But that would be lying to the child. Tell them the truth - pagan festival hijacked by the religiots. It's easier than you think, and helps them on their way to questioning everything.

@GoldenDoll but the holiday pre-dates the pagan methods of practicing it. Which means what I said is the truth.

@engineer_in_nj Not strictly so as one of the oldest rebirth and fertility myths recorded is the Sumerian myth of Innana circa 2100 BCE. Around 1500 years later we find her morphed into Ishtar in Babylonia and grafted on to Pesach or Passover after the Babylonian exile. It is true, however that the connection with Eostre, the Germanic goddess was reported by Bede. She was the deity for the Anglo-Saxon Spring festival with her rites being re-interpreted by Christians replacing it with Passover. I am not aware that we can show that the Eostre rites are pre-Christian but Bede does state that Passover replaces the rites of Eostre so the implication would be that this is so.

@Geoffrey51 so what? Some guy made a claim, that isnt proof of anything. I don't know it seems you are working really hard here to ignore the evidence right in-front of you. Easter is a christian holiday that came from a jewish one, it probably has some pagan roots here and there but its a bit like calling English a derivative of Korean since English has some Korean words. Why is it so hard to take the simple explanation?

We know Passover is ancient. We know that early christians celebrated it like Passover. Lets just leave it like that instead of finding some random mofo somewhere who claims that some group he never met invented a holiday that went backwards in time by some method.

@engineer_in_nj Who is "Some guy [who] made a claim"?

I heard that Constantine started the replacement of pagan holidays with christian themes. Part of pacifying his failing empire. Pretty much all pagan systems have a vernal equinox holiday. All were wrapped in a thin candy coating and enforced at sword point. Also nearly all have a winter solstice holiday, guess what that became.

Weird way to get an insight. Like when the beating stops you appreciate not being beaten? I've never been religious - the insight it what you're born with. Religion stops it.

@GoldenDoll I had no say in being brought up a Catholic so it's hardly weird but insight in this case means something I acquired, I understand what they're about more than if I'd never experienced it. So I have an insight into being Catholic but not Zoroastrian although basic tenants of faith obviously apply and as I stated, for what ever reason, I worked out for myself that it didn't make any sense, whether that's nature or nurture is another discussion.

I found your analogy to being beaten, imo, a little glib but perhaps more accurate than you realise. I was the victim of domestic abuse and so again I have an insight into what it feels like to be physically abused and the long term damage, in a variety of ways, that it causes. It is an insight that I could have cheerfully done without but I wasn't born with it.

@ipdg77 I know about catholicism from catholics, and I know about abuse from kids who were abused. Doesn't mean I don't sympathise and understand it, but I would never suggest a child should be beaten so they could have a better insight into abuse.

@GoldenDoll I'm not suggesting that either, I'm not saying you or anyone else should experience being Catholic or being abused to understand it, all I'm saying is I, personally, have a greater understanding of Catholicism and abuse from personal experience that was not of my choosing. In my case being Catholic didn't do me any harm, being abused did (and I don't mean physical) . But I would hope, again and this just my perspective, that my experiences may prove beneficial in some way to someone else through discussion etc

Interesting, but perfectly appropriate.

The Christ is risen! April Fools!

Yeah, I'm driving my mom crazy telling her Easter is on April Fool's Day...just love it!

@Redcupcoffee ...with a 3 year old?

I needed that more fully explained to me as a kid growing up in NYC...

“Spring” was still quite cold and snowy come March 21, in the days before global warming began it’s runaway greenhousing(!), so it was a long time before I realized how that period of time was considered spring!

February was still the “blizzard month” and as a child, I could see no correlation between Groundhog Day and the start of spring...

Now every winter month seems like the start of spring!

@Ungod
Groundhog Day has more to do with the January Thaw than any real meteorilogical information is concerned.

Just one little untruth in your comment. It wasn't hijacked to make christianity more palateable to the pagans - it was to totally stop paganism, and if you didn't like it, they killed you. They didn't try to convert pagans, there was no choice. There was no PR in the days of old.

No it's not. It's just another pagan festival hijacked by christians in order to "stamp out" other relgions. Oestre - fertility, etc. You can look it up.

So why didn’t you use simple honesty?

easter is actually based on ishtar, pronounced the same as easter, from scientific american: "Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols (or did you actually think eggs and bunnies had anything to do with the resurrection?)" [blogs.scientificamerican.com] the fact that christians coopted the celebration (keeping the name, if not its spelling) doesn't mean that the holiday is "based on" the resurrection of "christ." it means it's been CHANGED to represent that.

g

My kid isn’t into Easter. She doesn’t believe in the Easter Bunny and thinks it’s silly to look for eggs(though she does like coloring them). Plus, she doesn’t like chocolate so we just decorate a small tree with eggs and bunnies and call it a day.

@DelilahJones33 that's awesome. Kind of like a hello Spring Festival.

This ^.^ right here. Many people are Christian for the social aspects of it. They just don't really speak on that and join in the holidays for family as well.

Emperor's New Clothes...That is such an awesome comparison!

Well, SPRING BREAK is a country-wide gas... And anyone in the education systems, or who worked with schooled kids did get quite a break - 2nd in duration only to summer (of course) and Xmas!

@Ungod Lol, I like that better than my explanation.

I went to Sunday school for nearly 15 years, was raised a Christian and was surrounded by extremely religious people. It didn't do me any harm and I'm a hardcore atheist and so is my brother

@JenniferRoberts Considering the rapidly growing reputation of the Catholic Church as being the largest pedophile ring in the world, I'd say you were very lucky to get out of it unharmed. But, the popes keep saying that the Church's good name is more important than bringing the offenders to justice - so they keep moving them to new parishes in different countries whenever the victims' families start to get wise to their shenanigans.

April Fools Day is a Christian spoof on the old Pagan Calandar which began on the Equinox.
Christians eat everything. They absorb all they encounter. They are the Borg

I just like that THIS YEAR they are one and the same!

Bunnies and eggs are fertility symbols. You can't beat rabbits when it comes to that subject.

@Leafhead The old joke goes: "You can beat your wife, and you can beat your meat, but if you beat your rabbit, it dies."

Do they tell the kids the truth? That is was the pagan goddess Oestre's fertility festival hijacked by the christians?

@GoldenDoll yes they do! My son is only 4, but my friend's kids are older and preparing for their coming of age ceremonies. It's very uplifting to hear them discuss what they've leaned. Two already identify as Atheist, and one identifies as polytheistic. All their own choice.

Or you could tell them the truth.

See also: vernal equinox.

Or just tell them the truth.

Pagan festival of the goddess Oestre.

Oestre, from whom we get our word oestrogen. For once it's all about us girls!

[en.wikipedia.org]

you didn't answer her question. congratulations.