She's the Pagan deity that the Christians ripped off. It's her party.

I know these Xtian holidays are pagan ripoffs.

is the same as saying keep government out of Medicare.



Teh ignorance...it hurts.

known also by similar names from around the old world.. aster, astarte, ishtar, asher, asherim (look that one up in the bible), and of course.. isis.

...is like an Easter Egg Hunt.

Hard boiling the eggs would make them easier and safer to handle; any vegetable dye used for clothing could be used for eggs.

Rabbits were sacred to Ostara/Oestre/Eastre as well. Fertility goddesses generally had abundantly fertile animals associated with them: rabbits, sows, and so forth.

When I got some backyard hens I was enamored of their beautifully colored eggs: teal green, light green, deep brown, light-pink-brown. Until I got them a regular coop they laid their eggs all over, and I spent quite a bit of time on what I realized was the origin of the "Easter egg hunt"!

Hekate

Read more about Pagan Springtime customs here:
http://www.goddessgift.com/pandora's_box/easter-history.html

Oh, the Peepmanity!

And I just snorted wine through my nose. Also wrong.

Oh, the peepmanity.

Actually, it is all so funny...like eggs, bunnies,and peeps have any connection to the religion of the whack jobs.

I do understand about the take-over and transfer of the older earth/nature-centered spiritual customs. The eggs and bunnies, etc., became symbols for new life and rebirth. But, these were the customs of the old ways first, same for the decorated evergreens at Yule, etc.

The whack jobs are just too hilarious-War on Easter? Hah! ...they are also too uneducated and misinformed. Sad.

It's a tough crowd. And the competition here, whoa! They'll CRUCIFY you!

Trust me on this one. Get some peeps and microwave them.

The Peeps Inquisition clearly prescribed roasting them over an open fire.

Though the one that came out looking like a Peep Chile relleno was tempting...

But I still think fire-roasted Peeps is the only way to go.

Try this one:

Some people just have too much time on their hands?

The kids will love it too!

Shouldn't Christians be more outraged at the commercialization of Easter via the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs?

LOL




People really don't know their history

where we also get our word for estrogen and other female related words. Is this more of the war on women? Or is it just ignorance about what is Christian in our traditions and what isn't? Now calling it the Resurrection egg hunt might raise eyebrows.

The Great Goddess rolls her eyes in their general direction.

the resurrection story. LOL

I tend to forget until this time of year that I actually get two opportunities to educate about Paganism in a year. I tend to think Christmas is the big teaching time, but so is Oestara, Ostara, Easter.

And once again, I should have read the full thread before diving in. Yours is better than mine and has a linky. Isn't it funny how the Christians get their panties all in a twist about the destruction of a holiday they stole from the Pagans?

all their holy days were stolen from us, complete with all the symbols. it's fun watching their widdle heads explode.

It just doesn't have the same feeling of fun these days, in Seattle.

... you know, the "Bringer of Life" ??

But of course the holiday is Christian and based on a dude being cricified, with the pop culture "idol" being a male "easter bunny" (at least, all the chocolate bunnies I ever saw had male 'costumes' in foil & the EB was referred to as "he&quot .

I will take the risen zombie dude with the imaginary big bunny friend who gives out chocolate treats of himself and chicken eggs .
Wonder why does the bunny give the hen's eggs to people??
Why not the hens ?
Total take over of Bringers of Life

"my goddess gave birth to your god"

forfend that the peasants should actually know what is really going on.

I wouldn't deny a child that fun no matter what religious name they slapped on it. Kids don't really care about the religious thing either or the eggs, they are in it for the candy.

there was no candy in Easter,just colored eggs.

:/

... the Tooth Fairy. They got candy for those holidays, just not nearly as much as they wanted.

I wouldn't have looked for those eggs.

it was a church hunt, and I found the super-duper grand-prize egg. I got applause, attention, my brothers were jealous as all hell, and I gnawed on that bunny for weeks. It was downright magical.

I'm long past my Easter basket days, but that gave me a big smile.

At a White House Easter Egg Roll in the late '70s my son found a special egg--solid wood, engraved with the signatures of President and Mrs. Carter. I suspect, though, that it was more special for his parents than it was for him.

would be kind of "meh", no matter whose names were on it. Like getting a savings bond for a special occasion gift--parents love it, kids are all "Seriously, where's the toy?"

Like pretending that a Christmas Tree is a "holiday tree".

Just not the one most people think.

Deep in midwinter when most plants are bare and dormant, evergreens remind people that life will renew in the spring. That much is obvious.

But the Europeans (and others) worshipped trees long before the coming of the Christians. With roots that reach deep into the Underworld, a crown that reaches to the realm of the Gods, and a trunk in the world of common day (Middle Earth) trees are a rich source of religious metaphor in many Pagan religions, and were taken in to Jewish and Christian religious metaphor as well.

