Why do we celebrate Easter? Apparently, approximately 5000 yrs ago a golden space ship in the shape of an egg landed on the banks of the Tigris and euphrates rivers in present day Iraq,

The Goddess "Ishtar" the great mother of Earth emerged and from that day, the event has been celebrated which we know today as Easter, being a corruption of the word "Ishtar", and eating the egg is in memory of the space ship.

Haven't read that myth but as for the Pagan reasons behind Easter the word is taken from the Goddess Eostarahttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2947753.stm . She is the goddess of Spring and warmth.

The celebration of spring for pagans is 21st March which is named after the goddess....Ostara. It celebrates the coming of spring the rebirth of the land and the god and goddes reunite and start the years cycle again.

A little story for Ostara can be foud here:
http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/ostara/ostara_tale.html

Many stories are abound of Christian immigrants coming here and having to change their celebration dates to suit those already practised here because otherwise they couldn't convert them. I do not know about most but I do know that Christmas as we celebrate it here is not celebrated in other Christian countries at the same time. Our festivities fall slap bang in the middle of the 12 day feasting of Yule which starts 21st December and ends on the 1st January.

The other point is that since we changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one in 1582 all dates are skew wiff aswell. Also there does not appear to be any arceaolgocial(sp?) evidence to back up every single celebration of the Eight fold year a modern pagan celebrates. Some of them yes.....others no.

And before anyone asks no I am not pagan. *shudder*

Before I came across all this heathen information I was told to celebrate Easter because Jesus the son of god has risen from the grave. Easter weekend marks the day he was crucified and that it took him 3 days to rise again as he had promised his follwers he would do.
I went to church at lent a few years ago, which is apprently for the Catholic calendar a bit depressing. My Gran told me I should have gone on palm Sunday, she said it was much happier and colourful and fun. It was interesting but not my cup of tea.

Is that enough for you Hal???

Moon Maiden

Very Interesting Moon Maiden, you certainly know your stuff, The true meaning of a lot of these festivals is, I think, lost in the mists of time.

A lot has been born out of ancient superstition and ignorance, or should I say lack of knowledge which would be kinder, we live in an enlightened age and as such are very lucky.

It would be easy to criticise people who lived in day's gone by but superstition in those day's was a powerfull force and if we had lived then, we also, would have thought it was fact.

I do believe though, there have been thing's happen on Earth over a period of thousands if not millions of years that would amaze and astound us, because in this vast Universe of which we are only an infintisimal part there must be a purpose and a plan.

If not, why? where did all the matter in it come from what is it for? what are we here for? these are fascinating question's that unfortunately will never be answered, still I like to ponder, must be my age!

A lot has been born out of ancient superstition and ignorance, or should I say lack of knowledge which would be kinder, we live in an enlightened age and as such are very lucky.

I think that is a very wrong assumption to make. I do not think we are any more enlightened than our predecessors. Their beliefs were shaped by their conditions and environment as ours are shaped today.
The church are fighting to keep up congregations as more and more appear to be disulusioned with the Bibles teachings, many commenting that they are 'out of date' and have no relevance in our time.

These supersitions and lack of knowledge have built amazing monuments that we still see and wonder at today. Stone Henge, Callanish, The Pyramids of Egypts......I can go on of course but you get the idea.

Indeed such belief in superstition more modern times has born it's own archetectual achievements. Catherdrals and great buildings used to house peoples faiths.

Whilst some people may find it offensive that I call christianity a superstition....who knows, In a few thousand years time people may look back upon Christianity as a superstition of less enlightened peoples. Pagans in their time were sure of their faiths and beliefs as christians are today.
So whilst I apologise to those who may find my comments offensive, from the wider view, absolutely anything is possible.

Moon Maiden[/code]

Oh come on Moon Maiden, we are certainly much more enlightened today, due to the accumulation of knowledge over many ,many, centuries we have the benefit of of all that has been Invented and discovered leading to modern technology with all it's amazing benefits.

