Technically the Christian religion borrowed from Pagan religions as they always do but who's counting...



Eggs and Bunnies are fertility symbols by the way...JSYK







Origins of the name "Easter":
The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were:

Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus
Ashtoreth from ancient Israel
Astarté from ancient Greece
Demeter from Mycenae
Hathor from ancient Egypt
Ishtar from Assyria
Kali, from India
Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility.

An alternative explanation has been suggested. The name given by the Frankish church to Jesus' resurrection festival included the Latin word "alba" which means "white." (This was a reference to the white robes that were worn during the festival.) "Alba" also has a second meaning: "sunrise." When the name of the festival was translated into German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in error. This became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been proposed as the origin of the word "Easter". 2

There are two popular beliefs about the origin of the English word "Sunday." It is derived from the name of the Scandinavian sun Goddess Sunna (a.k.a. Sunne, Frau Sonne). 5,6
It is derived from "Sol," the Roman God of the Sun." Their phrase "Dies Solis" means "day of the Sun." The Christian saint Jerome (d. 420) commented "If it is called the day of the sun by the pagans, we willingly accept this name, for on this day the Light of the world arose, on this day the Sun of Justice shone forth." 7






















Easter and Spring
Come March. And the world around you gets geared up to go ga ga on a festive spree. Some skeptics might shrug off the March madness fray, but can't beat the freak it rolls out of its season of rejuvenation, rejoice and renewal that ushers in with a basketful of new promises and gifts in galore. The nature discards its weary look to don a brand new outfit. The shining sun showers its blissful warmth, as if, to thwart the frosted blanket which the winter wraps around us. The brook turns bubbly. The blooming tulips, the crocuses and the daffodils - all swayed by the cool southie breeze, bring back the vibe on earth.

What else can be a better day for fun and fiesta? To have your family reunited? Friendship and love renewed? And feelings shared?
Perhaps all these traits have made spring and celebrations almost synonymous. That too from the dawn of human history.

Even in the Greek mythology, Demeter and Persephone, convey the idea of a goddess returning seasonally from the nether regions to the light of the day. This is in conjunction with the vernal equinox, March 21, when nature is in resurrection after the winter.
Even Easter - the grand occasion that reminds you of the golden and crimson eggs and chocolate bunnies, the ho'cross buns, is also a spring time festival. As if the Almighty had chosen this glorious season for the death-resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

History Of Easter

Easter, the principal festival of the Christian church year, celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The origins of Easter date to the beginnings of Christianity, and it is probably the oldest Christian observance after the Sabbath (observed on Saturday). Later, the Sabbath subsequently came to be regarded as the weekly celebration of the Resurrection.

Meanwhile, many of the cultural historians find, in the celebration of Easter, a convergence of the three traditions - Pagan, Hebrew and Christian.

According to St. Bede, an English historian of the early 8th century, Easter owes its origin to the old Teutonic mythology. It was derived from the name Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the month of April was dedicated. The festival of Eostre was celebrated at the vernal equinox, when the day and night gets an equal share of the day.

The English name "Easter" is much newer. When the early English Christians wanted others to accept Christianity, they decided to use the name Easter for this holiday so that it would match the name of the old spring celebration. This made it more comfortable for other people to accept Christianity.

But it is pointed out by some that the Easter festival, as celebrated today, is related with the Hebrew tradition, the Jewish Passover. This is being celebrated during Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew lunar year. The Jewish Passover under Moses commemorates Israel's deliverance from about 300 years of bondage in Egypt.

It was in during this Passover in 30 AD Christ was crucified under the order of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as the then Jewish high priests accused Jesus of "blasphemy". The resurrection came three days later, on the Easter Sunday. The early Christians, many of them being brought up in Jewish tradition regarded Easter as a new feature of the Pascha (Passover). It was observed in memory of the advent of the Messiah, as foretold by the prophets. And it is equanimous with the proclamation of the resurrection. Thus the early Christian Passover turned out to be a unitive celebration in memory of the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus. However, by the 4th century, Good Friday came to be observed as a separate occasion. And the Pascha Sunday had been devoted exclusively to the honor of the glorious resurrection.

