What God has cleansed you must not call common. Acts 10:15.

http://www.truthandgrace.com/

What God has cleansed you must not call common. Acts 10:15.

http://www.truthandgrace.com/

"Planet of the Jabriols" <jabriolusenet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1111857657.445245.63610@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

Easter and it's Origin


http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20050321/easter.html?msn=dsc_news

March 24, 2005 - Easter is the holiest Christian festival,
celebrating as it does the resurrection of Christ, but oddly enough
cute bunnies and chocolate eggs have become its most recognized
modern-day symbols.

The roots of the holiest day in the Christian calendar appear to lie
in a pagan spring festival that celebrated the Anglo-Saxon goddess of
fertility, known as Eostre or Eastre.

Thanks to their notorious mating habits, hares or rabbits were held
to be sacred animals to Eostre, and although no archaeological
evidence has yet been unearthed, it seems the goddess was at times
depicted with a hare's head. OAS_RICH("x25");


Second-century Christians encountering such pagan rites sought
therefore to incorporate them into the church's observance of the
resurrection of Christ, in much the same way as Christmas was imposed
on festivities marking the winter solstice.

In 325 A.D., Emperor Constantine sought to impose some order on the
two festivals, convening the Council of Nicaea, which ruled that
Easter should always be celebrated on the first Sunday after the
first full moon following the spring equinox.

That rule exists today - except in the Orthodox Church which follows
a different calendar - meaning that Easter can fall anytime between
March 21 and April 25.

Over time Eostre became Easter, and as prudish religious mores swept
aside earthy pagan rituals, the bunny was turned from a symbol of
fertility into one of innocence.

But as the Venerable Bede (673 to 735 A.D.) - chronicler of life in
Britain in the Middle Ages - observed, the pagan rituals hung on for
many centuries, meaning that at times Easter was celebrated twice in
one year.

Although it is uncertain when the giving of eggs became associated
with Easter, they have long been symbols of life and rebirth.

Painted eggs have been found dating back to ancient Rome, while in
1200 A.D. Edward I of England is noted from royal records to have
spent 18 pence on 450 eggs, which were painted in gold leaf and
handed out to members of the royal family.

The custom gradually became popular, and France's King XIV even made
it an institution some 500 years later, demanding that his subjects
bring him the biggest eggs laid during Holy Week, while on Easter
Sunday he would distribute gold-painted eggs among his courtiers and
servants.

But as with all such festivals, Easter traditions vary from country
to country.

In Orthodox countries such as Greece, eggs are painted red,
symbolizing the blood of Christ, and cracked at midnight on Saturday
heralding the resurrection of Christ.

With the passing of the centuries, the Easter bunny has also
undergone a reincarnation.

The fluffy, cute bunny recognized today has its origins in the 1500s
and the German Oschter Haws - a magical rabbit which German children
believed would leave them a nest of eggs in the garden.

The first German and Dutch settlers brought the Easter hare to the
New World and hundreds of years later, thanks to clever marketing and
the growth in the chocolate trade, shop shelves now groan every year
under the weight of candy rabbits and eggs.

<end article>