Easter Traditions

Since its conception as a holy celebration in the second century, Easter has had its non-religious side. Many of you I'm sure know, Easter was originally a pagan festival then turned to be the celebration of the resurrection of Christ with a little help of Christians.

The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an uproarious festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. When the second-century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity. They did so, however, in a discreet manner.

It would have been suicide for the very early Christian converts to celebrate their holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed. To save lives, the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message slowly throughout the populations by allowing them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner.

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol also originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the hare.

From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

Easter did not enjoy the status of a popular celebration among the early settlers in America because most of them were Puritans or members of Protestant Churches who had little use for the ceremonies of any religious festivals. The stricter denominations of those times, the Quakers and the Presbyterians, thought that including a white hare in the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus was somewhat frivolous.

The Easter basket tradition was brought to North American shores by German families in the 1700s, but it wasn't until the period of the Civil War that the message and meaning of Easter began to be expressed as it had been in Europe. Perhaps surprisingly, it was the initiative of the Presbyterians. The post-war scars of death and destruction led people back to the Easter season. They found the story of resurrection as a great source of inspiration and renewed hope.

The German call it Ostern. School children have about three weeks holiday at Easter, and no one works on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. Many people eat fish on Good Friday, and on Easter Saturday evening there is often a big Easter bonfire which is very popular. On Easter Sunday families have nice breakfasts together. Parents then hide Easter baskets with sweets, eggs and small presents. Hand-painted eggs decorated with traditional designs are exchanged among friends.

Nowerdays we're beyond pagan superstitions and in these modern times we know that those who hunt Easter eggs are doomed to burn for eternity in a lake of fire.

Guess I'll see you there ;-)