Throughout the Christendom the Sunday of Pascha had become a holiday to honor Christ. At the same time many of the pagan spring rites came to be a part of its celebration. May be it was the increasing number of new converts who could not totally break free of the influence of pagan culture of their forefathers.

But despite all the influence there was an important shift in the spirit. No more glorification of the physical return of the Sun God. Instead the emphasis was shifted to the Sun of Righteousness who had won banishing the horrors of death for ever.

The Feast of Easter was well established by the second century. But there had been dispute over the exact date of the Easter observance between the Eastern and Western Churches. The East wanted to have it on a weekday because early Christians observed Passover every year on the 14th of Nisan, the month based on the lunar calendar. But, the West wanted that Easter should always be a Sunday regardless of the date.

To solve this problem the emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicaea in 325. The question of the date of Easter was one of its main concerns. The council decided that Easter should fall on Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. But fixing up the date of the Equinox was still a problem. The Alexandrians, noted for their rich knowledge in astronomical calculations were given the task. And March 21 was made out to be the perfect date for spring equinox.

The dating of Easter today follows the same. Accordingly, churches in the West observe it on the first day of the full moon that occurs on or following the Spring equinox on March 21., it became a movable feast between March 21 and April 25.

Still some churches in the East observe Easter according to the date of the Passover festival.
The preparation takes off as early as on the Ash Wednesday from which the period of penitence in the Lent begins. The Lent and the Holy week end on the Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection.






















Modern-day Easter is derived from two ancient traditions: one Judeo-Christian and the other Pagan. Both Christians and Pagans have celebrated death and resurrection themes following the Spring Equinox for millennia. Most religious historians believe that many elements of the Christian observance of Easter were derived from earlier Pagan celebrations.

The equinox occurs each year on March 20, 21 or 22. Both Neopagans and Christians continue to celebrate religious rituals linked to the equinox in the present day. Wiccans and other Neopagans usually hold their celebrations on the day or eve of the equinox. Western Christians wait until the Sunday on or after the next full moon. The Eastern Orthodox churches follow a different calculation; their celebration is often many weeks after the date selected by the Western churches.










There is a near consensus among Christians that Jesus was executed on a Friday by the Roman Army, and resurrected on the following Sunday morning. However, there have always been alternate explanations for the timing of the various events associated with his execution and resurrection. One theory is that Jesus died on Wednesday afternoon, and was resurrected on Saturday evening. The empty tomb was discovered on Sunday morning, many hours after Jesus had left.



One Sabbath or two?:
An initial clue that might point to a Wednesday crucifixion is found in Matthew 28:1. This passage discusses Mary and "the other Mary" making a Sunday morning visit to the tomb where Jesus' body had been placed. This was after the weekly Sabbath which ran from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. The following are translations according to the:

New English Bible: "The Sabbath was over,...."
New International Version: "After the Sabbath,..."
Jerusalem Bible: "After the Sabbath,..."
King James Version: "In the end of the Sabbath...came Mary Magdalene"
Living Bible: "Early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene..."
Philips Modern English: "When the Sabbath was over..."
Revised Standard Version: "Now after the sabbath...."
Today's English Version: "After the Sabbath,...

However, less commonly used translations of the Bible render Sabbath in plural form:

Young's Literal Translation: "And on the eve of the Sabbaths..." (Emphasis ours)

Alfred Marshall's Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Green's Literal Translation, and Ferrar Fenton's Translation also render "Sabbaths" in plural form. To most Christians, the original Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew copies of the Bible are much more important than any English translation. The Greek in this passage also refers to Sabbaths (plural).

Many people do not realize that the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) discusses two different kinds of Sabbaths:

One type occurs on a weekly basis, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
The other type -- called "high days" consist of the seven annual Sabbath days listed in Leviticus 23. These could occur on any day of the week.

