Easter

comfyfeet · 03-20-2008, 06:44 AM

Hi
With the chocolate eggs starting to pile up in my kitchen, I was just wondering what the different religons take was on Easter.
I always feel abit guilty in some way, not being a religious person myself yet still celebrating the different holidays :o)

Ajani · 03-20-2008, 09:39 AM

For me, Easter is my most sacred holiday. Christmas is great, but Easter is what my faith is all about. In the past I've observed in some way the Lenten season leading up to Easter. This year things were just to crazy stressful, but it's something that I look forward to sharing with the kids.

And yes, we do the eggs (plastic, since Owen has a peanut allergy) too, but that's just bonus stuff. Not what it's all about.

Jashobeam · 03-22-2008, 09:04 PM

We go to church then eat with family. We celebrate Christ's ressurection and our promise of Salvation and eteral life in Heaven.

I just got an email from a pastor talking about how encouraged he is by people who are not Christian, but are interested in Easter. Churches welcome such interest and are glad to share such a day with non-Christians.

PollySis · 03-24-2008, 05:51 PM

For us pagans, it's the return of Eostar (the original springtime goddess the later festival was named after). Easter bunny is a corruption of our magical March animal, the hare - bunny rabbits were not native to the British Isles but a late introduction by the Romans, so our Celtic religion celebrated the hares as a symbol of Eostar.

Anyone who's been out in the fields this time of year and seen the hares boxing will know why our ancestors thought they were oddly humanoid!

For druids, it's called Alban Eilir and for most pagans probably just 'the Spring Equinox'.

Here's some basic info about the Equinox:

http://www.druidry.org/obod/festivals/eilir.html

I sometimes do a ritual, sometimes not. But always go out and about walking, and gardening and feeling the spring come back to the earth in as real a way as I can.