I finished work for easter today - I have the long weekend off before returning to work next tuesday. With so many bible bashers climbing out of the woodwork to bang their drum about resurrection, and other such unlikely historical events, I thought it might be worth repeating something I learned a long time ago.
In the way of a disclaimer, the following description of the origins of Easter is based on written history - which of course is fallible, unlike the Bible, which church goers will argue is the word of God (even though it was written in some cases many hundreds of years after the fact, and re-written repeatedly over the years).
The word “Easter” derives from “Eostre” - a Saxon celebration much more ancient than the formation of the major religions we now know. Eostre was the Saxon “Great Mother Goddess”. Her name was derived from the ancient word for Spring - “Eostre”. Equivalent goddesses were celebrated through many other pre-christian belief systems relating to fertility - including Aphrodite (Greece) and Hathor (Egypt).
Things start to make sense very quickly as soon as you start looking at the Saxon goddesses. Eostre, also known as “Ostara” took the form of a Hare - although this seems to have become a rabbit through it’s perverted absorbtion into Christianity. Eggs have been associated with vernal festivals since pre-history as symbols or re-birth and fertility. The egg and the hare together represented the God and Goddess in many ancient civilisations.
This blog post is probably sounding like a rant, but it really isn’t - I just become frustrated with the blinkered view exhibited by many people who follow organised religion. “Faith” in many circles means “the version of the world I believe is the only one” - which I would follow by shouting “Oh yeah, right - the dinosaurs didn’t exist, evolution doesn’t happen, and I’m going to hell”.
As Johnny Cash said (rather bizarrely, as he was a man of faith)…
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
We are dirt. If you want to be romantic (Carl Sagan…), we are made of the same stuff as the universe. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Now go eat chocolate eggs and rabbits, and don’t worry about all the dogma, argument and preaching that goes on. Get fat and be merry.