This easter, I will be celebrating easter with my Whole Family. o.o My mom's side of the family and my dad's side of the family.

As a Shamanic Buddhist I find the hole concept of Easter a bit off...
I know like most Christian holidays it is a fusion of Pagan and Christian beliefs but I would like to know more about the Pagan side and its symbolism
Anyone got some insight?

I don't see any pagin side to Christian holidays.....

Well I think it might end up being a normal day for me since we don't have the money to buy Easter eggs......

lol! ^^ i'll be celebrating Easter with my mother's side of the family... so it'll be time for chocolate and all sorts of sweets... :bg:

i don't know too much about the pagan side of Easter, but i think the Christrain side is that the Bells that come from Rome spread the chocolates... well that's how my family tells the chocolate story to kids... ^^

Never heard that story before.....

Did u get that from the novel Dan Brown wrote ' The Da Vinci Code" ? Apparently it mentioned that paganism and christianity was mixed fora reason....

oh i never saw the "Da Vinci Code"... but i heard it was a good film...

it was mixed for the reason to make christianity more attractive...
(christianity always kinda adapted to the local customs/beliefs in order to spread successful...at least in old europe and china)

so what is with the eggs and Rabbit..
those have got to be Pegan

er.... morphee? that's a book.... the film starring Tom Hanks is due next yr.....

BTW, from what i read, in ancient times, pple worship nature like the sun. Then when christianity was introduced, the church decided that such worship is demonic. then this ruler, a worshipper of paganism decided to fuse this 2 religon together. For example, the sphere of light u see behind The Virgin Mary and Jesus is actually the sun from paganism......

I have to get my book back to get more specific info( Christians may hate this book)

ah... oups for me then... i didn't know the film wasn't out yet... i didn't read the book though... oups... :sheep:

lol tis ok maman

Yay! Pagans and the Old Religion, things I actually know about. Okay, so here goes. You were right, Holybell-san, at least partly. When the Christian church tried to 'force' their religion onto the pagans, they used a really smart trick. They used their holy figures, such as Mary, to replace the ancient gods and goddesses of the pagans, such as Freya. That way they got the pagans to accept Christianity. The Christmas Tree, for example, is something that the pagans were allowed to keep.

And now about Easter in the pagan tradition, Cole-san. While it falls a bit earlier (21 March), the ancient feast of Ostara (or the Spring-equinox) basically means the same as the Christian Easter, which is rebirth. The symbols of Ostara are the egg and the hare. People believed that the hare (now the Easter bunny), a creation from the moongoddess, layed eggs around this time of the year.
The name 'Easter' comes from 'Eostre', the Mediterranean name for the feast of the ancient goddesses Ishtar and Astarte, who represented fertility and the holy matrimony respectively. Nowadays, the wiccans use this theme around Beltane (30 April).

Hmm...hope this helps.

wow, so the eggs really do come from a rabbit...
Ponders...
Thanx I now know more than I did!
ponders...
eggs from a rabbit...

Happy easter everyone. I'm sure there will be an easter egg hunt..