Pagan origins of Easter

‘When Christians attempted to convert pagans from their traditional beliefs, the native people of Europe were initially resistant to discarding the beliefs and values that had guided them successfully for thousands of years. Realizing that it was difficult to get people to give up their relation to nature and the recollection of their past, the Christian conversion effort adopted and modified the pagan traditions, while replacing cyclical nature with an invisible, inert god and a personal, linear human idol to worship as its representation.’

Easter

‘The name Easter comes from an ancient European goddess of the dawn called Eostre by the Anglo-Saxons and Ostara by the Germanic peoples.She is also known as Eostra, Eostrae, Eostar, Eastre, Easter, Estre, Eástre, and Austra by various European peoples. Her name means “movement towards the rising sun” and is related to the Indo-European root word Aus which means “to shine”. The English words estrus and estrogen are also derived from her name. She was considered the goddess of the growing light and spring, associated with fertility and celebrated with a festival of rebirth.’

Easter Eggs

Colored eggs have a variety of traditions. In some European cultures, they are used similarly to Valentine’s Day gifts as a way of indicating attraction to a desired mate. The egg also symbolizes cosmic creation which is consistent with its use in the spring festival of rebirth. A Babylonian legend even says that the goddess Ishtar hatched from an egg that fell from heaven.

Scary story behind Easter Egg Hunt –

As for the Easter egg hunt, a fun game for kids, But there is a rather scary history to this. As with many elements of our “ancient history, “. But the story goes like this: Eggs were decorated and offered as gifts and to bring blessings of prosperity and abundance in the coming year; this was common in Old Europe. As Christianity rose and the ways of the “Old Religion” were shunned, people took to hiding the eggs and having children make a game out of finding them. This would take place with all the children of the village looking at the same time in everyone’s gardens and beneath fences and other spots.

It is said, however, that those people who sought to seek out Pagans and witches would bribe children with coins or candy , and once those children uncovered eggs on someone’s property, that person was then accused of practicing the old ways. Punishment back then was Death or Jail which usually ended in Torture or being Tortured to death to force Pagans to convert to Christianity In other Words Easter Eggs hunts were used to hunt Pagans and Witches by using Children to search for Eggs .

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