Easter Origins Pagan?

[Sparagmos]

Okay, so I just looked through ten pages to see where you provided documentation and sources for what you claimed. The only thing you provided as documentation was a link to a Wikipedia article that says some people speculate that coloring eggs could, possibly, maybe, but we don't actually know predate Christians dying eggs.

Here's what that very Wikipedia page says:

"According to many scholars, the art of wax-resist (batik) egg decoration in Slavic cultures probably dates back to the pre-Christian era. They base this on the widespread nature of the practice, and pre-Christian nature of the symbols used.[3] No ancient examples of intact pysanky exist, as the eggshells of domesticated fowl are fragile, but fragments of colored shells with wax-resist decoration on them were unearthed during the archaeological excavations in Ostrówek, Poland (near the city of Opole), where remnants of a Slavic settlement from the early Piast Era were found.[4]

As in many ancient cultures, many Slavs worshipped a sun god, Dazhboh. The sun was important – it warmed the earth and thus was a source of all life. Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans.

In pre-Christian times, Dazhboh was one of the major deities in the Slavic pantheon; birds were the sun god's chosen creations, for they were the only ones who could get near him. Humans could not catch the birds, but they did manage to obtain the eggs the birds laid. Thus, the eggs were magical objects, a source of life. The egg was also honored during rite-of-Spring festivals––it represented the rebirth of the earth. The long, hard winter was over; the earth burst forth and was reborn just as the egg miraculously burst forth with life. The egg therefore, was believed to have special powers.[5]" - Egg decorating in Slavic culture - Wikipedia

Now read that opening paragraph.

"the art of wax-resistant egg decoration in Slavic cultures probably dates back to the Christian era. They basis this on the widespread nature of the practice, and pre-Christian nature of the symbols used."

Probably and assumption are not the smoking gun that you seem to think it is. And what follows that opening paragraph is certainly an interesting hypothesis--and I'm not going to argue that it's false. But it does not provide evidence that eggs were pagan fertility symbols that Christians just adopted as part of the Paschal Feast.

This entire section of the article offers three citations.

[3] - Kилимник, Степан. Український рік у народних звичаях в історичному освітленні, том. ІІІ, Весняний цикль. Winnipeg, Toronto: Ukrainian Research Institute of Volyn' pp. 189-191

[4] - "Opole: najstarsze polskie "pisanki" znaleziono na opolskim Ostrówku". onet.pl. 31 March 2013.
(this is a link to a Polish website, which is now broken and leads to a 404 error page)

[5] - Manko, Vira. The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka L'viv, Ukraine: Svichado, 2005

As for the broken link to the Polish website, fortunately it can be accessed using the Wayback Machine:
Opole: najstarsze polskie "pisanki" znaleziono na opolskim Ostrówku

And here is that article translated from Polish to English using Google Translate (I don't speak or know Polish, so this is the best that I can do):

