Easter

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Easter is celebrated as a Christian holiday. Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. This means that Easter is the core holiday in the christian religion and without it, there is no point in Christianity. According to history, Easter is the oldest Christian holiday and almost all other Christian celebrations are actually put in place in direct relation to Easter. What makes it rather interesting is the fact that the Bible doesn’t even once mention Easter, instead it talks about the celebration of ‘Passover’. Passover was, and still is, a celebration in remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Jews from Egypt. To be more specific, the last of the 10 plagues that God sent to the Egyptians: the angel of God passed over the houses whose doors were marked with blood from a lamb and the first borns in those houses were not killed. The blood used had to be from a lamb without blemish which in the New Testament of the Bible is associated with Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of mankind. So, early Christians observed Passover and not Easter. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edit., Vol. 8, p. 828: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers…” So where did the bunnies and chocolate come from?
Several pagan practices, holidays and celebrations align with this particular time and season of the year. The most popular one is the Anglo-Saxon pagan celebration of the Teutonic goddess of spring and dawn/renewal. Her name is Oestre but some call her Ostara or Eastre. Webster Dictionary (1974) defines easter as “orig., name of pagan vernal festival almost coincident in date with paschal festival of the church; Eastre, d...

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... (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997), 262-279. ‘Disciplines of the humanities such as philosophy, history, and literary studies offer models and methods for addressing dilemmas and acknowledging ambiguity and paradox.’ With very many religions differing in their different importance of this holiday, humanity will help us all understand why we need, to not only accept our different opinions but also give a platform for reason and self discovery. By showing different thoughts about life, beliefs and convictions, the humanities help us decide what is important in our own lives and what we can do to make them better. By connecting us with other people, they point the way to answers about what is right or wrong, or what is true to our heritage and our history. The humanities help us address the challenges we face together in our families, our communities, and as a nation.

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