Unless the plural form of Sabbath in Matthew 28:1 was an error by the author of Matthew, or an error subsequently made by a copyist, then the week in which Jesus was executed must have contained two Sabbaths, not one.

The presence of the second Sabbath -- a High Sabbath -- is confirmed in John 19:31:

King James Version: "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."

It mentions that Jesus' body had to be quickly removed from the cross before sundown, to avoid polluting the land. This is based on Deuteronomy 21:22-23:

"And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God that thy land be not defiled...."

A second confirmation is found in Mark 16 and Luke 23:

Mark 16:1: And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
Luke 23:55-56: And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

So, after the first Sabbath -- the high day -- had passed, three of Jesus' female followers bought spices in order to care for Jesus' body. Then they prepared the spices, and later rested on the second Sabbath day, Saturday.



How many days were between Jesus' execution and resurrection?
A number of passages in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) mention that three days would pass between Jesus' death and resurrection. Yet traditional belief is that he died on Friday before sunset, and was resurrected on Sunday morning. That interval consists of only a few hours on Friday, Saturday which ran from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and part of Sunday morning -- a total of perhaps a day and a half, not three. This discrepancy is normally rationalized by counting each part of a day -- part of Friday and part of Sunday -- as a full day. But this conflicts with Matthew 12:39-40:

"But he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Emphasis ours)

If Jesus died on Friday afternoon before sunset then Friday counts as one day and one night. All day Saturday also counts as one day and one night. Sunday doesn't count because John 20:1 says:

"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."

That is, Mary came to the tomb while it was still night. So we end up with two days and two nights -- one day and one night short.



Possible explanations to the discrepancy:
Conservative Christians view the autograph -- original -- copies of the books in the Bible to be the Word of God. Its authors wrote text that is without error under God's inspiration. One approach to harmonize the conflicting passages described above would be to assume that Matthew 39:40 did not specify "three days and three nights." It actually referred to three "days" (or partial days), as in other biblical passages. The wording that we see in Matthew would then be the result of a copyist error.

Liberal Christians see no problem here. They interpret the Bible as a historical document, and not inerrant. They view the four gospels as written by individuals or groups who were not eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus' life. The authors relied on many oral traditions which varied from each other. When one compares passages from various gospels, one can anticipate errors and assume that they cannot be harmonized.

There is at least one more possibility: Jesus might have been crucified on a Wednesday afternoon, and resurrected on Saturday evening. The chronology would look something like this:

Tuesday: Jesus and his disciples ate an evening meal together, and was arrested.
Wednesday: This is the preparation day mentioned in John 19:31. i.e. the day before the high-day Sabbat. Jesus appears before Pilate, and is crucified; he dies about 2 PM in the afternoon, before sundown. His body is removed from the stake or cross and placed in the tomb.
Thursday: This is a high Sabbath day: the first day of Unleavened Bread, mentioned in Matthew 27:62.
Friday: Jesus' female followers purchased spices.
Saturday: This was a regular weekly Sabbath, different from the high Sabbath day on Thursday. All rested and did no work during the day. Jesus was resurrected sometime in the afternoon before sunset.
Sunday: Mary Magdalene (by herself according to the Gospel of John or with other women according to the synoptic gospels) went to the tomb and found it empty.

Adding up the days and nights:

Jesus died on Wednesday afternoon and is laid "in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40) at or just before sunset.
The first night and first day passes: Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset.
The second night and day passes: Thursday sunset to Friday sunset.
The third 12 hour night passes between Friday sunset and Saturday morning.
Part of the third 12 hour day passes on Saturday, and Jesus is resurrected before sunset.
The woman or women find the empty tomb very early on Sunday morning.

According to The Good News magazine:

"Several computer software programs exist that enable us to calculate when the Passover and God's other festivals fall in any given year. Those programs show that in A.D. 31, the year of these events, the Passover meal was eaten on Tuesday night and Wednesday sundown marked the beginning of the 'high day,' the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread."

This agrees well with the many theologians' estimate that Jesus was executed between the years 29 and 32 CE.

