The paganism in Easter.

Well, it’s Easter again. Here we’re having a big ham covered with brown sugar and honey. Confused? We aren’t celebrating Easter, we’re celebrating ham! Easter is an odd holiday actually.

We are told by Christians that it is time of the crucifixion and alleged resurrection of their God-man. The odd thing about it is that his “resurrection” floats around.

Consider how you celebrate your birthday. If you were born on February 6th then every year on that day it would be the anniversary of your birth -- your birthday. It wouldn’t take place on a different date every year. Easter is supposed to celebrate the crucifixion, death and resurrection of the God-man yet it floats around. One year he resurrected on one day and another year on another day. That is really miraculous.

The reason it floats is that Easter is not based on the anniversary of the “resurrection” of this God-man. Instead the date is set by the cycles of the Moon. Did you know that? I bet you doughnuts that 90% of Christians have no idea that this is the case. But the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the 14th day of the full moon that is on, or after, the vernal equinox.

And what about the name for the holiday? Why isn’t it called “Resurrection Day” or something like that? Why this odd word: Easter? The name Easter, which virtually all Christians now hold sacred is an old pagan goddess. It comes from the goddess Eastre or Eostre. She was the goddess of fertility. If you wondered why Easter is celebrate with eggs and rabbits then think fertility.

Celebrating the Spring equinox was common in the pagan cults of the day just as pagan celebration of the Winter solstice, around the 25th of December, was common. And these pagans celebrated with painted eggs laid by rabbits. The reality is that Easter is largely an import from the pre-Christian pagan cults. The early Puritan settlers in New England were very much opposed to Easter celebrations, as they were to Christmas, considering it nothing more than the resurrection of paganism. When these fundamentalists ruled England, during the days of Oliver Cromwell, they actually banned Easter along with that other pagan holiday, Christmas.