"Today, Ostrówek is a place in the center of Opole, where, among others, voivodeship office and amphitheater. The Piast Castle once stood here, the remains of which is the tower known from festival broadcasts, and even earlier the wooden Piast castle. It is from the post-war excavations in the local stronghold that the oldest - as the director of the Museum of Opole Silesia, Urszula Zajączkowska - assured - Polish "Easter eggs" come. - But they are definitely not eggs of bird origin - Urszula Zajączkowska reserved. - They have the shape of almost perfect eggs, slightly disturbed by time, but they were certainly created by a human hand "Pisanki" from Ostrówek in Opole may be even a thousand years old, they come from the period from the end of the 10th to the 13th century, when there was a Piast stronghold in this place. They were excavated at a depth of 3.5 to 5 meters. There are a total of seven of them - three slightly smaller ones made of clay and four, the size of a hen's egg, made of limestone. Some of them are covered with a green-and-yellow pattern with almost perfect stripes or lines, made in the same way that the dishes were decorated. Some of them were decorated with the batik method - like modern Easter eggs. The pattern was made with warm wax applied with a thin stylus, then the egg was dyed with a vegetable dye. - Some of them also have a secret. There are probably some grains inside the eggs because they are rattling - added Zajączkowska. We do not know what they were used for by one of the first inhabitants of Opole. - We can only rely on assumptions - said the director of the Museum of Opole Silesia. - Perhaps they were items used in magic, beliefs or rituals. After all, in many ancient cultures the egg was a symbol of nature awakening to life or fertility. Gypsum and limestone eggs from Opole Ostrówek can be seen at the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole entitled "Opole - town, city, capital of the region". The Piast stronghold in Ostrówek in Opole was built on the Odra Island in the 10th century. It was a settlement with wooden buildings, surrounded by a wooden and earth embankment. It gave rise to the city of Opole. There was a crew of several dozen warriors in it. It was one of the Piast castles in Silesia, which was built in the 10th century. At the end of the 13th century, a castle was erected in its place, which was pulled down in 1928-31. According to Krzysztof Spychała, Deputy of the Opole Provincial Conservator of Monuments and the Head of the Department of Archaeological Monuments, research in Ostrówek was carried out in the 1930s by German archaeologists, during the construction of the present building of the provincial office; and then in the post-war years, for a total of about 25 years, already by Polish archaeologists. - At that time, wooden structures of residential buildings and thousands of movable archaeological monuments were discovered in this place - said Spychała."

Now, it's not a great translation. But it appears to be saying that colored eggs were discovered dating back to between the 10th and 13th centuries near a castle from the Piast dynasty. This isn't pre-Christian. This is very firmly Christian, as the first Piast duke, Miezko (c.930-990) converted to Christianity, and while Sts. Cyril and Methodius had their mission work among the Slavs much earlier, Latin Christianity is what gained influence in Poland under the Piasts.

I can't speak of the other sources provided, but I find this one interesting because it not only doesn't support a pre-Christian use of colored eggs but rather presents evidence of Christians making colored eggs in medieval Poland.

Piast dynasty - Wikipedia
Poland in the Early Middle Ages - Wikipedia
Mieszko I - Wikipedia

Is there more documentation in this thread that I may have missed?

-CryptoLutheran

I was going by memory and definitely do not want to reread the whole thread. I posted a long article below that notes the many cultures that used hares and rabbits in symbology. As for eggs, I could do the same but we all have Google. It’s not the decoration of eggs, but the egg as a symbol of fertility in many cultures that pre-date Christianity that is of note. I just find it hard to believe that anyone would dispute that rabbits and eggs would be symbols of fertility, and that the Church absorbed pagan traditions into its own rituals to appease former pagans joining the church. It was Christians who taught me that first!

 

[prodromos]

The egg as a symbol has been used going back further than the 15th century!

In the Orthodox Church, the dyeing of red eggs is to commemorate the miracle which occurred with St Mary Magdalan and the Roman emperor. It has nothing to do with fertility and especially rabbits.

 

[prodromos]

and that the Church absorbed pagan traditions into its own rituals to appease former pagans joining the church

The Church gives true meaning to symbols. It does not appease former pagans. Why do you think former pagans often had to go through at least a year of catechism before they could be baptised?

 

[Tuur]

I was going by memory and definitely do not want to reread the whole thread. I posted a long article below that notes the many cultures that used hares and rabbits in symbology. As for eggs, I could do the same but we all have Google. It’s not the decoration of eggs, but the egg as a symbol of fertility in many cultures that pre-date Christianity that is of note. I just find it hard to believe that anyone would dispute that rabbits and eggs would be symbols of fertility, and that the Church absorbed pagan traditions into its own rituals to appease former pagans joining the church. It was Christians who taught me that first!

Umm...tolerated some pagan traditions, yes; absorbed into its own rituals, no. Christians seem to have sometimes looked at some pagan traditions and said they do no harm, and give Christian meaning to them as examples. Easter for Christians is the commemoration of Jesus' resurrection.