It is a neat theory, but has little chance of being accepted because of almost two millennia of church tradition supports a Good Friday execution and Easter Sunday resurrection. Also if Jesus actually was resurrected on Saturday afternoon, then the church's justification for moving the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday would collapse, and the 35,000 or so Christian faith groups whose prime day for religious services is Sunday would have to admit that the Seventh-day Adventists and other Sabbatarian groups were right after all.

Solstice







It appears the word is spelled in more than one way depending on the language...very interesting

In all probability the first religion was Sun-worship. Nothing could have been more natural. Light was life and warmth and love. The sun was the fireside of the world. The sun was the "all-seeing" -- the "Sky Father." Darkness was grief and death, and in the shadows crawled the serpents of despair and fear.

The sun was a great warrior, fighting the hosts of Night. Apollo was the sun, and he fought and conquered the serpent of Night. Agni, the generous, who loved the lowliest and visited the humblest, was the sun. He was the god of fire, and the crossed sticks that by friction leaped into flame were his emblem. It was said that, in spite of his goodness, he devoured his father and mother, the two pieces of wood being his parents. Baldur was the sun. He was in love with the Dawn -- a maiden -- he deserted her and traveled through the heavens alone. At the twilight they met, were reconciled, and the drops of dew were the tears of joy they shed.

Chrishna was the sun. At his birth the Ganges thrilled from its source to the sea. All the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into leaf and bud and flower.

Hercules was a sun-god.

Jonah the same, rescued from the fiends of Night and carried by the fish through the under world. Samson was a sun-god. His strength was in his hair -- in his beams. He was shorn of his strength by Delilah, the shadow -- the darkness. So, Osiris, Bacchus, Mithra, Hermes, Buddha, Quelzalcoatle, Prometheus, Zoroaster, Perseus, Codom Lao-tsze Fo-hi, Horus and Rameses were all sun-gods.

All these gods had gods for fathers and all their mothers were virgins.

The births of nearly all were announced by stars.

When they were born there was celestial music, voices declared that a blessing had come upon the earth.

When Buddha was born, the celestial choir sang: "This day is born for the good of men Buddha, and to dispel the darkness of their ignorance -- to give joy and peace to the world."

Chrishna was born in a cave, and protected by shepherds. Bacchus, Apollo, Mithra and Hermes were all born in caves. Buddha was born in an inn -- according to some, under a tree.

Tyrants sought to kill all of these gods when they were babes.

When Chrishna was born, a tyrant killed the babes of the neighborhood.

Buddha was the child of Maya, a virgin, in the kingdom of Madura. The king arrested Maya before the child was born; imprisoned her in a tower. During the night when the child was born, a great wind wrecked the tower, and carried mother and child to a place of safety. The next morning the king sent his soldiers to kill the babes, and when they came to Buddha and his mother, the babe appeared to be about twelve years of age, and the soldiers passed on.

So Typhon sought in many ways to destroy the babe Horus. The king pursued the infant Zoroaster. Cadmus tried to kill the infant Bacchus.

All of these gods were born on the 25th of December.

Nearly all were worshiped by "wise men."

All of them fasted for forty days.

All met with a violent death.

All rose from the dead.

The history of these gods is the history of our Christ. He had a god for a father, a virgin for a mother. He was born in a manger, or a cave -- on the 25th of December. His birth was announced by angels. He was worshiped by wise men, guided by a star. Herod, seeking his life, caused the death of many babes. Christ fasted for forty days. So, it rained for forty days before the flood -- Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days. The temple had forty pillars and the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Christ met with a violent death, and rose from the dead.

These things are not accidents -- not coincidences. Christ was a sun-god. All religions have been born of sun-worship. To-day, when priests pray, they shut their eyes. This is a survival of sun- worship. When men worshiped the sun, they had to shut their eyes. afterwards, to flatter idols, they pretended that the glory of their faces was more than the eyes could bear.

