Happy Easter!
Happy Easter everyone! I do love celebrating holidays, even if the history of the holiday is confusing. My kids love the bunnies, the eggs, and the ham. All things very common for Easter.
So, why bunnies, eggs and most of all ham? When exactly is Easter? Why can't it fall on the last Sunday in March like Thanksgiving in November?
As many of you know, I love to research information such as this, so here is what I have found.
The Calendar: Easter falls according to the lunar calendar. Extremely interesting since Christmas falls on the Gregorian calendar. Why is it Christ couldn't be born an a particular date...a second time? Anyway, we celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the earliest fourteenth day of a lunar month that occurred on or after March 21 (the first day of Spring). This makes it fall on the new moon after a full moon. There is a plan to reform the date for Easter to a particular Sunday in April. This is for the Western Chirstian faiths, the date for Easter is different for the Eastern Christian faiths. They will have their Easter April 23 this year.
The Bunnies and Eggs: Jakob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, noting that Ostaramanoth was etymologically related to Eostremonat and writing of various landmarks and customs related to the goddess Ostara in Germany. Again, because of a lack of written documentation, critics suggest that Grimm took Bede's mention of a goddess Eostre at face value and constructed the goddess Ostara around existing Germanic customs which may have arisen independently. Others point to Grimm's stated intent to gather and record oral traditions which might otherwise be lost as explanation for the lack of further documentation. Amongst other traditions, Grimm connected the 'Osterhase' (Easter Bunny) and Easter Eggs to the goddess Ostara/Eostre. He also cites various place names in Germany as being evidence of Ostara, but critics contend that the close etymological relationship between Ostara and the words for 'east' and 'dawn' could mean that these place names referred to either of those two things rather than a goddess. [citing Wikipedia]
The Ham: This one always makes me chuckle. I am hoping someone can actually wrap some logic around this one. So, Christ was a Jew. Jewish people cannot eat pig. Of the "beasts of the earth" (which basically refers to land mammals with the exception of swarming rodents), you may eat any animal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud. Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:6. Any land mammal that does not have both of these qualities is forbidden. The Torah specifies that the camel, the rock badger, the hare and the pig are not kosher because each lacks one of these two qualifications. So why do WE eat pig? The Easter ham, and most other "Easter" traditions actually have their roots in Paganism and have nothing to do with Christian commemorations of the Resurrection of Jesus. Although Christianity observes Easter to acknowledge the Resurrection, most know it is not the actual day of this event. [citing reference]
This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Why is it there are more paganistic overtones associated with Easter than there are Christian? If the rebirth of Christ is the reason, why does it work from the same calendar as the Pagan holiday Eostre? Why do you think we call it Easter? Shouldn't it be called Rebirth or Christmas take two? Additionally why don't ALL Christian religions observe Easter?
Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastic History of the English People") contains a letter from Pope Gregory I to Saint Mellitus, who was then on his way to England to conduct missionary work among the heathen Anglo-Saxons. The Pope suggests that converting heathens is easier if they are allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditional pagan practices and traditions, while recasting those traditions spiritually towards Christianity instead of to their indigenous gods (whom the Pope refers to as "devils"), "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". The Pope sanctioned such conversion tactics as biblically acceptable, pointing out that God did much the same thing with the ancient Israelites and their pagan sacrifices. This practice might explain the incorporation of Eostre traditions into the Christian holiday. [citing Wikipedia]
By the way, My Easter ham was delicious. The kids colored eggs which I happily ate. Everyone received their Peeps bunnies. Happy Easter!
Did you know...
The amount of Peeps chicks and bunnies eaten at Easter could more than circle Earth's circumference. That's a lot of marshmallow!
So, why bunnies, eggs and most of all ham? When exactly is Easter? Why can't it fall on the last Sunday in March like Thanksgiving in November?
As many of you know, I love to research information such as this, so here is what I have found.
The Calendar: Easter falls according to the lunar calendar. Extremely interesting since Christmas falls on the Gregorian calendar. Why is it Christ couldn't be born an a particular date...a second time? Anyway, we celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the earliest fourteenth day of a lunar month that occurred on or after March 21 (the first day of Spring). This makes it fall on the new moon after a full moon. There is a plan to reform the date for Easter to a particular Sunday in April. This is for the Western Chirstian faiths, the date for Easter is different for the Eastern Christian faiths. They will have their Easter April 23 this year.
The Bunnies and Eggs: Jakob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, noting that Ostaramanoth was etymologically related to Eostremonat and writing of various landmarks and customs related to the goddess Ostara in Germany. Again, because of a lack of written documentation, critics suggest that Grimm took Bede's mention of a goddess Eostre at face value and constructed the goddess Ostara around existing Germanic customs which may have arisen independently. Others point to Grimm's stated intent to gather and record oral traditions which might otherwise be lost as explanation for the lack of further documentation. Amongst other traditions, Grimm connected the 'Osterhase' (Easter Bunny) and Easter Eggs to the goddess Ostara/Eostre. He also cites various place names in Germany as being evidence of Ostara, but critics contend that the close etymological relationship between Ostara and the words for 'east' and 'dawn' could mean that these place names referred to either of those two things rather than a goddess. [citing Wikipedia]
The Ham: This one always makes me chuckle. I am hoping someone can actually wrap some logic around this one. So, Christ was a Jew. Jewish people cannot eat pig. Of the "beasts of the earth" (which basically refers to land mammals with the exception of swarming rodents), you may eat any animal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud. Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:6. Any land mammal that does not have both of these qualities is forbidden. The Torah specifies that the camel, the rock badger, the hare and the pig are not kosher because each lacks one of these two qualifications. So why do WE eat pig? The Easter ham, and most other "Easter" traditions actually have their roots in Paganism and have nothing to do with Christian commemorations of the Resurrection of Jesus. Although Christianity observes Easter to acknowledge the Resurrection, most know it is not the actual day of this event. [citing reference]
This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Why is it there are more paganistic overtones associated with Easter than there are Christian? If the rebirth of Christ is the reason, why does it work from the same calendar as the Pagan holiday Eostre? Why do you think we call it Easter? Shouldn't it be called Rebirth or Christmas take two? Additionally why don't ALL Christian religions observe Easter?
Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastic History of the English People") contains a letter from Pope Gregory I to Saint Mellitus, who was then on his way to England to conduct missionary work among the heathen Anglo-Saxons. The Pope suggests that converting heathens is easier if they are allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditional pagan practices and traditions, while recasting those traditions spiritually towards Christianity instead of to their indigenous gods (whom the Pope refers to as "devils"), "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". The Pope sanctioned such conversion tactics as biblically acceptable, pointing out that God did much the same thing with the ancient Israelites and their pagan sacrifices. This practice might explain the incorporation of Eostre traditions into the Christian holiday. [citing Wikipedia]
By the way, My Easter ham was delicious. The kids colored eggs which I happily ate. Everyone received their Peeps bunnies. Happy Easter!
Did you know...
The amount of Peeps chicks and bunnies eaten at Easter could more than circle Earth's circumference. That's a lot of marshmallow!
Comments
But thanks for the delightful insight about calendars... I have sometimes wondered why Christmas is the same date every year while Easter jumps around playing catch.
And this template is lovely. I was reading your blogpost thru RSS feeds for sometime, so didnt notice this template change. Goood!