Easter And Its Origins

Why does chocolate in the shape of an egg taste better than a bar of chocolate?. If the chocolate egg is not hollow ------ more goodies inside the egg....even better.!!Easter Eggs. Nothing like them !

We all know we're paying more for the box and pretty packaging, yet still some of us cannot resist buying Easter Eggs even when we're grown up .They are just too delicious..

Chocolate Easter Bunnies are normally covered in brightly coloured , shiny paper looking like a rabbit from Toytown, but when you unwrap it......pure chocolate. Yummy again.

This of course brings me to the 3rd part of the title of this hub.. Christ.. The resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is supposedly the most important date on the Christian calender.

I have to ask, what calender? If your birthday is on a Sunday this year, you know it will be Monday next year, then Tuesday until a leap year.. So how come the resurrection is ALWAYS Sunday and Good Friday ALWAYS Friday?

Do the Cardinals play pin the tail on the donkey, blindfolded and stick a pin in the calender. Early March, this year boys! Mid-March? Early April?

Just doesn't make sense to me. If someone you love dies-on March 16th, then every year you may reflect on your lost loved one on March 16th but it certainly won't be the same day of the week..

Well, thankfully that is not my problem. I don't have to fix the date of Easter each year, but another thing has puzzled me for years. i.e. What on earth is the connection between chocolate eggs , Easter bunnies and the death and resurrection of the Messiah?

Scour the Gospels as I do, I can find no mention of 1st Century equivalents of chocolate eggs or rabbits,. (Did they even have chocolate then, in Palestine?)

Methinks we have another case of paganism joining together with Christianity, ostensibly to keep the peace (Particularly from the point of view of Constantine) but in reality the watering down of the true teachings of Jesus Christ.

 I suppose it was a natural progresion.

In many ancient cultures the egg was a symbol of new life. The perfect symbol of fertility.

In Persia, (now Iran)  eggs have been painted for thousands of years as a part of the Spring Celebration and the pagan Spring Festivals all over the world always included eggs and/or rabbits. (hence the expression breeding like rabbits, I guess)

The fertility goddess Astarte, Ishtar, and Eastre  are one and the same depending on which country you are in .  Astarte is often portrayed in sculptures having inumerable breasts. to represent her fertility.

           When the 2nd Century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the North with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity by allowing them to keep their pagan symbols and festivals. (Just as Constantine had allowed the Roman Saturnalia raucious festival to continue under the new name of Xmas)

The Easter egg, then , it seems pre-dates Christianity by thousands of years. It just wasn't made of chocolate.!!! Painting hard boiled eggs, giving them as gifts and even hiding and hunting the pretty things is much, much older than I had imagined.

The merging of old pagan celebrations with Christian ones is nothing new either.

   So whether you have chocolate eggs, or a serious spiritual day (Easter Sunday) or like me, try to find something to celebrate any old day,  happy Holiday. !!

I just have to dig into ancient jewish calenders now to find out when is the Passover because that was the night of The Last Supper, .