Ancient cultures around the world shared standard ideas and principles. They understood who they were and their place in the universe. As time went on, man created religion and took creation stories literally. So, came the mystery gods, their powers, religious practices, dogma, rituals, etc. Christianity simply adopted those ideas and applied them to Jesus (see the council of Nicea). This blog is about the pagan origins of Easter.


The core of Christianity—the worship of a miracle working, walking, talking godman who brings salvation—was also the core of other ancient religions that began at least a thousand years before Jesus.
Heaven, hell, prophecy, daemon possession, sacrifice, initiation by baptism, communion with God through a holy meal, the Holy Spirit, monotheism, immortality of the soul, and many other "Christian" ideas all belonged to earlier, older Pagan faiths. They were simply part of ancient Mediterranean culture. Along with miracle working sons of God, born of a mortal woman, they were common elements of pre-Christian Pagan religion. Ausar/Ausaru/Osiris, Mithras, Dionysus, Attis, and Orpheus all had them. And many more did, as well.
And they had them generations, centuries... Thousands of years before Jesus.  There is nothing original about the story of Jesus. He is simply an amalgamation of many deities that came long before him... Some weren't even deities. But this isn't simply about Jesus. This is about Easter having nothing to do with Jesus. Christians should do their research and stop partaking in all of these pagan "holy-days" (holidays).

Explanation of Easter: The name “Easter” has its roots in ancient polytheistic religions (paganism). On this, all scholars agree. This name is never used in the original Scriptures, nor is it ever associated biblically with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Most reference books say that the name “Easter” derived from the Eastre, the Teutonic goddess of Spring. Although this relationship exists, in reality, the origin of the name and the goddess are far more ancient - going all the way back to the Tower of Babel.

To ancient peoples (and many people today), Earth was thought of as our “Mother Earth” or “Mother Nature.” The ancients could see that rain falling from heaven impregnated and brought life to Mother Earth. So, it seemed logical that the Father was in Heaven, and the Earth was our Mother. In the ancient Canaan (which is now the state of Israel) the fertility (and sexual) rites of spring were celebrated each year in what was called “The Marriage Feast of Canaan,” where the intercourse between God the Father and the Mother Earth was acknowledged as the rains of spring would bring forth their crops. Long before Christianity was invented, Eastre (earlier, Eostre, derived from the Saxons' Germanic heritage) was the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic (goddess of dawn, spring and fertility. (Other spellings are Ostara, Ostare, Ostern, Eostre, Eostra, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos, Ishtar, and Ashtur.) The Teutonic tribes lived to the north of Rome. Bringing in the end of winter, with the days brighter and growing longer after the vernal equinox, Eastre had a passion for new life. One of Eastre's symbols was the hare, which represents fertility and rebirth. Since rabbits are more common in most lands than hares, over time the rabbit was substituted. Since rabbits are notorious for their fertility, it was a perfect fit. And this is where the Easter Bunny comes from. The other symbols are the egg (an obvious symbol of fertility) and newborn chicks. We know that the egg has been the symbol of rebirth since ancient times: The Egyptians and Greeks would bury eggs in the tombs of the dead as a sign of resurrection; the egg was especially important in the Pagan Eastre festival as a symbol of nature being reborn over again. Therefore, real eggs would be decorated and given as gifts on this day. In fact, dyed eggs were already being used as part of pagan rituals at the dawn of history in the Near Eastern civilizations. These were the first "Easter eggs." As the traditions of the Easter Rabbit and Easter eggs evolved, they were lumped together -- somewhat incongruously. Brightly colored eggs, chicks, and bunnies were all used at festival time to express appreciation for Eastre's gift of abundance.

In the year 325 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine convened a council and decreed that the new Christian festival of Easter to celebrate the death of Jesus for our sins would be celebrated each year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Easter is therefore always celebrated somewhere between the period of March 22 and April 25.

The problem with this is that, Eastre was an extremely well-beloved Goddess. The pagan commoners were just not ready to give up her rites in place of honoring the resurrection of some unknown god-man that had no relation to the traditional celebration of being reborn after a winter of hardship. So, while the Church was trying to hard to eradicate this festival, the best they could do is pretend it was about their idol. Why, they couldn’t even change the name or the traditions. So, they merely adopted them. This is because the female powers in pagan cultures were much more powerful and immediate to them than the male. The female goddesses were about new life, while the monotheistic religions were centered upon submission and centralized control.

As the great religions were becoming institutionalized, it was difficult to attract the regular folks, who lived simple agricultural lives in the countryside, to become followers of the new systems of belief. (Some state that the word “pagan” actually means “country dwellers.”) So the Church set about a massive effort to demonize their beliefs. In fact, the word “villain” meaning wicked soul, is derived from the word “village.” The church in a vast smear campaign against pagan religions demonized many symbols of the female goddesses. The Wise Crone’s pointed hat became the symbol of a witch. Women who healed and did good deeds to help people were murdered by the Christian Church as they were accused of using black magic. Women needed to be controlled, and the Church burned 5 million women at the stake. This turn in events led to the male hierarchy in new religions that placed men in all positions of power.

Explanation of Easter: Ishtar/Istar is where "Easter" comes from. "Ishtar" was a day that commemorated the resurrection of one the god "Tammuz", who was believed to be the only begotten son of the moon-goddess and the sun-god.

*side-note* Ishtar/Istar is Auset/Isis. She is Innana, Astarte, Yemoja/Yemeya, Eastre, Eostre... Each culture had different names for the same forces.("eos" of "eostre", winged goddess of dawn in Greek mythology)

Ishtar was a moon goddess. It is said the moon goes through a 28 day cycle and ovulates when full--Just as the woman does. Some stories say she came down in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River.
This was to have happened at the time of the first full moon after the spring equinox. Ishtar's moon egg became known as "Ishtar's egg." Ishtar soon became pregnant and it was the rays of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive. The son that she brought forth was named Tammuz. Tammuz was noted to be especially fond of rabbits, and they became sacred in the ancient religion, because Tammuz was the son of the sun-god, Baal. Tammuz became a hunter. The day came when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig. Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to his father, Baal, and that the two of them would be with the worshippers in the sacred candle or lamp flame as Father, Son and Spirit. Ishtar came to be worshipped as the "Mother of God and Queen of Heaven".. The queen told the worshippers that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree, and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred by the blood of Tammuz. She also proclaimed a forty day period of time of sorrow each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz. During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Worshippers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz, and to make the sign of the "T" in front of their hearts as they worshipped. They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a "T" or cross on the top. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. It was Ishtar's Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and eggs. Ishtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday (Easter ham).

As you can see (with research & study), Easter has nothing whatsoever to do with the resurrection of Jesus. We also know that Easter can be as much as three weeks away from the Passover, because the pagan holiday is always set as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The true Passover and pagan Easter sometimes coincide, but in some years, they are a great distance apart. The truth is that the forty days of Lent, eggs, rabbits, hot cross buns and the Easter ham have everything to do with the ancient pagan religion of Babylon. These customs of Easter honor Baal, who is still worshipped as the "Rising Sun" and his house is the "House of the Rising Sun."

*sidenote* There are a few scriptures that refer to Jesus as "sun", and not "son". Example: “But to you who fear My name, the SUN of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts."--Malachi 4). There is also a theory that states that the "El" of the bible is actually "Sol", which is SUN.

I'll leave on this note: Our ancestors (the Ancients) knew that the resurrection story wasn't literal. It is about the resurrection of the God that is within YOU. Resurrect yourselves, Gods and Goddesses. It is time to awaken. Rise.

Peace, Love and Elevation.