The Origins Of Easter

The Origins of Easter

When you think about Easter what springs to mind? You probably think of chocolate eggs, the Easter Bunny or if you're religious maybe the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Most people if pressed will say that Easter is a Christian holiday, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Read on to discover the real origins of Easter.

Pagan Origins?

There is little doubt that the celebration of Easter is in no way Christian. Like many other holidays it has been 'Christianized' but it is in fact a Pagan holiday. The word Easter is not in the bible, and eggs and bunnies are not Christian emblems. In fact what we now celebrate as Easter is the ancient pagan festival of Eostar, also known as Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox, Rites of Spring or Eostra's Day. Further proof, if it were needed, comes in the actual date that Easter is held each year.  The date Easter is celebrated is tied directly to the Spring Equinox (the first Sunday after the full moon after the Vernal Equinox). If it is as the Church says, a celebration of the day Christ was executed and subsequently resurrected, then why is the date not fixed, and instead tied in with the phase of the moon. So, if the event itself is of Pagan origin what of it's traditional iconography....

The Easter Bunny

What of the Easter Bunny? His origins are fairly easy to tie down. The rabbit, or to be more correct the hare, is the Pagan symbol for Spring or the rebirth of the sun.  It's not surprising that ancient people would choose this symbol to represent fertility and rebirth as the rabbit is one of the most prolific breeders in the animal kingdom. A female rabbit is able to conceive a second litter of offspring whilst still pregnant, and birth both separately. In addition to this they produce several litters a year, and become sexually mature at a very young age. The phrase 'to breed like rabbits' is as you can see very apt.


Easter Eggs

The egg is again tied in with rebirth and fertility in ancient Pagan belief. In their Spring festival it symbolizes the world egg laid by the Goddess and split open by the heat of the Sun God, hatching the world. An interesting side note as to why the Easter Bunny carries eggs in a basket is believed to originate in the ancient belief that hares laid eggs (the Easter Bunny originally being a hare). This come from the fact that hares raise their young above ground in a hollow or hare form. This happens to resemble a lapwing nest, as lapwings also nest at ground level. So in the Spring, eggs would be found in what looked like hare forms, giving rise to the belief that the hare laid eggs in the Spring.


Christian Takeover

When Christianity started to spread throughout Europe the local Pagans still wanted to celebrate their own holidays. The solution to this was to basically replace the Pagan holidays with a new Christian version, it being much easier to gently change the belief structure than to ban the original holiday and impose a new one on a different day. This gently circumvented the peoples' natural opposition to change. Indeed Some Christians don’t celebrate Easter, believing that the Christian takeover of this pagan holiday resulted in an unacceptable adoption of Pagan themes, beliefs, and practices. Many other Christian holidays can be shown to have similar Pagan roots.

Conclusion

No matter what your personal belief I hope you found this investigation into the origins of Easter interesting, and it will add to the enjoyment of the Easter holiday for you.


Resource Box

We would like your opinion. What do you think? --  Is Easter a pagan festival that astronomically marks the exact day of the start of Spring or a Christian festival that marks the resurrection? Take our origins of Easter poll and add your opinion too. Take a look at our language of rabbits t-shirts and other products if you want to look extra cool this Easter ;)