In the religion of our day there is nothing original. All of its doctrines, its symbols and ceremonies are but the survivals of creeds that perished long ago. Baptism is far older than Christianity -- than Judaism. The Hindus, the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans had holy water. The eucharist was borrowed from the Pagans. Ceres was the goddess of the fields, Bacchus the god of the vine. At the harvest festival they made cakes of wheat and said: "These are the flesh of the goddess." They drank wine and cried: "This is the blood of our god."

The cross has been a symbol for many thousands of years. It was a symbol of immortality -- of life, of the god Agni, the form of the grave of a man. An ancient people of Italy, who lived long before the Romans, long before the Etruscans, so long that not one word of their language is known, used the cross, and beneath that emblem, carved on stone, their dead still rest. In the forests of Central America, ruined temples have been found, and on the walls the cross with the bleeding victim. On Babylonian cylinders is the impression of the cross. The Trinity came from Egypt. Osiris, Isis and Horus were worshiped thousands of years before our Father, Son and Holy Ghost were thought of. So the Tree of Life grew in India, China and among the Aztecs long before the Garden of Eden was planted. Long before our Bible was known, other nations had their sacred books, temples and altars, sacrifices, ceremonies and priests. The "Fall of Man" is far older than our religion, and so are the "Atonement" and the Scheme of Redemption.

In our blessed religion there is nothing new, nothing original.

Among the Egyptians the cross was a symbol of the life to come. And yet the first religion was, and all religions growing out of that, were naturally produced. Every brain was a field in which Nature sowed the seeds of thought. The rise and set of sun, the birth and death of day, the dawns of silver and the dusks of gold, the wonders of the rain and snow, the shroud of Winter and the many colored robe of Spring, the lonely moon with nightly loss or gain, the serpent lightning and the thunder's voice, the tempest's fury and the zephyr's sigh, the threat of storm and promise of the bow, cathedral clouds with dome and spire, earthquake and strange eclipse, frost and fire, the snow-crowned mountains with their tongues of flame, the fields of space sown thick with stars, the wandering comets hurrying past the fixed and sleepless sentinels of night, the marvels of the earth and air, the perfumed flower, the painted wing, the waveless pool that held within its magic breast the image of the startled face, the mimic echo that made a record in the viewless air, the pathless forests and the boundless seas, the ebb and flow of tides -- the slow, deep breathing of some vague and monstrous life -- the miracle of birth, the mystery of dream and death, and over all the silent and immeasurable dome. These were the warp and woof, and at the loom sat Love and Fancy, Hope and Fear, and wove the wondrous tapestries whereon we find pictures of gods and fairy lands and all the legends that were told when Nature rocked the cradle of the infant world.

can we get some cliff notes up in here?

Yea...


There is no God...when you die you rot in the ground and it pretty much sux...



The End

These Pagans take their shit very seriously...if you fuck up they will call you out...













The Happy Hippy Hater:



Dhampir:
coming from a pagan, who knows quite a lot about those gods, you are talking out your ass. as usual.




Well don't keep us in suspense. Share your knowledge. Please expand.






i cant be asked to do a full analysis, but most of what he says about the pagan gods just isnt true. they are common lies that are perpetuated by movies like zeitgeist. apollo wasnt the sun, neither was horus, dionysos was not a sun god, as our resident maenad will tell you. the same is true for the other gods.




























Whoever wrote this---and it clearly wasn't you, dear OP---knows nothing of mythology.
























Missed this part:

"All of these gods were born on the 25th of December."

This is also demonstrably false. For most of the deities you mentioned there is no recognized birth date.

The nonsense you people spew is astounding sometimes.





















LOL at perseus being a god. of all of those, one is a sun-god.























Where does it say that Krishna was Surya?

Do you realize how early Easter is this year? It's March 23! As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).



This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around in date on our Roman based calendar.



I found out a couple of things you might be interested in!



Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare. Here's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!



Here's the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now).



2) The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).



3) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now).



4) The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.
So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

*

now that's funny, i don't care who you are.*

.

I was going to comment, but cannot get past that hariy ball.