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YHVH'S instructions concerning Passover have been distorted by many peoples,
their religions, and their traditions.
Our FATHER is not happy about this.
How did these traditions of 'Easter' and other such distortions come about?
The following should offer a small amount of information which should prove helpful in uncovering the deceptive traditions of men and their idols.
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Origins of Easter
Brief history of the spring holiday
by David Johnson
Infoplease.com
Christians celebrate Easter to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some trappings of modern
Easter celebrations, however, pre-date Christianity and have ancient pagan roots.
Ancient Fertility Goddess
Easter takes its name from Ishtar, the
Babylonian and
Assyrian
goddess of love and fertility. The Phoenicians knew her as Astarte, sister and consort of
Baal, a
god worshipped in much of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Some of the ancient Hebrews also worshipped Baal.
Astarte spread through Europe, becoming Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, fertility, and the rising sun. The Old English word for Easter, "Eastre" refers to Ostara.
Around the second century A.D., Christian missionaries seeking to convert the tribes of northern Europe realized that the time of the crucifixion of Jesus roughly coincided with the
Teutonic springtime celebrations, which emphasized the triumph of life over death. Christian Easter gradually absorbed the traditional symbols.
Eggs and Rabbits Have Long Legacies
The egg and the rabbit, two of Easter's most common symbols, also have ancient associations with spring.
Eggs symbolize birth and fertility in many cultures. Ancient Egyptians and the
Persians colored eggs to give as gifts during their spring festival.
The legends of ancient Egypt connect the hare, which comes out at night to feed, with the moon. Rabbits have remained fertility symbols in other, later cultures.
According to Anglo-Saxon myth Ostara, wanting to delight some children one day, turned her pet bird into a rabbit. The rabbit proceeded to lay brightly colored eggs, which Ostara gave to the children.
Easter Egg Hunts
In ancient Europe, eggs of different colors were taken from the nests of various birds and used to make talismans. The eggs were often ritually eaten. The search through the woods for eggs gradually evolved into the Easter egg hunt, while painted eggs eventually replaced wild birds' eggs. Easter baskets were probably originally intended to resemble birds' nests.
Forbidden Eggs
In Medieval
Europe, eggs were forbidden during Lent. Therefore they were a prized Easter gift for children and servants.
Eggs were painted bright colors to resemble the sun and springtime. Often, the colors and patterns had romantic symbolism, and lovers exchanged eggs as they send Valentine's Day cards today.
Different Traditions
Orthodox Christians in the
Middle East and in
Greece, painted eggs bright red to resemble the blood of Christ. Hollow eggs (created by piercing the shell with a needle and blowing out the contents) were decorated with pictures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other religious figures in
Armenia.
Germans gave green eggs as gifts on Holy Thursday. They also hung hollow eggs on trees. Austrians placed tiny plants around the egg and then boiled them. When the plants were removed, white patterns were created.
Artistic Creations
The most elaborate Easter egg traditions appear to have emerged in Eastern Europe. In Poland and Ukraine, eggs were often painted silver and gold. Pysanky (to design or write) eggs were created by carefully applying wax in patterns to an egg. The egg was then dyed, wax would be reapplied in spots to preserve that color, and the egg was boiled again in other shades. The result was a multi-color stripped or patterned egg.
Cards and Chocolate
Easter cards arrived in Victorian England, when a stationer added a greeting to a drawing of a rabbit. The cards proved popular.
The Germans probably began making chocolate bunnies and eggs. Immigrants took the custom to Pennsylvania. As Easter celebrations became more common after the Civil War, the custom of chocolate eggs took hold.
Easter Parades
After their baptisms, early Christians wore white robes all through Easter week to indicate their new lives. Those had already been baptized wore new clothes instead to symbolize their sharing a new life with Christ.
In Medieval Europe, churchgoers would take a walk after Easter Mass, led by a crucifix of the Easter candle. Today these walks endure as Easter Parades. People show off their spring finery, including lovely bonnets decorated for spring.
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A Morass of Movable Feasts
A quick guide to the dates of Passover and Easter
The Jewish liturgical year is not simply the basis for Jewish holidays, but for the Christian
movable feasts as well—those annual holidays that do not fall on a fixed date but vary according to astronomical occurrences.
The celebration of Passover took place just before the Crucifixion and Resurrection of
Christ, and the two holidays have been entwined from the beginning—the word
Pasch, originally meaning Passover, came to mean Easter as well.
April 24 (sundown 4/23) to April 30/May 1, 2005 (5765):
Passover
Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, the holiday commemorating the Hebrews' exodus from slavery in Egypt, lasts seven days in Israel and among Reform Jews, and eight days elsewhere around the world. It begins on the 15th day of Nisan, which is the seventh month in the
Jewish
calendar. It ends on the 21st of Nisan in Israel (and for Reform Jews) and on the 22nd of Nisan elsewhere.
Since Hebrew days begin and end at sundown, Passover begins at sundown on the preceding day.
See also dates of other Jewish
feasts.
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March 27, 2005:
Easter
(Western Churches)
Easter is calculated as the first Sunday after the paschal full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is the following Sunday. The holiday can occur anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
The Western church does not use the actual, or astronomically correct date for the
vernal
equinox, but a fixed date (March 21). And by full moon it does not mean the astronomical full moon but the "ecclesiastical moon," which is based on tables created by the church. These constructs allow the date of Easter to be calculated in advance rather than determined by actual astronomical observances, which are naturally less predictable. See also
A Tale of Two
Easters.
The Council of Nicaea
in 325 established that Easter would be celebrated on Sundays; before that Easter was celebrated on different days in different places in the same year.
See also dates of other Christian movable
feasts.
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May 1, 2005
Easter
(Orthodox Church)
The Orthodox church uses the same formula to calculate Easter, but bases the date on a slightly different calendar—the
Julian calendar instead of the more contemporary
Gregorian one, the calendar that is most widely used today. Consequently, both churches only occasionally celebrate Easter on the same day.
Unlike the Western Church, the Eastern Church sets the date of Easter according to the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual
equinox as observed along the meridian of Jerusalem, site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. See also
A Tale of Two Easters and dates of
other Orthodox movable
feasts.
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Orthodox Eastern Church
Orthodox Eastern Church, community of Christian churches whose chief strength is in the Middle East and E Europe. Their members number over 250 million worldwide. The Orthodox agree doctrinally in accepting as ecumenical the first seven councils (see
council,
ecumenical) and in rejecting the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome (the pope). This repudiation of the papal claims is the principal point dividing the Orthodox from Roman Catholics. Eastern Christians who have returned to communion with the pope are called Eastern Catholics, or Uniates; in every respect apart from this obedience to Rome, they resemble their Orthodox counterparts. This use of the terms Catholic (obeying the pope) and Orthodox (belonging to one of the Orthodox churches) is not technical, for both groups call themselves both Catholic and Orthodox (see
catholic
church). The word Orthodox became current at the time of the defeat (753) of iconoclasm in Constantinople. Orthodox acceptance of the seven councils resulted in the exclusion from their communion, on grounds of heresy, of the Nestorian, Jacobite, Coptic, and Armenian churches; it also involves holding a sacramental doctrine of grace ex opere operato (see
grace) and of veneration of the Virgin Mary, two points differentiating the Orthodox from Protestants.
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The
above was from Infoplease.com
Please
use discernment when utilizing any and all such reference material.
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