In my mind, I place eggs in the category of secular observance. At to the rabbit...well, I grew up in a rural farming area where hares are pests, and the concept of an Easter Bunny struck us as weird.

Hmm...aren't eggs forbidden during Lent, while hare is permitted?

 

[prodromos]

Hmm...aren't eggs forbidden during Lent, while hare is permitted?

No meat at all during Lent. At least that's how it is in the Orthodox Church.

 

[Tuur]

No meat at all during Lent. At least that's how it is in the Orthodox Church.

I can't find my reference, but I think hare was classified as "fish" by the Roman Catholic Church, at least during the Medieval period.

 

[Sparagmos]

Christians seem to have sometimes looked at some pagan traditions and said they do no harm, and give Christian meaning to them as examples.

That’s basically what I meant, so I think we agree.

In my mind, I place eggs in the category of secular observance.

. I do too, but a lot of ppl on this thread don’t believe that.

 

[ViaCrucis]

That’s basically what I meant, so I think we agree.
. I do too, but a lot of ppl on this thread don’t believe that.

I don't think any of us think eggs are necessary for the Paschal Feast. But we do take issue with unsubstantiated claims that the Church went around collecting pagan practices all indiscriminately.

That's a meme, in the literal sense; an idea that is replicates itself by being spread from person to person over time. But when it comes down to strict facts and actual documentation--there just isn't any.

It can be true that Pagans did things with eggs and also that Christians did things with eggs, and that it's not because Christians just appropriated eggs from Pagans. This claim is also used for why Christians celebrate Christ's Nativity on December 25th and try and link it with the pagan observance of Sol Invictus. The problem with that is that Christians were talking about when Christ was born, and talking about it being on December 25th, at least a hundred years before the first mention of a pagan celebration on December 25th in Rome. It's also the claim made by various "Christ Mythicists" who claim that Christians merely appropriated already existing Pagan myths and made them about Jesus, and they do this without any substance to back it up. It's just something repeated.

Examples: If you go online you'll see claims that Christians ripped off stories about Mithras, Dionysus, Osiris, Krishna, and the Buddha. Claiming that all of them were born of a virgin, had twelve disciples, died a sacrificial death, rose from the dead, etc etc. The problem, and it's a pretty significant problem, is that none of that is actually true.

Mithras: Not born of a virgin, but emerged a fully grown adult out of solid rock, did not have have disciples, did not die a sacrificial death, was not claimed to have raised from the dead. Instead Mithras was treated as a solar deity who slaughtered a cosmic bull.

Dionysus: Not born of a virgin, but was the offspring of Zeus impregnating a human woman while he took the form of a swan. Semele, whom Hera killed. Zeus took the unborn baby from Semele's womb and sowed the child into his thigh until the child was able to be born. Which is why ancient pagan hymns to Dionysus refer to him as "twice-born", as he was taken from his mother's womb and also was born of Zeus' thigh. Dionysus had no disciples, didn't die for the sins of the world, didn't rise from the dead, etc etc.

Osiris: Not born of a virgin, but was conceived by the pairing of Geb and Nut, Geb was a god of the earth and Nut a goddess of the sky. Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, who then dismembered his corpse and scattered his body parts all over Egypt. Osiris' sister-wife Isis searched all over Egypt and assembled his body parts, then used a magical phallus to put him back together, she then copulated with his...corpse..which is how she became pregnant with Horus. Osiris was reborn as king of the underworld. No sacrificial death, no resurrection, no disciples, etc.

Krishna was an avatar of Vishnu, he was the natural offspring of his parents Devaki and Vasudeva. Krishna was murdered and returned to a state of transcendence.

Siddartha, aka "the Buddha", was a prince born to Maya and Suddhodana. After reaching enlightenment under the bodhi tree he did have some disciples, but not twelve of them. He died of either old age or food poisoning, and was claimed to have reached final nirvana, his body was then cremated.