We have incredible stores of knowledge in our library's all over the world, peoples minds are more open and receptive, we have free thinking which in turn leads to more innovation's, centuries ago and indeed in more modern times people with enquiring mind's were suppressed or executed if they dared to question the established thought dictated by the hierarchy.

As regard's religion, a person I spoke to said to me that it was a way of explaining the unexplainable, that may well be true, but then we have the problem of deciding where the Universe came from who created it? why? we can live quite easily without the Universe, all we need is this Galaxy and the Sun which gives us life.

And we are part and parcel of this Galaxy (Universe) the carbon atoms of which our bodies are made were manufactured in the centre of Stars like our Sun, so when it is said there is no God, who or what created everything?

The amazing monument's you mention, were built by the ancient's to worship the God's for things they could see but not understand, the Sun, the Earth, the rain, they saw the Galaxy's and Star's in the night sky and wondered.

We also, can see them and wonder, man's knowledge in that way is no further forward than it was thousand's of years ago except now man can travel through space for a little way, it is the final frontier but what a frontier!

Oh come on Moon Maiden, we are certainly much more enlightened today, due to the accumulation of knowledge over many ,many, centuries we have the benefit of of all that has been Invented and discovered leading to modern technology with all it's amazing benefits.


You are joking. Enlightenment? I would have thought enlightenment a positive term. That is certainly not what enlightenment has brought us.

You only have to look at the complaints and moans in the forum about what is wrong with the city and the world to see what enlightenment has brought us.

Humanity has become a parasite on thsi earth since it has become enlightened.....we all know what we do with parasites don't we? And good luck to her!

Moon Maiden

In honour of EyeSpy's recent thread, I thought I would resurrect this one...

your thoughts please... :P

The Easter Bunny

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

The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

The Easter Egg

As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.

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.

Quote by Bill Hicks


I've been travelling a lot lately. I was over in Australia during Easter. It was interesting to note that they celebrate Easter the same way as we do - commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night. I wonder why we're so ****ed up as a race? Any clues out there? You know, I've read the Bible - can't find the words "bunny" or "chocolate" in the whole book.


Where do we get this stuff from? And why those two things? Why not "goldfish left Lincoln logs in our sock drawers"? I mean, as long as we are making **** up, why not go hog wild?



Easter is a good excuse for a holiday!;)

S--- i thought it was to do with easter eggs:heyhey:

I celebrate easter cos its a good excuse to eat lots and lots of chocolate. Who cares about the myths and legends? That is all they are. We can get lots of folk tales from books, but it is more important what we feel. Now I feel that easter is a time for eating chocolate in the shape of eggs.

Also want to say the I do not see how people who were struggling to survive and such had any time to celebrate these supposed festivals? Was it just a chosen few? The higher-ups? Cos I am pretty certain the peasants would not have had much to celebrate.

Dragon
Myth Questioner ;)

I agree with you Dragon, loads of Easter eggs to eat plus I get two days holiday of Work!

Although I guess a lot of holidays' traditional/intended meanings have become largely eroded and- the McStarbucks crew would argue- commercialised at the benefit of big business, I don't think there's any shame in (uh oh, Hallmark card-ness coming up :P ) any "holiday" or special date that brings families/friends together. Ok, so maybe in my household an annual gathering serves to highlight how polarised from each other some of the Kooky family members have become, but at least it gives us time to reflect on who is important to us.
To be honest, as a child I thought Easter was all about the chocolate, I guess it makes the holiday more palatable. As an adult, having explored various religions, it's still all about the chocolate for me, to be totally honest. But at least it's an excuse for a family dinner which we might not otherwise make the effort for.
Obviously I realise that for people with little/no family, seeing all these Kodak moments of schmaltziness around holidays must be incredibly difficult, but I think it's important for everyone to have their own interpretation/meaning of what these holidays are about.
I think we should just celebrate Easter and other holidays as a time of closeness + generosity; it can be incredibly intimidating for some people to have religion associated with holidays and they might feel like a sham celebrating when they don't believe in whatever religion said holiday is traditionally tied to. So let it be commercial or whatever; just enjoy it!

