Dear Christian friends can youu answer this Question about Easter?  

I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine it was something done by secular society to make Easter a "holiday" for everyone, not just the religious/spiritual Christians. I feel that the same thing has happened with Christmas. Where did Santa come into a holiday that is supposed to celebrate the birth of Christ?

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If you check out an old edition of World Book Encyclopedia it will tell you that the word "Easter" is pagan in origin, the bunnies and eggs are also pagan in origin. I always wonder why people don't question how the eggs and bunnies go together. Rabbits don't lay eggs and yet that's what accompanies the rabbit. Hmmmmmm. Go back to Constantine and when he melted paganism into Christianity and Christianity into paganism. He was bringing his kingdom together. Now you have pagans keeping their fertility festivals with a Christian twist. No wonder the church looked so different three hundred years after Christ's death. There is much lost in true Christianity by messing with this.

Seriously I was wondering the same thing yesterday....I don't know how it got started.....I do know that it's the most joyous of all occasions!

Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc... ARE NOT "true" Biblical holidays. They are man-made holidays and traditions. None are Biblical and none are commanded to be kept.

Look at a good encyclopedia and you will find out that they are all pagan traditions. The Church in Rome incorporated all these pagan holidays into the church in order to cater to all peoples of all back grounds and thus, fatten its membership.

Today, it is claimed that Easter is kept in honor of the Resurrection of Jesus, but even when very simply tested with scripture, it falls way short of its mark.

The Church tradition states that Christ "died" on Good Friday (Evening) and was Resurrected on Easter Sunday ("sunrise" Morning). So this would only give you two evenings and one day- or two and two, depending on how you look at it.

However, Christ Himself stated that He'd be in the grave "three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40).

So the Bible shatters this cherished man-made pagan tradition.

Mashlomech Sarah,

You need to read the history of the Council of Nicea. This was where all the different factions of christianity were brought under one roof by the pagan ruler Constantine. The pagans were also incorporated into the mix. The only ones who exited the party were the Jews they wanted no part of the whole business. It is also when the Gnostics were destroyed. The Gnostics were the folks who followed the lifestyle of the christ the closest. For some reason this was not pleasing to the other factions.

This is why all of the major christian holidays are celebrated on old pagan holidays and why pagan rituals sneak into christian rituals. Its not just the egg which is the pagan symbol for life. There is the incense used in the catholic church to purify both people and religious icons etc. Then of course there are the icons themselves. Icons begat Icons!

Shalom~Adoniah

I think it's interesting that you have more Pagans replying to your question than Christians. it makes me wonder if the Christians are in denial about the Pagan influence of if they just don't know the answer to your question.

Thanks for asking the question though, I've been curious about that too.
I do remember hearing one time (I think it was while I was attending church) that it has something to do with symoblizing "rebirth" the the Pagan connection was not mentioned.

Easter is the western pronunciation of the word Ishtar, The festival of Ishtar was a spring fertility festival held forty days after the weeping for Tammuz in the Babylonian and Assyrian culture. Ishtar was the goddess of both fertility, and the mother goddess. The signs of her deity were fertal signs, eggs, rabbits, fish. Ishtar ruled the day friday, she demanded bloodless sacrifices, and meatless sacrifices, so her main offerings were unleavened wafers and fish. Also the followers of Ishtar "Queen of Heaven" would with hold from eating meat on her holy day of Friday and would opt for eating fish. Her son Tammuz was killed and his body was spread through out the land, she searched forty days to find his body and when she found them she put them back together. her followers now mark the day of this by fasting and weeping for forty days, and celebrate the resurection of Tammuz and his mother co-redeemer Ishtar with this spring festival. The priest of the temple would hide a coin or an egg, the person who found the coin or egg would then have prosperity for the year. They would also mark a special day for when Tammuz was fully recovered and became Shamash the Sun god. this is on Dec 25th, when the Sun dies and is reborn.

The actual word in Greek was PASCAL, Greek for passover. The word was changed to Easter by the Church of Rome in 333 A.D. because the Passover and the festival of Ishtar was very close together, they combined the two and made easter the official church holy day. thus the passover when the Christ died and took away the sins of the world was changed to a pagan holiday of the resurrection of an ancient pagan deity and survived with its ceremonies and rituals much like Christmas.

I was raised Catholic but don't really know where the Easter bunny came from. I like Pyewhcket's explanation.

I'm aware that quite a few of our rites and rituals are from the pagan rituals of bygone centuries -- but couldn't pinpoint them if I had to. Incidentally, I question everything and the more I read, the more I lean towards Judaism.