None of them were born on December 25th. None of them had a virgin birth. None of them died a sacrificial death for the sins of the world. None of them were resurrected. All the stuff you usually find on the internet is completely absent from all the myths, stories, and texts about these gods and figures.

But every year I see people claiming that Jesus is just a version of the "dying and rising god" motif. I've yet to actually still find any of these "dying and rising gods" that I've been told about. Because having actually gone and looked at what ancient writers and ancient texts actually say lack any of these claims.

So if you want to try and argue that Christians do X because Pagans did X, there needs to be something more substantial than just idle speculation.

Just because a lot of people on the internet say that everyone in the time of Columbus believed the earth was flat doesn't make it so. Because people didn't believe the earth was flat five hundred years ago, everyone knew the earth was round. And everyone has known that for at least 2,500 years. But it's a very common meme that has continued to go around because people want to claim that people before the modern era were ignorant and stupid. One of the prevailing myths of the European Enlightenment, which also taught that non-white, non-European civilizations and societies were barbaric and uncivilized, and thus needed to be "saved" by white people--leading to slavery, and subjugation of indigenous peoples all around the globe.

But for some reason we continue to believe these Enlightenment lies just because some rich white guys wanted cheap spices and free labor.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Mockingbird0]

This is a good overview:

"Into the Woods" series, 43: The Folklore of Rabbits & Hares

From the essay:

Eostre, the goddess of the moon, fertility, and spring in Anglo–Saxon myth, was often depicted with a hare’s head or ears, and with a white hare standing in attendance. This magical white hare laid brightly colored eggs which were given out to children during spring fertility festivals -- an ancient tradition that survives in the form of the Easter Bunny today.

Eostre, the Celtic version of Ostara, was a goddess also associated with the moon, and with mythic stories of death, redemption, and resurrection during the turning of winter to spring. Eostre, too, was a shape-shifter, taking the shape of a hare at each full moon; all hares were sacred to her, and acted as her messengers. ((I should mention that our understanding of the Ostara/Eostre myth is controversial, with mythologists divided between those who believe she was and was not a major figure in the British Isles.)

If that is the level of their scholarship, I see no reason to take them seriously. Everything we know about Eostre comes from a single passage in Bede’s De temporum ratione. Listing the names of the months in the English lunar calendar, he mentions Eosturmonath and gives its etymology (I already quoted this passage in post #58 above):

Eosturmonath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit. A cuius nomine nunc paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquae observationis vocabulo gaudia novae solemnitatis vocantes.

Faith Wallis’s translation (which I also gave in post #58 above):

Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after of goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honored name of the old observance.

Bede mentions no connection to the moon, no hares, and no connection to human or animal reproduction. This is the only mention of this goddess in all literature. The silence of other sources is so deafening that some scholars have accused Bede of inventing deities to explain the names of the months.

So it is not just “controversial” to say that “Eostre, the goddess of the moon, fertility, and spring in Anglo–Saxon myth, was often depicted with a hare’s head or ears, and with a white hare standing in attendance. “ It is wrong. No known depictions of Eostre exist. She was not “often” depicted with hare’s ears. She was not depicted at all. Such sources as we have for “Anglo-Saxon myth” make no mention of her.

To say that Eostre was a Celtic goddess is even wackier. “Eostre” is an English name. There would not have been a Celtic goddess with an English name. The sources we have for pre-Christian Irish myth make no mention, that I am aware of, of a goddess that takes the shape of a hare.

 

[Mockingbird0]

the Church absorbed pagan traditions into its own rituals to appease former pagans joining the church.

Name one Trinitarian denomination that mentions hares or eggs in its Easter liturgy.

 

[prodromos]

If that is the level of their scholarship, I see no reason to take them seriously. Everything we know about Eostre comes from a single passage in Bede’s De temporum ratione. Listing the names of the months in the English lunar calendar, he mentions Eosturmonath and gives its etymology (I already quoted this passage in post #58 above):

Quoted for truth!
Anything that gives any kind of detail about an alleged goddess named Eostre is complete fiction because, as you have eloquently stated, the sole historical reference to "Eostre" is Venerable Bede's De temporum ratione, "On the reckoning of time". There are zero other sources.