When I first moved onto my tiny patch of land ten years ago, it was bare earth. I had spent a good part of the previous fifteen years in the forests of the northwest. I was unhappy about it but life and circumstances forced this upon me. The sun shone on it relentlessly and any breeze or wind blew dust around and killed any flowers I tried to plant. So I immediately started planting as many trees and shrubs as I could cram onto the land most of it on a steep grade. Ten years later, I have shade, a wind screen and places that attract wildlife and shelter flowering plants. It's really nice because of the trees.

Your little patch sounds like Eden -- what you created is lovely.

I have to get out and do some pruning and weeding so my perennials can thrive again. The trees are almost getting too big and I have to prune them back some so they don't take over especially the neighbor's property. They seem to like my company. I have so many birds day and night, it's like an aviary.

that Christmas is stolen from the Pagans. We've been able to share it all this time and if some would like to make the celebration terminology reflect more closely it's Pagan roots, why is that a problem? We aren't going to yank Christmas back, haven't the interest but if someone wants to recognize that the holiday, along with Easter were originally Pagan holidays, what's the problem?

Except Halloween. That should be a national holiday.

From what I understand, Easter is a pagan holiday based on the worship of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility. It makes sense...bunnies, eggs, etc. Christians, to be purely true to their faith, would need to eschew all of that.

You do know why eggs and bunny rabbits dominate a Christian holiday that ostensibly celebrates the resurrection of Christ, right? No?

Well, it's because well before Christians appropriated this and many other holidays, they were pagan holidays. This holiday, Ostara or Easter as it's known now, was a spring fertility holiday, hence eggs and fertile, fertile bunnies.

I don't have a big care one way or the other what they call it. It isn't even a holiday that I really celebrate, but I find it funny that Christians in Seattle, a very progressive and not very religious city, would be getting their panties in a wad over this. Even if it was their holiday first, which it wasn't, this is really a tempest in a teapot.

And I'd much rather get eggs and Peeps and chocolate rabbits than palm fronds and ashes.

So if we're doing the War on Easter again, count me in. Leave a coded message at my usual drop...

It isn't like I'm a newbie. I know better than to drink any libation while reading DU. Way too many witty people with wicked senses of humor here.

...you haven't been reading DU.

because of wine. And my keyboard is not cheap. I have a Mac and the keyboard cannot be replaced with a cheap PC one.

Look for secret message, coming soon, usual place...hint, it will look like an egg.

That is stupid.

No stupider than not wondering why a holiday that's supposed to be about resurrection has bunnies and eggs, neither of which have experienced any form of resurrection. While I can't guarantee that for the rabbits, have you ever found an Easter egg in June? Definitely not resurrected. Avoided, if at all possible.

Take my word for it, it tastes horrible! Why didn't you tell me sooner?

It's kinda nice because although Atlantic City is pretty cold, the rates are good and the crowds are down a bit.

Gambling at Caesar's on Good Friday is how I commemorate the part where the guards roll dice for his clothes.

It's probably ripped off from a pagan holiday. Nobody takes it seriously today.

Leave the 'easter' part on or take it off. Kids don't care what it's called. It's fun for them.

have about as much to do with Easter as Christmas trees have to do with Christmas.

If I ever became president, just to mess with these clowns, I'd change the name of the White House tree to the Winter Solstice Wiccan Tree and the egg hunt to the Judas Iscariot Annual Invitational White House Egg Hunt Bonanza.

Oh, my, "Judas Iscariot Annual Invtational..."

Thanks for the belly laugh, although I personally prefer celebrating Ostara.

If you want to get stoned, NEVER buy your grass from the Easter Bunny.

This is how Easter Eggs are really made:

granddaughter. Who knew. I don't think anyone is stopping you from having one in your own back yard. Call it what you want.

Or you'll really have a war on your hands.

So the joke is on them.

They are upset about the pagan fertility traditions being left out of their holy day.

In fact the very name of their holy day has zero to do with what they are celebrating.

What the heck is wrong with people? You'd think they know nothing.

But I guess that was before they sold out to the moneychangers.

Still, it serves them right for skewing the calendar around and stealing holy days from other religions for the sake of winning converts.

But don't try to tell me that we have to call the holiday Easter or else we are persecuting Christians.

Why can't it be what it truly is; a celebration of Spring and rebirth.

Whether you believe that a rabbi was executed and came back to life or if you still worship the rebirth of Persephone to make sure the crops grow, we all know that spring celebrations since our earliest ancestors turned away from hunter gather and embraced the routine of agriculture, we have celebrated Spring...

I like Easter but I celebrate Passover. I love both.

They call it Resurrection Sunday now. It has no pagan-derived symbols - no bunnies, chicks, or eggs. You know the chocolate crosses they sell now? Resurrection Sunday candy.