IS IT TRUE, that EASTER ...?
111492
Oh, get a life. Easter should be a celebration, now a wake. I think it's just fine to make jokes about it ... on the other hand, there are those people who delight in ridiculing what people believe, and it's never alright to step on someone's beliefs. I don't think that's what's happening here, tho.\n\nSo go get yourself some communion wine and read the joke again, and I think you'll see that it's pretty funny after all!
783067
Did you say that the Easter Bunny don't exist??\n\n\n\n\nWAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!
938729
i have always thought of Easter as more important.  Jesus was tempted and because he WAS man, he could've NOT died on the cross for our sins.  However, He chose to do so and showed us His ultimate love and sacrifice through it.  I always look at Easter as a more important and more reverant holiday than Christmas.  I love Christmas and enjoy the festivities with a smile, but Easter always brings a certain solemness at first (usually on Good Friday) and then a joyful ending on Easter Sunday - since He rose and is now alive in Heaven.\n\nGood question!
986226
My mom was raised by a Presbyterian minister and she was always taught the true meaning of each holiday. We decorate our house with advent calanders and manger scenes, stars and books about the true meaning of Christmas. Despite that, my sister and I always recieved gifts and we understood that those gifts were because it was Jesus' birthday and we were celebrating. We had Santa Claus every year and we had a tree but we knew that we would go to church on Christmas Eve and we would hear the story of the baby born in a manger on that night in Bethlehem. We were even in the Christmas plays every year. Easter was never very commercialized for us because we went to church and, yes, while we still had Easter egg hunts and got Easter baskets, it was more in the fun of Spring than offensive to our beliefs. I think that these holidays are overly commericalized but all we can do is remember the real reasons we have these holidays in the first place. We can teach others about Jesus and why we truly celebrate on these days. As I'm writing this answer I can't help but thinking that maybe the holidays, which are very grown up in a theological sense, were given those little fun things that we all enjoy for the children and to bring out the children in us. As long as we never forget the true meaning to the season, we can celebrate in any way we see fit.
458523
easter lands on a different day each year because it's the 1st sunday after the 1st full moon after the first day of spring.  since a full moon doesn't occur the same day each year, easter sunday will be a floating hoilday
322402
You can just ask what Easter means for them, and then tell them what it means for you (take and give). They might be more opened if they see you are really interested in what they say.
184644
I always get asked if the Easter bunny is real.\n\nI always tell the children to go ask their parents.
666394
If you are referring to the Easter Bunny,  the answer is, Easter isn't all about Christ!  Only to Christians is Easter all about Jesus's resurrection.  Here is an article.\n\nQuite a few pagan cultures hold celebrations in the spring. It's the time of year when plants return to life after being dormant all winter and when animals mate and procreate. These festivities celebrate the renewal of life and promote the fertility of crops, animals, and even people, which was important in these agrarian communities. The Saxons believed in a maiden goddess of fertility named Eastre or Eostre (Oestre in Latin) and honored her with a spring festival. Hares and rabbits were considered sacred to Eastre because they are notoriously fertile animals. \n\nIn the second century A.D., Christian missionaries tried to convert northern European tribes. To help make Christianity attractive, the missionaries turned pagan festivals into Christian holidays. The pagan Eastre festival occurred around the same time as the Christian celebration marking Christ's resurrection so the two celebrations blended into one, rabbit and all. \n\nOver time, Eastre became Easter, and the symbolism changed as well. Instead of the Easter rabbit symbolizing fertility, the rabbit may symbolize an innocent, vulnerable creature that can be sacrificed, similar to the lamb. To Christians, these innocents are tokens of Christ and the sacrifice he made. \n\nThe Easter bunny we know today was influenced by German traditions dating back to the 1500s. German children believed that the Oschter Haws (a magical rabbit) would leave them a nest of colored eggs at Eastertime if they were good. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought this tradition to America in the 1700s. \n\nOn a related note, eggs have long been a symbol of rebirth and thus associated with spring celebrations. In the 600s, Pope Gregory the Great forbade the eating of eggs during Lent (the 40 days proceeding Easter), and this helped make eggs a special treat at Easter. Many European cultures also have old customs of decorating eggs and giving them as gifts.
392547
it was a sunday, but I don't know if it was easter
775498
Did something like this actually happen?
306254
Easter has nothing to do with Jesus christ. It was made up by false religions. It's a lie.\n\n\nEaster was “originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre.” (The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible) “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament.”
311121
it did not happen on friday... and there was no pagan holiday of easter..\nstudy passover.. then note he was to raise on the jewish holiday of ''first fruits""...\n\nhe was jewish he did not follow the pagan holidays of the time...
379342
What do these all have to do with Christianity?  The answer is, NOTHING! People find it hard to believe that the traditions for their favorite holidays didn't originate with that holiday. Easter is the Christian celebration of the rebirth of Jesus. The holiday was set at this time of the year because it coencides with Passover, a Jewish tradition remembering the night when the angel of death came and killed the sons of Egypt.  It also conincided with the pagan celebration of the Spring Equidox, and the coming of Spring. \n\n The traditions of modern Easter, though, are very Pagan. The name of easter is linked to the goddess Ester, of firtility. Some of her symbols were: rabbits, young animals (such as chicks), eggs, and chocolate. (Do these seem familiar?) When christians would convert pagans, they would bring some of their traditions with them. There are many other influences in this holiday as well.\n\nDitto with the oriigns of Christmas.  If you study the Bible, and the climate of the Middle East, topography etc.  you will find that Jesus was most likely born in the Spring,and not December 25.  So what's with celerbrating Chirstmas 24 ~ the Winter Solstice ~ you've got it ~ another orginal Pagan holiday!
334424
Before I answer the question I would just like to tip my hat to Mommyofive. Bravo, you know what you believe and why you believe it. You don't see that much these days ammong christians or even ammong my fellow pagans. \n\nTo answer your question Easter (also called oster or Ishtar) was a pagan firtility holiday that had practical uses in the region that it was observed. Keeping the pagan beliefs while changing the emphasis helped to bolster the early church as well as preventing a disruption of the traditions. Personally though, I would have put Xmass there as Jesus was born in Feb or March rather than the middle of winter.
350758
Yep. And Easter is a pagan celebration of spring.
88564
it depends on the theme - thansgiving or easter etc...
785500
Never, of course. They are two completely separate dates and thus they can not by definition ever fall on the same day of the year, silly. (When was the last time Christmas and Easter fell on the same day of the year? Did you wake up and hunt Easter eggs while at the same time you were opening your presents from Santa?)