 

[Sparagmos]

Name one Trinitarian denomination that mentions hares or eggs in its Easter liturgy.

There are a few references in this thread, but I’m not going through the whole thing. See posts 17 and 35. And here is details on the Easter egg.
Easter egg - Wikipedia

It sounds like you agree they have pagan origins?

 

[ViaCrucis]

There are a few references in this thread, but I’m not going through the whole thing. See posts 17 and 35. And here is details on the Easter egg.
Easter egg - Wikipedia

It sounds like you agree they have pagan origins?

See, at this point, I'm just insulted.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Ray Glenn]

Exactly how can you support the idea that Easter is pagan? Eggs and bunnies are ....the death and ressurrection of Christ is based on the celebration of Passover. Easter is not celebrated the same time every year.

 

[The Liturgist]

Name one Trinitarian denomination that mentions hares or eggs in its Easter liturgy.

There aren’’t any.

 

[The Liturgist]

There are a few references in this thread, but I’m not going through the whole thing. See posts 17 and 35. And here is details on the Easter egg.
Easter egg - Wikipedia

It sounds like you agree they have pagan origins?

As @ViaCrucis and @prodromos have shown, they do not, and the suggestion is extremely offensive.

 

[Sparagmos]

See, at this point, I'm just insulted.

-CryptoLutheran

I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to insult you. I misunderstood. What do you think the origin of the Easter egg is?

 

[Mockingbird0]

There are a few references in this thread, but I’m not going through the whole thing. See posts 17 and 35. And here is details on the Easter egg.
Easter egg - Wikipedia

It sounds like you agree they have pagan origins?

Hares and eggs are not mentioned in the words of the Easter liturgy of any denomination that I know of. Posts 17 and 35 do not contradict that proposition.

I do not agree that the use of hares and eggs in Christian art necessarily has pagan origins. Hares and eggs are not automatically symbols of fertility. The artistic context has to show that they are being used that way. It is not enough to say that hares were proverbial for their fertility, therefore every use of a hare in art is a fertility symbol. To show that a use of hares or eggs in Christian art is a pagan survival, one needs to point to a known pagan practice and show that the Christian use of the motif derives directly from the pagan practice. If you can demonstrate a pagan tradition of depicting a fertility god with an egg, and show that the Christian custom of drawing St. Mary Magdalene holding an egg derives directly from the pagan tradition, then you will have demonstrated a pagan survival, though it still would not mean that icons of St. Mary Magdalene are inherently pagan.



When I visited Arles, France in the 1980s there was a pair of museums in the city, one called the Museum of Pagan Art, and one called the Museum of Christian Art. (I think these collections have since been moved to a single museum.) In both museums were sarcophagi with carvings. The content of the Christian sarcophagus-carvings was different from the content of the pagan carvings. The Christian carvings showed Christian motifs such as the baptism of Cornelius the Centurion. But the style of the carvings was the same, as if the same artist had done both sets of carvings. The tradition of Christian sarcophagus-carving clearly derived from the tradition of pagan sarcophagus-carving, even though the content was different.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to insult you. I misunderstood. What do you think the origin of the Easter egg is?

As best as we can tell, the origins of it lay in traditions of the Eastern Orthodox based upon the ancient tradition/legend concerning a miracle associated with St. Mary Magdalene. In which when the resurrection of Christ was mocked as being no more possible than an egg turning red, the egg turned red. The story is almost certainly apocryphal, as it involves St. Mary having dinner with the Roman Emperor. The actual reason why Christians began dying eggs red during the Paschal Season likely lay in Christians finding in the egg a symbol of new birth and resurrection, dying the eggs red because of the blood of Christ.

