Easter came from Ēostre that tracks back to German paganism. So it seems to have been some sort of merging of the two as it can be seen in pre-unification England long before the adoption of Christianity. If this wikipedia link is to believed she may also have been the origin of Easter hares and rabbits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ēostre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ēostre

dangerbird2 8y ago
"Easter" is just the English name, which is indeed related to the Germanic goddess associated with the Germanic month which the holiday occurs. The Latin and Greek name of the holiday is "Pascha", which is a direct cognate to the Jewish holiday "Pesach", or passover.
foldr 8y ago
The date of Easter was decided in AD 325 by the council of Nicea (following earlier traditions and precedents), on grounds having nothing to do with German paganism. https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-and-eggs/ https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-...
Jtsummers 8y ago
I think it's important to make a distinction between the English (and other language) terms for the holiday and the holiday itself. The holiday existed before the religion spread (or fully spread) to those regions and has a different name in Latin with no connection to Eostre (Pascha). Now, the hares and rabbits and all, that's obviously not from Christian tradition or the Bible. That's clearly a regional adaptation of adopting a local tradition into the Christian celebration. This is a typical way to assimilate a culture. Reuse their traditions, but rebrand them (change masks of pagan gods or entities to be saints, change the parade to focus on the Christian symbols, etc.).
- foldr 8y ago
  I don't think there's really any "rebranding" going on in the case of hares and rabbits. Easter is round about the time when you'll start to see more hares and rabbits outside during the mating season. Hence "mad as a March hare": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_March_hare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_March_hare There's probably a long tradition of people in Europe associating March and April with hares, but I don't think there's anything particularly "pagan" about it.
  - amanaplanacanal 8y ago
    Well, yes and no. It all depends on interpretation. Pagan religions typically had their festivals following the cycle of the year, and spring is naturally when all of nature is working towards reproductive success. The rabbits as mentioned, eggs are still big around easter. Planting of crops, etc. So the symbols are older than the paganism of pre-christian Europe, and probably a whole succession of religions have used the same symbols. It wouldn't surprise me if the pre-indo-european cultures of the area also had the same symbols for whatever religions they practiced. The fertility symbols of spring have very little to do with Christianity, and I can't see where they are even made part of the theology. So looking backwards from a thousand years later, it seems like the pagan religions did recognize them as fertility symbols and rites. Even if those symbols have always been there, it feels like the pagans used them to make sense of their world in a way that Christians haven't.
    - foldr 8y ago
      Eggs relate to Easter because it's the end of lent (and you can eat eggs again). The Easter bunny has about as much to do with Christianity (or pagan religions) as Santa Claus. So yeah, I'm sure you can loosely trace lots of this stuff back into the distant past. My point was just that this isn't an instance of Christianity taking over or "rebranding" some older pagan tradition.
      - Jtsummers 8y ago
        Eggs can be consumed during Lent (I presume you mean the Catholic tradition of fasting, particularly "no meat", on Fridays during Lent). It's not considered meat.
michaelsbradley 8y ago
That's a misunderstanding related to the fact that in a few parts of Europe the Spring-related word became commonly used to refer to the Christian feast. In most languages of Europe, the name for the Christian feast is derived from the Latin paschalis or the Greek pascha, in turn derived from the Hebrew pesah. See: https://www.etymonline.com/word/paschal https://www.etymonline.com/word/paschal https://www.etymonline.com/word/Easter?ref=etymonline_crossreference https://www.etymonline.com/word/Easter?ref=etymonline_crossr...