I know that Easter is celebrated by pagans. Easter celebrated the spring equinox and the Goddess Eastre (rebirth). I also know that Easter is celebrated by Christians as the resurrection of Christ. Which came first. I assume it was Paganism, but not sure. Please Help.
138702
Actually, there is a mixture in your mind. Easter, the Resurrection story as celebrated by the Christians is a Christian celebration. However, when the Holy Roman Empire was making it's way across Europe there were several pagan holiday traditions that couldn't be stamped out, no matter how they tried. Therefore, the Catholics took a page out of the Romans' book and just adopted them into their own celebrations and glossed them over as Catholic rituals. \n\nI could go on forever with examples of these, but I'll limit myself to the Easter rituals. Easter was named after a Norse goddess named Ostara, a goddess of fertility. She had certain symbols sacred to her, the hare and the egg. During the Spring Equinox, the adult women would decorate and hide eggs for the men to find. Whomever found the woman's egg, was that woman's partner for the feasting and activities after (think fertility ritual). For this day, marriages were set aside so that the ritual could be enjoyed by all. \n\nSince the Catholics couldn't get rid of this festival entirely, they kept the Easter Bunny and the Egg Coloring and got rid of the fun stuff like the feasting, drinking and fertility ritual. \n\nAnd that's the story of the origin of the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs folks.
111227
Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after vernal equinox.  This is why the date varies from year to year.  Good Friday is simply the Friday before Easter.
146824
Ostara is the one I believe most closely matches Easter. She represents fertility and renewal just as spring has sprung. \n\nDid you know: Eggs were (and still are!) dyed or painted bright colors as an offering to Ostara. Dawn is the best time to invoke her. In days of old, fires were lit at dawn in her honor. It always amazes me how traditions like this survive over the millennia.---
107761
It was conventioned that it would fall on the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.\n\n"At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that Easter would be celebrated on the same Sunday throughout the Church, but it is probable that no method was specified by the Council"\n\n"The practice of those following Rome was to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the earliest fourteenth day of a lunar month that occurred on or after March 21. During the Middle Ages this practice was more succinctly phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. This full moon is called the Paschal full moon. "\n\nP.S.: chief of nothing is right... vernal equinox... I keep forgetting you people on the south hemisphere... (though I have a good friend there)... sorry :)\n\nP.P.S: Fire and wind 985 you got it the other way round: it's ash wednesday that is counted 40 days backward from the "1st sunday after the 1st full moon after Vernal equinox". How did you think Mardi Gras date was set?
422341
Neither Christmas nor Easter have any connection with Christianity. So-called "Christmas" celebrates the pagan Saturnalia and the appropriately-named "Easter" celebrates the pagan goddess Eostre.\n\nJesus was not even born in December. Nearly all so-called Christmas customs dishonor Christ.\n\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/19981215/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20001215/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_01.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/19981215/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm\n\nChristendom adopts "Easter" from pagan worship of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre (or Oestre). Most Easter traditions merely repackage pagan fertility festivals and concentrate on eating, decorating, and frivolity. Christ certainly never wanted that.\n\nBy contrast, it's tragic that the one holiday Christ actually *DID* ask Christians to commemorate is entirely ignored by almost all of Christendom. It is, of course, the Memorial of Christ's death, sometimes called "the Last Supper" or "the Lord's Evening Meal".\n\n(1 Corinthians 11:23-25, NWT) The Lord Jesus in the night in which he was going to be handed over took a loaf... Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” 25 He did likewise respecting the cup.. Keep doing this... in remembrance of me.” \n\n(1 Cor 11:24, 25, NEB) "Do this as a memorial of me.” \n\n\nChrist Jesus himself personally celebrated and explained the significance of that Last Supper to his followers (see Matthew 26:26-29). Christians who commemorate the Last Supper have done so on the same Jewish calendar date as Jesus did, Nisan 14, which generally falls between late March and mid-April. Interestingly, Christians in the centuries immediately after Christ's impalement were sometimes called "Quartodecimans" which literally mean "Fourteen-ers", because the early Christians were well-known for this true holy day.\n\nHow would Jesus feel to learn that the holiday he commanded was widely ignored, while his so-called followers chose to celebrate a pagan false god and their own traditions of men? We don't need to wonder.\n\n(Matthew 15:6-9) You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”\n\nLearn more:\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/lmn/article_08.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20011115/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20050101a/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/jt/
184165
Mostly the same way becuase everyone who celebrates easter in celebrating a christian holiday.  The only difference could be is food.  But most people do about the same thing.  Boil eggs, color them, eat the, eat candy, get new clothes, dress up easter sunday, go to church, be with the family.
280568
Easter comes from a Babylonian celebration of Ishtar the goddess of fertility in mesopotamia. That is also where the bunny and eggs come from the idea of fertility new life etc... This was related to the Resurrection of Jesus when Consantine made Christianity the state religion in Rome (ca 300ad) and pagan holidays began being adopted by the church. So I don't really celebrate Easter I celebrate the Resurrection of my Lord. No baskets eggs or bunnies in my home. Just Jesus and He is all we need.
381368
Well, there is Yule AND there is Christmas.\nYule, which I celebrate, has been around longer and yes, Christianity came along and tried to convert us hethens by creating their own holiday around the same time. But that doesn't make Christmas any less significant. Those that celebrate it have every right to celebrate their beliefs; just as those pagans out there have every right to still celebrate Yule and the solstices. \nChristians celebrate Christmas as Jesus's birthday (and we all know he wasn't actually born on that day, but it was just picked as a day to celebrate it) and that is a beautiful tradition. Christians of today had no hand in the Church's actions of the past; therefore should not be punished for it.\nPeace to all and Blessed be!
