So how did the pagan holiday of Easter get subsumed in the christian resurection holiday?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.The Germans were hard to take over. All surrounding countries have Pascha from the stolen Passover holiday, but the German people that English descends from, had Eostre, and I'm pretty sure that's where the real crossover of pagan fertility symbolism entered it.
DJVJ311
Level 7
Apr 3, 2018
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I have heard that it was adopted to make xstianity more palatable to the locals and then it spread throughout the religion. And it's very funny to me that it kept he fertility symbols of the previous worship of Eostre, which is very ironic considering the clamp that the church put on sexual expression.
Easter is based on the spring renewal. That is after winter when plants and trees go dorment or die they come to life again. This is a resurrection of life. This has always been a common theme through history and very obvious in all cultures that have distinctive seasons. The only places this is not observed is at the equator.
When we put this in a religious context we have dying and rising gods. This is also symbolically represented on the rising and setting of the sun daily. This is why most religions are based on sun worship. The sun dies at night and is revived in the morning. This is where the Christian religion gets the halo. It is symbolic of the sun.
DavidLaDeau
Level 8
Apr 3, 2018
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Interesting that the church preserved the fertility symbols of the previous worshippers. Even though there are resurrection implications it is more of a fertility celebration in it's original form. And particularly with the church wanting to control sex and reproduction.
@epicurius I often say religion is not always in sex, but sex is always in religion. Control the most instinctive of attributes you control the person.
Oh yes. Or, "You have the disease of SIN! Here let me sell you the cure!" syndrome. Convince someone they are sick (not their fault of course but some ancestor who brought about "original sin" and then "sell" them the cure for 10% of their income...in perpetuity.
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