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Weren’t both Easter and Christmas non-Christian holidays originally?

• gumby 4y ago
  Yes, most religions have a midwinter festival of rebirth (e.g. Sol Invictus -- the sun gets weak but is reborn) and a spring fertility festival. I find it odd that the Christians reversed them though: easter is a death/rebirth festival (hence the bunnies, chicks, lambs etc -- people want their fertility symbols at that time) which would make more sense in the midwinter and their god's birth festival is in the middle of winter for some reason.
  • rsynnott 4y ago
    In early Christianity, Easter was _by far_ the more significant holiday (Christians didn't even celebrate Christmas until a few centuries AD) so Christmas probably got whatever slot was left. Interestingly, in Islam, Jesus is usually considered to have been born in the Spring or Summer.
• wl 4y ago
  No and no. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
  • thaumasiotes 4y ago
    The only source that discusses the name of Easter tells us that the holiday is named after the pagan goddess it honors, so "no" may be a little strong.
    • wl 4y ago
      The name "Easter" is an outlier. It's Πάσχα ("Pascha") in Greek, Pasqua in Italian, Pâques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Pasen in Dutch, Påske in Norwegian. It's only in German ("Ostern") and English we name the festival after the old month name ("Esoturmonath") it tended to occur in. The Venerable Bede says the month was named after the goddess Eōstre. That's the sum of the information we have on the goddess. That doesn't make Easter an originally pagan holiday.