Easter

Easter or the Memorial—Which Should You Observe?

AS DAWN spreads its glow over the horizon on April 7, millions will welcome their most holy day of the year—Easter. At one time the name applied to a 120-day period of feasts and fasts that began with a holiday called Septuagesima and ended on what is called Trinity Day. Today the name is applied to a single day commemorating Jesus’ resurrection—Easter Sunday.
On an evening earlier in that same week, however, other millions will meet to celebrate the Memorial of Christ’s death, also known as the Lord’s Evening Meal. It is an observance that Jesus himself instituted on his last night on earth. He then told his disciples: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”—Luke 22:19.
Which should you observe?
 
The Origin of Easter
The name Easter, used in many lands, is not found in the Bible. The book  Medieval Holidays and Festivals tells us that “the holiday is named after the pagan Goddess of the Dawn and of Spring, Eostre.” And who was this goddess? “Eostre it was who, according to the legend, opened the portals of Valhalla to receive Baldur, called the White God, because of his purity and also the Sun God, because his brow supplied light to mankind,” answers The American Book of Days. It adds: “There is no doubt that the Church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them. As the festival of Eostre was in celebration of the renewal of life in the spring it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus, whose gospel they preached.”
This adoption explains how in certain lands the Easter customs, such as Easter eggs, the Easter rabbit, and hot cross buns, came about. Concerning the custom of making hot cross buns, “with their shiny brown tops marked by a . . . cross,” the book Easter and Its Customs states: “The cross was a pagan symbol long before it acquired everlasting significance from the events of the first Good Friday, and bread and cakes were sometimes marked with it in pre-Christian times.”
Nowhere in Scripture do we find mention of these things, nor is there any evidence that the early disciples of Jesus gave them any credence. In fact, the apostle Peter tells us to “form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word, that through it [we] may grow to salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2) So why did the churches of Christendom adopt such obviously pagan symbols into their beliefs and practices?
The book Curiosities of Popular Customs answers: “It was the invariable policy of the early Church to give a Christian significance to such of the extant pagan ceremonies as could not be rooted out. In the case of Easter the conversion was peculiarly easy. Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and at the awakening of nature from the death of winter, became joy at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, at the resurrection of Christ from the grave. Some of the pagan observances which took place about the 1st of May were also shifted to correspond with the celebration of Easter.” Rather than steer clear of popular pagan customs and magical rites, the religious leaders condoned them and gave them “Christian significance.”
‘But is there any harm in that?’ you may wonder. Some think not. “When a religion such as Christianity comes to a people from outside, it adopts and ‘baptizes’ some of the folk customs which derive from older religions,” said Alan W. Watts, an Episcopal chaplain, in his book Easter—Its Story and Meaning. “It selects and weaves into the liturgy folk observances which seem to signify the same eternal principles taught by the Church.” To many, the fact that their church sanctioned these observances and treated them as holy is reason enough to accept them. But important questions are being overlooked. How does God feel about these customs? Has he given us any guidelines to follow in the matter?
 
Getting God’s Viewpoint

“Easter Day, the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord, is the greatest of all the festivals of the Christian Church,” said Christina Hole in her book Easter and Its Customs. Other writers concur. “No holy day or festival in the Christian year can compare in importance with Easter Sunday,” notes Robert J. Myers in the book Celebrations. That, however, raises some questions. If celebrating Easter is so important, why is there no specific command in the Bible to do so? Is there any record  of Jesus’ early disciples observing Easter Sunday?
It is not that the Bible fails to give guidelines as to what should or should not be celebrated. God was very specific in this to the ancient nation of Israel, and as noted earlier, explicit instructions were given for Christians to continue observing the Memorial of Christ’s death. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Colossians 2:16, 17) An early edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica tells us: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. . . . Neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival.”
Some feel that the joyousness of such festivals and the happiness they bring are sufficient justification for their observance. We can learn, however, from the occasion when the Israelites adopted an Egyptian religious practice and renamed it “a festival to Jehovah.” They too “sat down to eat and drink” and “got up to have a good time.” But their actions greatly angered Jehovah God, and he severely punished them.—Exodus 32:1-10, 25-28, 35.
God’s Word is very clear. There can be no sharing between the “light” of true beliefs and the “darkness” of Satan’s world; there can be no “harmony” between Christ and pagan worship. We are told: “‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’; ‘and I will take you in.’”—2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
As only the Memorial celebration—not Easter—is commanded in the Bible for Christians, it should be observed.
THE WATCHTOWER 1996-04-01
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp19960401/origin-of-easter-not-in-bible/

