Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,143,197 members, 7,780,339 topics. Date: Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 12:44 PM

5 Interesting Facts About Easter - Religion - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / 5 Interesting Facts About Easter (1244 Views)

Little Kids Talked About Easter (video) / Mbaka, Catholic And Politics: Nigerian Tweets Interesting Facts / Interesting Facts About The Bible!!! » » » (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply)

5 Interesting Facts About Easter by Nobody: 11:12pm On Mar 30, 2013
1. The name Easter comes from an Old English fertility god:
The religious celebration of Easter might have deep roots to ancient Christian traditions, but the name itself comes from pagans. According to the book ‘Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide,’ the Olde English worshipped a fertility god named Ostara and the Celtics worshipped a similar god called Eostre. Both “Ostara” and “Eostre” gave us modern English words such as estrogen, estrus and Easter.

2. It is a moveable feast
The date of Easter moves around because it is fixed on the date of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This ties it firmly into the springtime, helping to fix this festival with the springtime, and the fertility which returns at this time each year. To Christians, this marks the time that Jesus died and was returned to life. To pagans, it is the gradual return to life of the Earth after the long death of winter.

3. The celebration of Eostre brought about the Easter Bunny:
These early pagan customs also established the iconic myth of the Easter Bunny. These early people worshipped rabbits as god-like creatures because of their ability to mate and reproduce in astounding abundance. The Celtic Eostre, however, came with a legend that their god would turn into a giant rabbit at the rise of each full moon. Both of these views made this deity the fertility symbol of their respective faiths.

4. Sweden's Easter Witches
In Sweden and parts of Finland, a mini-Halloween takes place on either the Thursday or Saturday before Easter. Little girls dress up in rags and old clothes, too-big skirts and shawls and go door to door with a copper kettle looking for treats.
The tradition is said to come from the old belief that witches would fly to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to cavort with Satan. On their way back, Swedes would light fires to scare them away, a practice honored today by the bonfires and fireworks across the land in the days leading up to Sunday.

5. The Burning of the Judas
Easter is a time of joyous celebration in the Christian Church. Joyous and cathartic celebration. Joyous and cathartic and, in some places, violent celebration. Take the tradition known as the Burning of the Judas. Common in several Latin American nations and in some parts of Greece, the practice involves stringing up an effigy representing the Apostle that betrayed Jesus and either burning it or exploding it from within with fireworks.
In recent years, crowds have used the effigies to represent politicians or businessmen who have wronged the people. In Venezuela in 2008, a Judas statue dressed up as an Exxon representative was burned following the settlement of a legal fight between the nation and the oil giant.

Hot sauce
Re: 5 Interesting Facts About Easter by FlyinSaucer: 11:33pm On Mar 30, 2013
All xtian festivals r converted/modified pagan festivals.

(1) (Reply)

Bus Preacher Beaten To Coma In Lagos After Condoms Fell Out From Bible / How T.B. Joshua's Building Collapsed Convinced Me He Is Genuine / Winning The War Against Satanic Affliction, Against Sickness,

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 12
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.