Christians contend over Easter

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Ambra at Nykola.com has a few words to say about Easter. She’s also invited a guest blogger to throw in his two cents on the subject. The main thrust of the two posts is that Christians should abandon their celebrations of Easter because of the holiday’s pagan origins.

The argument might hold true if what churches did on Easter Sunday was celebrate the pagan goddess that pagans worshiped. But for as long as I have lived, and as long as my parents have lived, and as long as their parents have lived Christians have celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter not a pagan goddess.

Part of the argument against Easter is that is began as an integration of Persian and Germanic celebrations honoring a spring goddess. But, just as contact with the Persian culture influenced the Germanic culture so contact with Christian culture changed every culture it came into contact with. It is significant that we celebrate Easter according to the Jewish calendar. This is a clear indication that it has been pried loose from its pagan roots and grafted onto some Christian ones.

I think the greater concern is not that we celebrate Easter but how and why we celebrate it. Like other Christian holidays retailers seek to make money off of the pious telling them that they need to buy this that or the other in order to celebrate a holiday that should have nothing to do with material possessions. If you are a Christian Easter is not about that new pastel coloured outfit. It is not about that silly rabbit or about the brightly coloured eggs. I’m not saying that the usual Easter traditions need to be abandoned but they do need to be put in their proper place. Christ needs to be the emphasis of Easter for Christians everything else should run a distant second.

There's another interesting response to the argument that Christians shoudn't ccelebrate Easter here.

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