Happy Easter to everyone! I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful that Jesus is alive! What a comforting thought to know that the man that died for us and saved us is alive by our Gods side. Some days I wish he was a physical figure for me to physically see and talk to and touch. But his Holy presence feels so good. I walked outside my house today to get some fresh air (sickness has overtaken my body today and I needed to breath in some cool air) and I saw almost every house on the street up from us had at least 10 cars in front of it and tons of families and friends everywhere. It was beautiful to see, however, I wondered if they really were celebrating Jesus’ resurrection or if they were just hunting eggs and bbq’ing. Now, I have most certainly done this to and actually wished I could have done it today with my family and friends, so in no way am I putting this down! Trust me…however between seeing this and while I was on facebook checking up on some friends and saw what my best friend Rachel wrote I just thought I would share some feelings on it. Rachel wrote on facebook: “…….” And I started to think about this statement and how true it is. We do a lot of “celebrating” in our “worldly” ways and they often over shadow the true and original meaning of why we even named this particular day a holiday.
I got a little curious and decided to look up some articles on why we call the Ressuriction Sunday, “Easter”. I went onto www.christianitytoday.com and read an article by Ted Olsen. Here is an excert from that piece.
“why do we call it Easter?
---The fact of the matter is no one knows for sure, but our best bet comes from Bede ("The Venerable"), a late-seventh-century historian and scholar from Anglo-Saxon England. He says Easter's name comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, associated with spring and fertility, and celebrated around the vernal equinox. So there you go. As Christmas was moved to coincide with (and supplant) the pagan celebration of winter, Easter was likely moved to coincide and replace the pagan celebration of spring.
And while we're at it, the Easter Bunny comes from these pagan rites of spring as well, but more from pagan Germany than pagan Britain. Eighteenth-century German settlers brought "Oschter Haws" (never knew he had a name, did you?) to America, where Pennsylvania Dutch settlers prepared nests for him in the garden or barn. On Easter Eve, the rabbit laid his colored eggs in the nests in payment. In Germany, old Oschter lays red eggs on Maundy Thursday. If anyone knows why children in an agrarian society would believe a rabbit lays eggs, please tell us or a historian near you. We're all dying to know.---
So after reading this he goes on to state “enough of the pagan side of Easter and onto the Christian history… This excert read:
Thursday commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus, getting its name from the Latin translation of Jesus' saying that evening, "A new commandment I give to you" Mandatum novum do vobis. It is marked by foot washing and the blessing of the oils. But in various parts of the world, it has other traditions as well. The German word "to mourn" (grun) is very similar to the word for green (grÜn). So in Austria, Hungary, and much of Germany, today is GrÜndonnerstag: a day to eat spinach and green salad. This is not the only reason for eating greens: Passover is celebrated with karpas (a green vegetable, usually parsley) and bitter herbs. In old England, men used to shave their beards on Maundy Thursday, as this was a time to cleanse the body as well as the soul to prepare for Easter (Resurrection )
Here is another article on “Pascha” vs. “Easter” or “Passover” vs. “Eastra”. This man is named Michael Harper and is a little stronger in his words. Click on the link http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/fasts_feasts/harper_pascha_easter.htm -- to read the entire article but here is an excert.
This is a much more important subject than a mere dispute about words. If the word in English is Easter, then one is bound to ask "what word?" Was there some word which, when translated into English, became "Easter"? The plain answer is "no". There is one simple reason for this, Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh never visited these shores, and his words were not written in English. He spoke Aramaic, and his sayings were recorded in Greek, as were the words of the other NT writers like Paul and Peter. An example of the desire to replace the word "Pascha" with "Easter" is the King James version translation of Acts 12:4 which describes the arrest of Peter by Herod and his intention "after Easter to bring him forth to the people". The Greek word here is pascha, and all modern translations rightly now translate the word "passover"
We need to realise also that there is no equivalent word for "Easter" in the Greek language, for one simple but important reason, the word is an Anglo-Saxon word for a pagan festival. The word in its original use is entirely pagan. According to the English Church historian Bede, it derives from a pagan spring festival in honour of Eastra or Ostara a Teutonic goddess. It has no associations whatsoever with Christ, His death and Resurrection, or indeed anything Christian. Is it not, therefore, unsuitable to be used to describe the greatest day in the life of the Church? The French, Italians and Spanish do not make the same mistake. Their words come from the proper source — Passover, which in Greek is the word "Pascha".
Like most holidays, especially the Christian ones, its obvious that we have put our own spin on things. What does Easter mean to you? Not really sure on how I feel about this article but I do know that I believe in what the Bible says and whether or not you call it Easter or Resurrection Sunday, it should be recognized as the day that Jesus rose. For He is why we are all here. God is so good. I can not say that enough. No matter what situations I get into, He is always there to lead me back to where I need to be. I don’t know how someone could not believe in Him. So… All this being said…
HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!!!