(ok, end of essay...)

Aye - lets have everyone making these holidays a family affair ... but what if you have no family? Do you adopt - just for the sake of having someone to share the festival with?

Trust me - the reason for Easter is chocolate eggs. Before chocolate eggs there was no reason for easter. Even the christians wanted to keep a reason for chocolate eggs alive so they invented some story about Jesus so we could continue to eat lots of those lovely treat filled chocolate eggs.

The cards - don't care about. You can keep them.

Hmmmmmmm chocolate. Do I need an excuse to stuff my face with the stuff?

Dragon

I just heard a bang in Walkley - I hope the Easter Bunny hasn't been hit by a red Scooby! :o :D

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
I just heard a bang in Walkley - I hope the Easter Bunny hasn't been hit by a red Scooby! :o :D

Quick! scramble the police helicopter :o :o :o :D

Talking of easter bunnies - and chocolate, of course - has anyone found one of those hollow chocolate bunnies that actually tastes of chocolate? I can eat most kinds of chocolate - even cooking choc, but those bunnies are like puke mixed with chocolate and then left to ferment for 6 months.

Dragon

Originally posted by Dragon
but those bunnies are like puke mixed with chocolate and then left to ferment for 6 months.

Dragon How the hell did you know our recipie??:o That's been a family secret for years.

Mini Head of ACME EGGS & CO

Originally posted by Dragon
Talking of easter bunnies - and chocolate, of course - has anyone found one of those hollow chocolate bunnies that actually tastes of chocolate? I can eat most kinds of chocolate - even cooking choc, but those bunnies are like puke mixed with chocolate and then left to ferment for 6 months.

Dragon

The Lindt ones- gold foil wrapping with a little bell around the bunny's neck- are the best by far :P

All this talk of chocolate is not doing me any good.

I can feel my mouth watering.

hazel

Originally posted by hazel
All this talk of chocolate is not doing me any good.

I can feel my mouth watering.

hazel

Those tablets are still working then Hazel, by the way (he asked innocently) How's the milkman these days? :D

Tired and late getting home by all accounts :heyhey:

Chocolate filled with anything is a sin to chocolate - unless it is belgium choccy. Hmmmmm.

They are trying to bring out new flavoured chocolate easter eggs - who wants cheese and onion flavoured filling?

Dragon

Quote by Bill Hicks




Easter is a good excuse for a holiday!;)


haha very good...and then he continues to go onto gideons.

Do you all have different books of the bible than I do..Are y'all gideons? Who are the ***king gideons? ever met one? no! Ever seen one? no! but they're all over there ***king world putting bibles in hotel rooms. Every bible you look at, "this bible was placed her by a Gideon...WHEN!?...I've been here all day i havn't seen ****! I saw the house keep come and go, i aw the mini bar guy come and go, I havn't laid eyes on a Gideon..What are they ninjas?!..where do they come from gidea?! WTF are these people! ... I'm gonna capture a gideon, I am..I'm gonna make that my hobby. Yeah one day ima ring the front desk and say "yeah i dont seem to have a bible in my room"...


sorry if there are mistakes..its been done from memory. xD

Forget Christianity, pagan festivals...its chocolate....Mmmmmmmm

Another pondering Q....to the Almighty SF Oracle. :D

Why do we have "hot-cross buns" for Easter?

Is there a specific day you eat it, and how do you eat it? Why is it called that?

Why do we have "hot-cross buns" for Easter? ...
Why is it called that?

I assume it's probably NOT an early version of hot desking, to steamline cross ultilisation in the corporate environment.

