{"id":4093,"date":"2017-04-20T10:27:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T18:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/e2medianetwork\/?p=4093"},"modified":"2017-04-20T10:27:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T18:27:25","slug":"wwutt-easter-pagan-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/e2medianetwork\/2017\/04\/wwutt-easter-pagan-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"WWUTT: Easter is a Pagan Holiday?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-8674\" src=\"https:\/\/christianpodcastcentral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Main_WWUTT-Slider-FINAL-550x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"200\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fCFLIfO0YLw?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Is Easter a pagan holiday?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>No.<\/strong> It\u2019s a Christian holiday, also called Resurrection Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave three days after His crucifixion. So, it\u2019s very much NOT a pagan holiday.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Right\u2026 but doesn\u2019t it <\/strong><\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>replace<\/strong><\/span><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong> a pagan holiday?<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9731 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/christianpodcastcentral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Easter.png\" alt=\"Easter, nor any of its attributes, have pagan roots\" width=\"550\" height=\"300\">No.<\/strong> Easter celebrations in the early Church, as early as the second century, were associated with Passover since that was the season in which Jesus was crucified and risen. In 325 AD, the Council of Nicea decided that a Christian Passover (Easter) would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, independent of the Jewish Passover.<\/p>\n<p>The myth that Easter replaces a pagan holiday is likely due to the fact that Christians replaced the pagan celebration of the birth of the sun. If anything, Easter is a Roman Catholic invention, but still unrelated to any pagan spring festivals.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Fine, but isn\u2019t the name \u201c<\/strong><\/em><strong>Easter<\/strong><em><strong>\u201d from a pagan goddess?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>No.<\/strong> The claim that Easter comes from the pagan goddess <em>Ostara<\/em> was made up by 8th century English monk, the Venerable Bede in his book <em>The Reckoning of Time<\/em>. But, as Bede is the only source for this claim and there is no other lore for such a goddess, it\u2019s likely he was making it up. To put it simply, no traditions for such a goddess exist.<\/p>\n<p>The name is probably taken from <em>Eostre<\/em>, the Anglo-Saxon word for the spring equinox, meaning \u201cto rise\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Alright, but aren\u2019t Easter eggs a pagan tradition?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>No.<\/strong> They come from German Lenten traditions of hard boiling eggs so they would keep until the end of the Lenten fast. In the Middle East, eggs were painted red to symbolize the blood of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Though some would have you believe that the Easter egg originates with Nimrod\u2019s egg-laying wife, Ishtar.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>Okay, but the Easter Bunny\u2026 that\u2019s pagan, right?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Actually, no.<\/strong> The Easter Hare was made up by German Lutherans as a \u201cSanta Claus-like\u201d character, rewarding children for good behavior, which has its own set of theological problems. God did not give us His Son because we were good, but because GOD is good.<\/p>\n<p>So again, Easter isn\u2019t pagan.<\/p>\n<p>Now, while there\u2019s nothing in the Bible about celebrating Easter, it does say not to quarrel over opinions about days.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5-6)<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If someone wants to celebrate Easter Sunday, they\u2019re not doing anything pagan. And, if someone doesn\u2019t, they\u2019re not doing anything unchristian.<\/p>\n<p>Let us, as Believers, rejoice together in our risen Lord every day\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026when we understand the text!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>(This video\u00a0is by\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wwutt.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>WWUTT<\/em><\/a><em>. Discovered by <u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpodcastcentral.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christian Podcast Central<\/a><\/u> and our community \u2014 copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWUTT: Easter is a Pagan Holiday? NO. Easter, nor any of its attributes, have pagan roots&#8230; even the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1775,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[724,4836,886,4835,26,4834,4833,850,648,48,3500],"class_list":["post-4093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-living","tag-council-of-nicea","tag-easter","tag-easter-bunny","tag-jesus-christ","tag-ostara","tag-pagan-holidays","tag-passover","tag-santa-claus","tag-theology","tag-understanding-the-bible"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WWUTT: Is Easter a Pagan Holiday? NO. 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