Saturday, September 8, 2012

Pagans & Easter


Every student of the Scriptures knows that the single reference (Acts 12:4) to Easter in the Bible is a mistranslation of pascha, everywhere else translated "Pass­over." The Revised Version gives the correct translation; besides, there is no mention of the pascha as being a holyday binding upon
the Christian church, Paul merely mentioning it casually in passing, just as he mentions in Acts 17:23 that he noticed an inscription "TO THE UN­KNOWN GOD" while walking down the street. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, art. "Easter," declares: "There is no indication of the observance
of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apos­tolic Fathers."

The word itself comes from "Eastre," the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, and from there it goes straight back to Ishtar (Aphrodite), the Babylonian (Roman) goddess of
spring, of love, and of immorality. Most of the
pagan days the church adopted carry with them some custom or practice that marks their origin, and Easter is no exception. The rabbits and eggs always associated with this day are but symbols of the organs of fecundity formerly
sacrificed at this season by the Huns. They symbolize the power to produce offspring, and reveal but a fraction of the immorality formerly con­nected with paganism's great spring fes­tival. The British Museum possesses an inscribed egg of veined marble which Sargon dedicated to the sun-god of Sip­para; and even the colors we use on our eggs today were
formerly sacred in sun worship.

As was pointed out by Sir Isaac New­ton, Easter, as well as practically every other of the church's holydays, is related to the movements of the sun or other heavenly bodies rather than to any event, occurring in the Christian church. As the "first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox," the day clearly shows its astral origin. It at that season
of the year when the sun has reached the halfway point between midwinter and midsummer.

Our hot cross buns at Easter time, declares Chambers in his "Book of Days” art. "Semnel Cakes," were formerly by the pagan Saxons in honor of their goddess Eastre.


The Easter celebration of the sun’s return to give new life to the earth was originally almost universal throughout paganism.

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