http://www.watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm

What Does God Require of Us?

Lesson 11
Beliefs and Customs That Displease God
What kind of beliefs and customs are wrong? (1)
Should Christians believe that God is a Trinity? (2)
Why do true Christians not celebrate Christmas, Easter, or birthdays? (3, 4)
Can the dead harm the living? (5) Did Jesus die on a cross?  (6)
How important is it to please God?  (7)

Image of triune god
God is not a TrinityChild celebrating holidays
Christmas and Easter come from ancient false religions
People worshiping at graveside
There is no reason to worship the dead or to fear them
1. Not all beliefs and customs are bad. But God does not approve of them if they come from false religion or are against Bible teachings.—Matthew 15:6.
2. Trinity: Is Jehovah a Trinity—three persons in one God? No! Jehovah, the Father, is "the only true God." (John 17:3Mark 12:29) Jesus is His firstborn Son, and he is subject to God. (1 Corinthians 11:3) The Father is greater than the Son. (John 14:28) The holy spirit is not a person; it is God's active force.—Genesis 1:2Acts 2:18.
3. Christmas and Easter: Jesus was not born on December 25. He was born about October 1, a time of year when shepherds kept their flocks out-of-doors at night. (Luke 2:8-12) Jesus never commanded Christians to celebrate his birth. Rather, he told his disciples to memorialize, or remember, his death. (Luke 22:19, 20) Christmas and its customs come from ancient false religions. The same is true of Easter customs, such as the use of eggs and rabbits. The early Christians did not celebrate Christmas or Easter, nor do true Christians today.

4. Birthdays: The only two birthday celebrations spoken of in the Bible were held by persons who did not worship Jehovah. (Genesis 40:20-22Mark 6:21, 2224-27) The early Christians did not celebrate birthdays. The custom of celebrating birthdays comes from ancient false religions. True Christians give gifts and have good times together at other times during the year.
5. Fear of the Dead: The dead cannot do anything or feel anything. We cannot help them, and they cannot hurt us. (Psalm 146:4Ecclesiastes 9:510) The soul dies; it does not live on after death. (Ezekiel 18:4) But sometimes wicked angels, called demons, pretend to be the spirits of the dead. Any customs that have to do with fear of or worship of the dead are wrong.—Isaiah 8:19.
6. Cross: Jesus did not die on a cross. He died on a pole, or a stake. The Greek word translated "cross" in many Bibles meant just one piece of timber. The symbol of the cross comes from ancient false religions. The cross was not used or worshiped by the early Christians. Therefore, do you think it would be right to use a cross in worship?—Deuteronomy 7:261 Corinthians 10:14.
7. It may be very hard to abandon some of these beliefs and customs. Relatives and friends may try to convince you not to change your beliefs. But pleasing God is more important than pleasing men.—Proverbs 29:25Matthew 10:36, 37.
Published in 1996


Easter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter 


Easter marks the end of Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. The last week of the Lent is called Holy Week, and it 
contains Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Easter is followed by a fifty-day period called Eastertide or 
the Easter Season, ending withPentecost Sunday.Easter (Old EnglishĒostreGreekΠάσχαPaskhaAramaic:
 פֶּסחא‎ Pasḥa; from Hebrewפֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ) is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year.[1]According to
the Canonical gospelsJesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is
celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday[2] (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday). The
chronology of his death and resurrection is variously interpreted to have occurred between AD 26 and 36.
Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea
(325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the
northern hemisphere's vernal equinox.[3] Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21 (even though
the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on March 20 in most years), and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily
the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25. Eastern 
Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar whose March 21 corresponds, during the 21st century, to
April 3 in the Gregorian Calendar, in which calendar their celebration of Easter therefore varies between April 4 and
 May 8.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In
many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are etymologically related or homonymous.[4]
Easter customs vary across the Christian world, but decorating Easter eggs is a common motif. In the Western 
world, customs such as egg hunting and the Easter Bunny extend from the domain of church, and often have a
secular character.

