The Real Origins of Easter
The stores have taken down their pastel streamers and big floppy stuffed animals, and the only things left on the 75% off shelves are a few broken down, tacky looking wire bunnies lying forlornly on their sides, somewhat cushioned with scraps of plastic grass. The marshmallow eggs are long gone, the ham sandwiches are finally finished, and all the school kids finally stopped wishing that spring break wasn’t over.
But what is Easter all about? Where did it come from? When did it start? What’s with the eggs, the bunnies, the ham, the candy?
Most of us know that it is a Christian holiday associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What I didn’t know until about two days ago was that Easter is a holiday that is essentially pagan, with roots reaching into Babylon long before Jesus’ time. Easter is most often associated with Eastre, a minor Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. However, Eastre is only a later version of the tale of Nimrod and Semiramis. Nimrod, King of Babylon and builder of the Tower of Babel, married his mother Semiramis. Shortly after, Nimrod died, though the legends vary as to how. Semiramis reassured the people by telling them that Nimrod had become the sun-god, Baal. Taking advantage of his death, she proclaimed that she was a goddess, descended from the moon in a moon egg that dropped into the Euphrates on the first full moon after the spring equinox. Semiramis became known as Ishtar, pronounced Easter, and her moon egg became Ishtar’s Egg. Some time later, Ishtar became pregnant, supposedly by the rays of Baal. Unfortunately the son she had bore, Tammuz was killed by a wild boar as he was hunting. Semiramis proclaimed that Tammuz was now ascended to Baal as well. In mourning for Tammuz, the people were to eat no meat for forty days. Upon the culmination of that time, the people were to celebrate Tammuz by killing and eating a pig and having rabbits and eggs.
There then is the explanation for the ham, rabbits, and eggs. I was really surprised to find that the traditions I enjoyed are actually pagan instead of Christian as I originally thought.
As a Christian, I celebrate Resurrection Day because of this verse: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:4.
Around 2041 years ago, angels appeared to shepherds in Israel, telling them this: ”For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11.
Prophecies made beforehand in the book of Isaiah foretold that this Savior would not come as some all-conquering hero-king but rather would be persecuted and despised for the message He taught, the message we know as Christianity. As the prophet Isaiah had said, Jesus was persecuted, to the point that He eventually was captured and crucified. Here in particular is where the angel’s words came to pass. When Jesus died, He took on all of humanity’s sins, past, present, and future, and annihilated them. He gave us this Gift because He loves us; however, like all gifts, you have to accept it in order to get it handed to you.
Skeptics say that’s just a romantic melodrama since there’s no way to substantiate it. It would be but for the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.
Forget “ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night.”
My Savior came back as breathing, living, flesh and blood. He showed Himself to many people. He had His sacrifice notarized, signed, and sealed with His blood.
Beat that, Semiramis!