Christians were quite adept to using things as symbols of their faith. The fish, for example, is one of the earliest Christian symbols we know of. And its origins are actually quite obvious, not only are there all the stories involving fish in the Bible--and especially in the Gospels--but the word "fish" in Greek functioned as an acrostic spelling out the basic Christian confession of faith: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior (Ichthus: Iesous Christos Theou Uiou Soter). Other notable symbols Christians have used (other than the cross, which is the most obvious Christian symbol) include the phoenix, the pelican, the anchor, the ship, the dove, the good shepherd, the lamb, the Alpha and Omega, and various Christograms such as Chi-Rho and IHS (Chi-Rho being the first two Greek letters in Christos, and IHS or IHC being the first three Greek letters in Iesous). Other symbols include fire/candles/lamps, a star symbol (the five pointed star or pentagram points not only to the Star of Bethlehem but also to the five wounds of Christ), the chalice, the triquetra and other similar Trinitarian symbols. The list goes on and on really.

A good word to learn is parallelomania, a term which refers to when a person perceives similarities, especially in historical analysis, and concludes there must be a relationship (or even a causal connection between them) when there is no evidence in support of this. Much of the "pagan origins of Christianity" stuff that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries is clear evidence of parallelomania. Fortunately most scholars and academics don't take these things seriously, which is why you really only find them in less-than-reputable sources or as repeated hearsay on the internet.

In many cases pure conjecture, without supporting evidence, has been the basis of a good many claims. If you read anything that mentions the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, such as how she was worshiped, or what her symbols were, or any of that--that's a very good example of how people have created their own elaborate mythological canon about Eostre in the modern period. Because there's literally nothing in the historical record about her. Others have noted already that the only source that the Anglo-Saxons even had a goddess named Eoster is the Ven. Bede from his On the Reckoning of Time. And when we say that's the only source, that isn't hyperbole, no--literally--there is nothing else. There are 0 written sources, 0 archeological sources, 0 material evidence in the form of names, engravings, there isn't anything anywhere that can be used to corroborate Bede. So the best we can do is simply take Bede's word; but it's entirely possible that Bede was wrong.

Further, the only thing Bede tells us about Eostre is that one of the names of the Anglo-Saxon months is named for Eostre, Eostremonath, which roughly corresponded with the Roman month of April. And, therefore, Bede says, the name of the Paschal Season had begun to be called by this name since it occurred in this month. That's it, that's everything. If you can get your hands on a copy of Bede's Reckoning of Time (which I have), you can look it up for yourself.

And there is a chance that Bede was probably wrong. Most of the Anglo-Saxon months are named for things associated with that time of the year, rather than named after any deities. Bede only mentions two months as being named after Anglo-Saxon deities, and both names lack any corroborating evidence. There are no cognates of these two goddesses in any of the Germanic mythologies (and the Anglo-Saxons were, before their conversion to Christianity, Germanic Pagans). This leads to another possible etymology for Eostremonath, that it isn't named after a goddess at all, but instead is named to refer to the rising of the sun, the dawn, the time when the sun begins to rise earlier--Eostre is cognate with "east", (Anglo-Saxon eost) from Old Germanic ost, "the direction of the sunrise", ultimately from PIE aus, which can be seen in the Greek heos, "dawn", as in the name of Venus as heosphorus ("dawn-bringer"), and Latin aurora. That is to say, Eostremonath may simply mean "dawn-month". And Bede was simply mistaken when he attributed the month's name to a goddess once worshiped among the Anglo-Saxons.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Soyeong]

So I've been investigating the easter origins and I found a super through e-book that is pretty referenced. It seems that there is no question that Easter is pagan in its origins and established by Constantine. Here is the ebook for reference.

Ishtar, asotore, estore all had a role to play. They are all basically the same God ashtoreth.

Then I also found this video this video.

I guess my question is how can anyone debate that easter is not pagan?

It is much more important to delight in keeping the holy days that God has commanded than to be concerned with whether a man-made tradition has a pagan origin.