0010
No, I will not wear the ridiculous bunny ears that came out of that egg.
...and look at the rabbits dance.
Anyway, since everyone's wondering what's going on... It's a little late, but I'll explain.
Easter is the culmination of a holday in the Earth religion of Christianity. In Christian thinking, God, created a human son, Jesus, who was also God at the same time (don't ask, I don't get it). And he was born (which is celebrated with Christmas) and lived a life as a religious leader. Fantastic public speaker, he was. Anyway, his teachings got him in a bit of trouble with the Jewish and Roman authorities and as such he got crucified (I didn't stick around for that), which is celebrated on Good Friday. Three days later, he reportedly rose from the dead. The whole point of this death-rebirth thing is redemption. In the Jewish and Christian religions, people commit sins, and according to some, even have sin automatically. If you have sin, you're damned, according to them. So the torture and death of the son of their god is supposed to make up for all the sin in the world, and let everyone go to Heaven. Oversimplification, but it works.
So Easter is the celebration Jesus saving everyone. It's probably the single most important religious holiday from an actual faith perspective, although Christmas is more celebrated. However, the Christian church had a problem when it was fairly young, that recent converts from polytheistic faiths would still celebrate their old holidays. Particularly problematic were a festival in the winter, which people usually call Saturnalia in this day and age, and Oestre, a celebration of a fertility goddess that roughly matched up with the equinox. They decided to put Christian holidays on the dates of these festivals, and basically reappropriate them. Since there isn't much in the Christian texts about when Jesus was born, at least not from their perspectives, they moved Christmas to the winter (You can tell those people have never seen a Roman Census). The celebration of the resurrection was a bit harder to just place anywhere because in the Gospels it came right after Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover, and important Jewish holiday that's in the early part of the year. So they moved that festival on top of Easter. It kind of fit too--fetility goddess, life-death-rebirth deity. So what represented fertility in the festival--eggs and bunnies, you figure it out, especially with how they're dancing out there right now--became a symbol for life and rebirth.
The candy is just something that humans do. Western humans will do whatever they can to justify eating candy.
Anyway, I'm going to go read now. I'm thinking Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Nice short read, and...
...and look at the rabbits dance.
Anyway, since everyone's wondering what's going on... It's a little late, but I'll explain.
Easter is the culmination of a holday in the Earth religion of Christianity. In Christian thinking, God, created a human son, Jesus, who was also God at the same time (don't ask, I don't get it). And he was born (which is celebrated with Christmas) and lived a life as a religious leader. Fantastic public speaker, he was. Anyway, his teachings got him in a bit of trouble with the Jewish and Roman authorities and as such he got crucified (I didn't stick around for that), which is celebrated on Good Friday. Three days later, he reportedly rose from the dead. The whole point of this death-rebirth thing is redemption. In the Jewish and Christian religions, people commit sins, and according to some, even have sin automatically. If you have sin, you're damned, according to them. So the torture and death of the son of their god is supposed to make up for all the sin in the world, and let everyone go to Heaven. Oversimplification, but it works.
So Easter is the celebration Jesus saving everyone. It's probably the single most important religious holiday from an actual faith perspective, although Christmas is more celebrated. However, the Christian church had a problem when it was fairly young, that recent converts from polytheistic faiths would still celebrate their old holidays. Particularly problematic were a festival in the winter, which people usually call Saturnalia in this day and age, and Oestre, a celebration of a fertility goddess that roughly matched up with the equinox. They decided to put Christian holidays on the dates of these festivals, and basically reappropriate them. Since there isn't much in the Christian texts about when Jesus was born, at least not from their perspectives, they moved Christmas to the winter (You can tell those people have never seen a Roman Census). The celebration of the resurrection was a bit harder to just place anywhere because in the Gospels it came right after Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover, and important Jewish holiday that's in the early part of the year. So they moved that festival on top of Easter. It kind of fit too--fetility goddess, life-death-rebirth deity. So what represented fertility in the festival--eggs and bunnies, you figure it out, especially with how they're dancing out there right now--became a symbol for life and rebirth.
The candy is just something that humans do. Western humans will do whatever they can to justify eating candy.
Anyway, I'm going to go read now. I'm thinking Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Nice short read, and...