Easter
Easter
Resurrected Jesus and Mary Magdalene, byAntonio da Correggio, 1543
Observed byChristianscultural Christians
TypeChristian, cultural
SignificanceCelebrates the resurrection ofJesus
2011 dateApril 24 (both Western and Eastern)
2012 dateApril 8 (Western)
April 15 (Eastern)
2013 dateMarch 31 (Western)
May 5 (Eastern)
CelebrationsReligious (church) services, festive family meals, Easter egg hunts and gift-giving
ObservancesPrayer, all-night vigil, sunrise service
Related toPassover, of which it is regarded the Christian equivalent; Septuagesima,SexagesimaQuinquagesima,Shrove TuesdayAsh WednesdayClean Monday,LentGreat LentPalm Sunday,Holy WeekMaundy Thursday,Good Friday, and Holy Saturday which lead up to Easter; and Thomas Sunday,AscensionPentecostTrinity Sunday, and Corpus Christiwhich follow it.


The following is taken from http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

Origins of the name "Easter":

The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos.1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were:
bulletAphrodite from ancient Cyprus
bulletAshtoreth from ancient Israel
bulletAstarte from ancient Greece
bulletDemeter from Mycenae
bulletHathor from ancient Egypt
bulletIshtar from Assyria
bulletKali, from India
bulletOstara a Norse Goddess of fertility.
An alternative explanation has been suggested. The name given by the Frankish church to Jesus' resurrection festival included the Latin word "alba" which means "white." (This was a reference to the white robes that were worn during the festival.) "Alba" also has a second meaning: "sunrise." When the name of the festival was translated into German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in error. This became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been proposed as the origin of the word "Easter". 2
There are two popular beliefs about the origin of the English word "Sunday."
bulletIt is derived from the name of the Scandinavian sun Goddess Sunna (a.k.a. Sunne, Frau Sonne). 5,6
bulletIt is derived from "Sol," the Roman God of the Sun." Their phrase "Dies Solis" means "day of the Sun." The Christian saint Jerome (d. 420) commented "If it is called the day of the sun by the pagans, we willingly accept this name, for on this day the Light of the world arose, on this day the Sun of Justice shone forth." 7

Pagan origins of Easter:

Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a consort, Attis, who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. Attis was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25.
Gerald L. Berry, author of "Religions of the World," wrote:
"About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.3
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians:
"... used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."
Many religious historians and liberal theologians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. 4 Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value with no connection to Jesus. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.
Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. In those places where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.


References used in the above essay:

  1. Larry Boemler "Asherah and Easter," Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 18, Number 3, 1992-May/June reprinted at:http://www.worldmissions.org/Clipper/Holidays/EasterAndAsherah.htm
  2. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Q & A Set 15, "Why do we celebrate a festival called Easter?" at: http://www.wels.net/sab/text/qa/qa15.html
  3. Gerald L. Berry, "Religions of the World," Barns & Noble, (1956).
  4. J Farrar & S. Farrar, "Eight Sabbats for Witches," Phoenix, Custer, WA, (1988).
  5. "Sunna," TeenWitch at: http://www.teenwitch.com
  6. "Dies Solis and other Latin Names for the Days of the Week," Logo Files, at:
     http://www.logofiles.com/
  7. "Sunday Observance," Latin Mass News, at:  http://www.unavoceca.org/
Copyright 1999 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2009-DEC-26
Author: B.A. Robinson