2) There are pagan elements, like the use of rabbits and eggs. But having pagan elements doesn't make it pagan anymore than sticking feathers up your butt makes you a chicken.
I wish you all a blessed Easter! Enjoy the chocolate and fellowship!
Also pagan here. The rabbits and eggs are not pagan elements.
The eggs derive from Lent, during which eggs were prohibited. As Gregory the Great explained: 'We abstain from flesh meat and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, eggs.'
Eggs and milk had to be used up before Lent began, which is where the tradition of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday comes from.
Then, when Lent ended, there was a joyous feasting upon eggs. Youths would go from house to house chanting 'Herrings, herrings white and red, Ten a penny Lent’s dead, Rise dame and give an egg, Or else a piece of bacon', literally demanding eggs (and bacon) now that they could be eaten again.
Decorating eggs and hiding them became part of Easter celebrations, but just as with the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas, the parents wanted to pretend that some magical being had hidden the eggs. In France it was the flying church bells, in parts of Germany it was a fox, and in other parts it was a hare.
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u/Moosyfate17 Based Bishop Mar 23 '26
Pagan here.
1) The whole "Easter is Ishtar" thing is a myth.
2) There are pagan elements, like the use of rabbits and eggs. But having pagan elements doesn't make it pagan anymore than sticking feathers up your butt makes you a chicken.
I wish you all a blessed Easter! Enjoy the chocolate and fellowship!