If we declare that there is really no purpose to Easter (Chocolate can be consumed in vast quantities while working. I know whereof I speak.), sooner or later someone somewhere will decide that we don't need the two bank holidays for our religious observances anymore. If you want to go that far just to deprive me of the best gardening weekend of the year, at least stop to consider the impact it would have on the already weakened DIY industry ...

I assume it's probably NOT an early version of hot desking, to steamline cross ultilisation in the corporate environment.

If we declare that there is really no purpose to Easter (Chocolate can be consumed in vast quantities while working. I know whereof I speak.), sooner or later someone somewhere will decide that we don't need the two bank holidays for our religious observances anymore. If you want to go that far just to deprive me of the best gardening weekend of the year, at least stop to consider the impact it would have on the already weakened DIY industry ...
This reply seriously tickles me. :hihi:
Nutter! :loopy: :D

Well... to elaborate why I asked this possibly mundane Q. (I actually seriously like to know. Since SF members seem to be a good source of walking encyclpedias.) I saw some hot-cross buns on offer from M&S, and I was talking to a few foreign students, and said that, it's eaten near Easter time. Which I think we do anyway. It's just occured to me that I don't know why it's called that, or why we eat it. lol...

[QUOTE=Bago;2039595Well... to elaborate why I asked this possibly mundane Q. (I actually seriously like to know. Since SF members seem to be a good source of walking encyclpedias.) I saw some hot-cross buns on offer from M&S, and I was talking to a few foreign students, and said that, it's eaten near Easter time. Which I think we do anyway. It's just occured to me that I don't know it's called that, or why we eat it. lol...[/QUOTE]

Buns have long been associated with holy festivals, as have crosses of various sorts. The symbolism of an equal-armed cross is often associated with the "four corners" of the world or the ancient elements.
Of particular interest is the ancient Greek bous, a bun with "horns" given as an offering to the gods. The circular bun was said to represent the moon with the cross dividing it into its quarters.

These buns were also said to never go off - since none have survived we can probably assume that was an exaggeration!

To modern Christians, the bun represents the cross and the crucifixion of Christ. The earliest known reference to such a bun in written English is from "Poor Robin's Almanac" in 1733. These became "Hot" Cross Buns in the early 19th century.

Traditionally these buns were eaten on Good Friday. Now, of course, we can buy and enjoy them all year round - which seems to rather defeat the point.

Buns have long been associated with holy festivals, as have crosses of various sorts. The symbolism of an equal-armed cross is often associated with the "four corners" of the world or the ancient elements.
Of particular interest is the ancient Greek bous, a bun with "horns" given as an offering to the gods. The circular bun was said to represent the moon with the cross dividing it into its quarters.

These buns were also said to never go off - since none have survived we can probably assume that was an exaggeration!

To modern Christians, the bun represents the cross and the crucifixion of Christ. The earliest known reference to such a bun in written English is from "Poor Robin's Almanac" in 1733. These became "Hot" Cross Buns in the early 19th century.

Traditionally these buns were eaten on Good Friday. Now, of course, we can buy and enjoy them all year round - which seems to rather defeat the point.

Ok, thanks for that explaination. :) Now I know!
I never knew that it is traditionally eaten on Good Friday. I thought there were some normal ones on offer too, but there seemed to be more of other types nearer this time round. I did wonder.

This reply seriously tickles me. :hihi:
Nutter! :loopy: :D



Why do you think Womerry2 is a nutter? The first big Spring bank holiday weekend is in many ways the most important in the industry, and hugely significant to all gardeners. In a way, they are celebrating the arrival of Spring in a genuine and appropriate fashion. Even if nowadays Spring starts in the middle of January. :suspect:

Easter, like some other holidays, was converted to a Christian religion from the old Pagan holiday of Ostaria (March 21st)
Ostaria is celebrated by "Spring cleaning" your life and planting new ideas.
Pagans will plant seedlings that have been nurtured since Imbolc on old leaves that are buried in the garden at this time.

Lots of Easter information can be found at http://www.easterwebsite.co.uk/.