One way to get people fighting is to discuss the origins of Easter. Most of the Christian world calls it not “Easter,” but something like “Pascha,” derived from “Passover.” The name “Easter,” on the other hand, derives ultimately from a pre-Christian Germanic goddess known as Ēostre or Ostara. It seems that the Anglosphere and the Germans are pretty much the only ones who call it something like “Easter,” everyone else calls it something derived from “Passover.”
As with Christmas, the German pagans contributed notable aspect to the holiday… the Easter bunny and colored eggs seem to be remnants of the pagan past, with probable links to the Norse goddess Freyja. But as with so much of such things, the history is at best muddled. The most that can be said is that it *appears* that there was a spring holiday celebrating fertility, rebirth, the end of winter, that sort of thing, and when Europe was Christianized there was a merging of the pagan with the Christian.
From my perspective, the two traditions may have been merged into a single holiday, but the basics are quite different. The pagan holiday, being a springtime fertility holiday, probably featured a whole lot of drinkin’, partyin’ and makin’ little pagans, while the middle eastern religious import was based on terror, genocide, murder, pain, shame, all that stuff (don’t believe me? “Passover” is based on the belief that while God was busy exterminating a good fraction of the children of Egypt, his murderous rage “passed over” the Hebrews; then, centuries later, new traditions about a guy getting nailed to some lumber got added in). I know which one sounds more like a holiday to me.
Today, it certainly seems that the pagan aspects of the holiday – a celebration of fertility – seem to be alive and well:
Safe for work? Ummmm… sure. Why not. (Note: not really.)
Some of the comments from the Fark.com thread where I saw these really say it all.
I think I’d kill everyone I ever loved and ever cared about for 17 seconds with that woman.
She seems…. fun.
Goddess of Fertility pays us a visit 🙂
Bunk. Now.
She has a great set of personalities.
GOD BLESS AMERICA