-Removed-Who said its religious? You Christians always think everything is about you!
The eggs and bunnies are a celebration of the fecundity of spring. Of course those of us in the Southern hemisphere are celebrating it half a year off, just as we do with the mid winter festival popularly known as Christmas.
We need to come up with a few Southern hemisphere traditions and see if we can get some of you Northerners to join in.
Originally posted by twhiteheadEaster IS religious. It's central to the Christian religion, and no others. It's the marketing departments of candy companies who have succeeded in making it yet another occasion to 'buy stuff'. Actually, yes, Easter IS all about a celebration of the Risen Christ.
Who said its religious? You Christians always think everything is about you!
The eggs and bunnies are a celebration of the fecundity of spring. Of course those of us in the Southern hemisphere are celebrating it half a year off, just as we do with the mid winter festival popularly known as Christmas.
We need to come up with a few Southern hemisphere traditions and see if we can get some of you Northerners to join in.
Besides, Easter wouldn't be about 'eggs and bunnies' either, if the Catholic Church hadn't tried to merge it with any number of pagan spring celebrations.
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Originally posted by Suzianne"Easter IS religious. It's central to the Christian religion, and no others."
Easter IS religious. It's central to the Christian religion, and no others. It's the marketing departments of candy companies who have succeeded in making it yet another occasion to 'buy stuff'. Actually, yes, Easter IS all about a celebration of the Risen Christ.
Besides, Easter wouldn't be about 'eggs and bunnies' either, if the Catholic Church hadn't tried to merge it with any number of pagan spring celebrations.
You should be aware that the name Easter itself refers to an ancient Germanic goddess. See Wikipedia article below. Also there are many modern day heathens/pagans that celebrate Easter and since the name of the holiday is of pagan origin it's no surprise really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre
"Actually, yes, Easter IS all about a celebration of the Risen Christ."
Actually no. Many celebrate it as the coming of spring and worship the ancient goddess Ostara as part of the celebration.
"Besides, Easter wouldn't be about 'eggs and bunnies' either, if the Catholic Church hadn't tried to merge it with any number of pagan spring celebrations."
Well they didn't have much of a choice really. The people didn't want to give up their beloved folk customs and yet the church wanted to convert them so they made the necessary concessions. That's the way it goes. People didn't just drop what they had been doing for centuries just to accommodate the new religion. Christianity has been Germanicized. But it does lead to some amusing arguments amongst Christians as various sects try to claim to be the purest version of Christianity and point to the filthy pagan practices of the more established sects. The reality is that if the Roman Catholic church hadn't made concessions as it penetrated heathen societies then it wouldn't have spread as far and wide as it did and we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.
Originally posted by twhiteheadSince moving to NZ from UK we celebrate Sixthmas (25th June) and have a decorated tree, lights and all the cards from December + prezzies!
Who said its religious? You Christians always think everything is about you!
The eggs and bunnies are a celebration of the fecundity of spring. Of course those of us in the Southern hemisphere are celebrating it half a year off, just as we do with the mid winter festival popularly known as Christmas.
We need to come up with a few Southern hemisphere traditions and see if we can get some of you Northerners to join in.
Originally posted by SuzianneAs you say Suzianne they have succeeded and easter is no longer relgious.
It's the marketing departments of candy companies who have succeeded in making it yet another occasion to 'buy stuff'. .
Its ridiculous to suppose it is religious. Throughout NZ everyone is enjoying a
(very) long weekend regardless of religion. Nobody I know is doing anything
vaguely relgious.