168673
Going to church for today. We did an Easter egg hunt earlier in the week with my two married sisters and their children. After three rounds of the children finding the eggs the adults hid, the fourth round was reversed, and adults had to find the (hard-boiled) eggs the children hid. It was hard! There's still one somewhere in the living room we couldn't find! Usually we celebrate Easter with reading part of the New Testament or Book of Mormon about Christ's death and resurrection. My little brother is 18 and too old for Easter baskets. My mom used to make "bunny bread" in the shape of a large bunny, or bunny rolls which included a little "tail" in the middle.
232059
Easter is celebrated on the first sunday after the first full moon following the spring equonix. Because the jews used a lunar calander, we use a lunar calender, too.
634857
well easter and christmas have sort of 2 different meanings, for catholics it means jesus and santa and the easterbunny, for others it just may be santa and the easterbunny but i think everyone should celebrate those days cuz they are fun, happy and get u the day off of work!! :-)!!  but indeed i do cuz i am 100% catholic!!
146090
Pagan is a prechristian religion.  It's mainly based on understanding the cycles of nature and living with th earth.  It makes much more sense to me than modern religions like Christianity.
176502
Jesus Christ was executed on the Friday before Easter.  He was executed on a Friday.  That's why it is called Good Friday.
218546
Excellent question!  Especially since my father is a used car salesman.  haha.\n\nAnyways, I know that certain people will not celebrate things like Christmas and Easter because they are not in the Bible, and the reason for this I believe is two-fold.  First of all, the Bible actually prescribes a very specific list of holidays that it requires.  These are the Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shavuot, among some others.  Within this law it is stated that no one may add nor take away from the Law.\n\nTherefore, a strict interpretation might seem to indicate that these holidays, AND ONLY THESE HOLIDAYS should be celebrated, at least as RELIGIOUS holidays.\n\nHowever, Jews do celebrate some other holidays besides these because they are believed to be "within the spirit" of the Law.  For example, the Bible teaches that one should rejoice in the great things that God does in history.  So, Hanukkah celebrates a miracle that God performed for the Jewish people, and is considered to be acceptable to celebrate.  But it never is given the high status of the holidays which the Bible specifically describes.\n\nOn the part of Christians, I think it is noteworthy that Jesus seemed to accept the holiday of Hanukkah, even though it was post-Old Testament.  His disciples celebrated it, and Jesus told them to do so.  \n\nMost Christians however do not make this connection though I think, because they are not familiar with Jewish custom, and do not realize that Jesus was referring to Hanukkah when he mentions it.  (I'll get you a verse if you'd like, just ask and I can look it up).\n\nSo some Christians think that no holiday should be celebrated if it is not in the Law.  Christmas and Easter and Birthdays are not mentioned therein.\n\nOthers would say that birthdays are ok because they are not religious.\n\nOthers would say that Christmas and Easter are not permissible because they derive from non-Christian holidays that they believe embraced ideas contrary to their faith.\n\nThere are many things which have become custom and the people tend to assume it is biblical, when really, it is not necessarily.  Even the idea of getting married in a church or place of worship is not mentioned, and yet many would say firmly that a marriage done in a courthouse is not a marriage "in the eyes of God."\n\nI don't know why they would hold this view except that they must be ignorant of what is in their scriptures and what is not.
594933
A pagan one. :-P Pagan religions were the majority until Christianity came along.
516507
Pagan here, we have Holidays yes.  Our holidays are not tied to given dates, they are seasonal, the dates can be charted by the zodiac and the suns position in them.\n\nSamhain Oct. 31 (All Hallows Eve, or "Hallowe'en"; November Eve) \n\nWinter Solstice approx. Dec. 21 (Midwinter; Yule, or "Wheel") Also called Pagan Christmas by some , though not by me.  I don't do a Christ's Mass\n\nCandlemas Feb. 2 (Imbolg or Oimelc, "in the belly") \n\nVernal Equinox approx. Mar. 21 Day and night are equal, but day is increasing \n\nBeltane April 30 (May Eve) \n \nSummer Solstice approx. June 21 (Midsummer) This Sabbat marks the longest day of the year.\n \nLammas July 31 ("Loaf mass", also called Lughnassad, "Commemoration of Lugh"; August Eve) The First-Fruits of the Harvest.\n\nAutumn Equinox approx. Sept. 21 Night and day are equal, with night increasing in length\n\nAnd yes, there are rituals and customs to go with each of them.
116389
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! SOMEBODY IS BRAVE ENOUGH TO SPEAK OUT IN TRUTH! You are 100% CORRECT! ALL of the so-called "holidays"(holydays) were NEVER commanded in the Bible-EVER!!! Jeremiah Chapter 10 directly mentions a "christmas tree" as an IDOL! Astarte (Easter) is mentioned many times in the Old Testament as an ABOMINATION TO GOD!!! Tammuz is also in the Old Testament! And not in a good way! People simply follow what the "crowd" says to follow! DOES THAT MAKE IT RIGHT??? Borrowing Pagan traditions and somehow transforming them into "holy days" is unacceptable worship to GOD! DON'T BELIEVE A NOBODY LIKE ME--READ YOUR BIBLE!!! Please see for yourself! Then you will know what God REALLY feels about man-made traditions.....