A Very Pagan Easter
“Twenty-seven-year-old Brandi Pettit of Stevens Point has no problem at all with the presence of pagan symbols in Easter. As a pagan, Pettit says, she views eggs and rabbits as symbols of life and renewal. Although she has been a pagan for the past 3 1/2 years, Pettit sends her children to Methodist services with her mother every Sunday. The two religions share more in common than just a few symbols, she said. ‘If you take all the world’s bigger religions, they all have a lot of similarities,’ Pettit said. ‘Whatever you call the holiday, the heart of it is still the same.’“ – Alex Shaine, Stevens Point Journal
“Though the Christians tried to take over Easter and make it their own, what they really did was to legitimize and assure the survival of a whopping big collection of pagan tradition and ritual, which works fine for me since the pagan elements which we’ve preserved are a lot more fun than the crucifictional alternative. So after the easter egg hunt on Sunday we’re off to a local Renaissance Festival – where better to frolic with the pagans – because apparently the church pretty much says it’s okay to be a pagan at least this one day of the year.” – Dave Nalle, Blogcritics.org
“I decided to forgo the bunnies and chocolate this Easter, and, instead, explore my Ukrainian roots by learning about pysanky – the ancient art of egg decoration. The intricate patterns in my mother’s collection captivated me as a girl. Historically, these decorative eggs were first used in pagan spring rituals as a fertility symbol and were later incorporated by the Christian church.“ – Jennifer Parks, Edmonton Sun
“Many people ask, what does Passover mean to Judaism? Other people ask, what does Easter mean to Christianity? A growing number of people are now asking, what does Ostara mean to Paganism? Paganism, or Earth-Spirit worship, is a path that finds everything in nature sacred, and everything sacred, divine.” – Olive Berrwick, Santa Cruz Sentinel
“To Christians the Easter egg represents re-birth or resurrection, but it was also a cherished symbol for the ancient Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Egyptians, Persians and the Chinese. The holiday itself falls on the northern hemisphere’s Spring Equinox, and the name Easter derives from the old Anglo-Saxon name for the fertility goddess of Spring, who happened to be symbolised by a rabbit, hence, the Easter Bunny. And as Peter Lee observes, it may be that Easter could be leaning back towards old-fashioned pagan-style hedonism.” – Nick Grimm, AM (Australia)
“The Christian Easter tradition has actually been piggy-backed on to pre-existing heathen rituals. These pagan placeholders on the annual circle of life illustrate our deep need to mark the passage of time, and the seasons, with events organised around a relevant theme. This need remains today but we don?t really connect with it any more. In the old days, these instincts connected with the cycle of nature. We were just as much a part of seasonal change as the woods, the fields and the beasts. We held our rituals to clarify with actions and symbols the changes that we felt were happening within us.” – Benjamin Fry, The Times Online
No matter what form you celebrate your Spring rejuvination/ressurection in, have a happy and fulfilling one.
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