by Jake Jones

Created on: August 25, 2010

The vast majority of churches will not touch the issue of how Easter got its name, and the ensuing celebration of a so-called Christian holiday with the appearance of cute little rabbits, pastel colored baby chicks, colored (Easter) eggs, the baskets filled with artificial grass and the like. Matter of fact, there are many churches in the U.S. that actually have the children of the congregation and/or the community participate in Easter Egg Hunts, Egg Rolling Contests, and Egg Coloring contests or gatherings.

All of the the above mentioned items for the celebration are really not Christian in nature, but are actually adaptations to the old Pagan holidays and rituals of the celebration of the resurrection of one of their gods that they called "Tammuz", who is believed to be the only begotten son of their moon-goddess and the sun-god of the Babylonian culture. "Ishtar", pronounced "Easter", was the goddess of fertility in those pagan days and was responsible for the fertility of everything that could reproduce. That would mean crops, livestock, wild animals and humans.

The early church incorporated those two celebrations of the pagan holidays into the church to entice the pagans to turn to Christianity. The early church killed two birds with one stone so to speak by incorporating the resurrection of "Tammuz" and the fertility goddess into their schedule so as to coincide with the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, they never did correct the issue and that is why we have the pagan celebrations in Christian churches today.

As Christians, this is extremely important because we really need to understand what we are doing on Resurrection Sunday! The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb has nothing to do with Easter. Some churches refuse to call the celebration by its pagan name of Easter and only refer to it as Resurrection Sunday, the day on which the tomb of Jesus was found empty.

Looking at some of the things that are associated with our traditional Easter Sunday will help understand this:

•Sunrise service: A pagan ritual, part of the worship of their sun god?

•Rabbits, chicks, and Easter eggs: Symbolize fertility in pagan myth and culture.

•The date for Easter: The Sunday for Easter is determined by the first full Moon after March 20, or the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox was a sign to the pagans that crops should be planted, and things began to renew themselves from the colder winter months. Attribute this to the "moon goddess".

Old habits die hard and the early church is responsible for the confusion. What is important is to truly understand the difference between the pagan and Christian part of Easter (Resurrection Sunday).

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