Easter: Relate it to Pagan Festivals all you like, it's just Passover

[Rev.Cambeul]

In 325 CE the Council of Nicea decided to separate the celebration of Easter from the Jewish Passover.

"For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people...We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews...our worship follows a...more convenient course...we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews...How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."

While the Christinsane had good reason to separate their holiday from the Jewish one, it is only by the merest coincidence that Easter has any similarity to the Pagan celebration. After all, it's not as if the Christinsane at the time wanted to return to their Pagan roots. Linking Easter with the equinox was simply a matter of convenience. It is the nature of your average, humble, but stubborn people continuing their local customs that truly linked Easter with the Christinsane Passover celebration.

It also helped with some Pagan converts that were impressed by the fact that having a dead Jew nailed to a stick meant there was no longer any need to sacrifice their own people. ... Which meant that criminals and prisoners of war no longer needed to be kept around for sacrificial uses. So for the people, Easter is the standard Pagan celebration of old, but the for the Christinsane Churches, Easter is just the Jewish Passover dressed up to make it acceptable for the populace.

The equinox occurs each year on March 20, 21 or 22. Both Pagans and  Christinsane continue to celebrate mythological rituals linked to the equinox. Wiccans and other  Neopagans usually hold their celebrations on the day or eve of the equinox. Western Christinsane celebrate Easter on the Sunday on or after the full moon that follows the nominal date of the Equinox -- MAR-21. The Eastern Orthodox Christinsane follow a different calculation; their Easter celebration is often many weeks after the date selected for use by the West.



Here is a thought: We Creators being a nature based religion also respect the equinox and other such days of the year in our own right; but should we also include the equinox, samhain, and the rest of the seasonal and traditionally Pagan holidays in our own, unique, Creator Calendar? Whether or not you think that we should extend the Creator Calendar in such a way, tell us what you think and perhaps your argument just might sway the Guardians of the Faith Committee.

Pontifex Cambeul.