by Stefany Smith

Created on: March 22, 2008

I've been a Christian as long as I can remember, and have always celebrated Easter the same as anyone else. I was blind to the origin of the holiday. When my Sunday school teachers explained to me that it was all about Jesus' death and resurrection, I took that as fact, and never thought twice about it. Until recently...

Over the last year or so, I have delved deeper into the subject, and discovered its pagan heritage. So I began asking myself, "Why do I celebrate this holiday?" My kids have always known that the easter bunny was just the worldly symbol of the holiday, and the "true" meaning that we celebrate. But we still did all the stuff: coloring and hiding eggs, easter baskets, the ham dinner. This year, it has been really hard to even think about the holiday. I feel like I am betraying my Lord and Saviour by worshiping him in the name of a pagan god. So I made the decision to ween the kids off of the traditions, and teach them the truth that I have just discovered for myself.

I talked to the kids(well girls really) this morning about how I feel about the whole Easter thing. I explained why we celebrate it, and the original passover feast and all that, and then how Jesus told his disciples the meaning would change. Then I explained how the church somehow changed over the years, and men were more concerned with butts in the seats rather than changed lives. So they used pagan ideas to attract more people. I also explained the commandment God gave us, to not worship other gods, and to not even use their names. Then I told them how the pagans worshiped two gods, more than that but two in particular, one ruled the winter(I don't remember the name) and its name represented rest, or recuperation, the other's name was easter(its spelled differently but pronounced the same)And that god ruled spring, its name means new life or rebirth.

The pagans would hold a celebration in the beginning of spring, to help the god of new life take control over the god of rest so they could plant their harvests. The church used this idea to attract people of pagan tradition, explaining it that the old covenant was like the god of rest and the new the god of new life, hence they called the celebration Easter and celebrated it after passover. Originally it was meant to be purely religious. But because the church was disobeying God, it opened a door for Satan, and over the years he has tarnished the holiday.

Now when people hear the word Easter they think of baby chicks, and bunnies, fresh

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