Here is what the vaunted Catholic Encyclopedia has to say about Easter: “The English term, according to the Ven. Bede ( De temporum ratione , I, v) relates to Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring…
that the Apostolic fathers [the apostles of Christ] do not mention it and that we first hear of it principally through the controversy of the Quartodecimans are purely accidental” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 224).
A “Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring” ?
Well, yes, but much, much more than merely a pagan goddess of the rising light of day and spring.
She was, in the demented minds of superstitious pagans, a goddess of sex and fertility; of fecundity and procreativity.
Her symbols were, most importantly, the egg, and, secondarily, the rabbit.
Of course, rabbits don’t lay eggs, but many a child does not learn this until a later age.
Bunnies are cuddly to little children.
So are tiny chickens, and gaily-colored eggs.
Concerning Easter eggs, the Catholic Encyclopedia somewhat reluctantly admits,
“The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring [and therefore directly related to SUN-worship], gravitated to Easter.
The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring…the Easter rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden.
The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility…
In France, handball playing was one of the Easter amusements, found also in Germany…
The ball may represent the sun, which is believed to take three leaps in rising on Easter morning” (ibid. p. 227).
Dozens of “quaint” customs derived from ancient superstitions and myths.
Most revolved around cupidity, and had suggestive fertility rites obvious in their execution.
The same source admits,
“On Easter Monday the women had a right to strike their husbands.
On Tuesday the men struck their wives, as in December the servants scolded their masters…
In the northern parts of England the men parade the streets on Easter Sunday and claim the privilege of lifting every woman three times from the ground, receiving in payment a kiss or a silver sixpence.
In Neumark (Germany) on Easter day the men servants whip the maidservants with switches; on Monday the maids whip the men.
They secure their release with Easter eggs.
These customs are probably of pre-Christian origin.” (Ibid. p. 227).
These, and many other rituals, were pagan fertility rites, derived from worship of the sun.
For example, the same source says,
“The Easter Fire is lit on the top of mountains (Easter Mountain, Osterberg) and must be kindled from new fire, drawn from wood by friction; this is a custom of pagan origin in vogue all over Europe, signifying the victory of spring over winter…
the church adopted the observance into the Easter ceremonies, referring it to the fiery column in the desert and to the resurrection of Christ” (Ibid. p. 227, emphasis mine).
Note that admission carefully, for it lies at the very heart of the matter.
Now, notice the origin of the name “Easter.”
Hislop says,
“It is not a Christian name.
It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead.
Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven,
whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country.
That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar” ( The Two Babylons , Hislop, p. 103).
The “h” was silent,
just as in the Assyrian “Astarte,” where the last two letters were also silent,
giving the identical pronunciation used today, “Easter.” Of course, as millions know and also observe, “Easter” is preceded by forty days of “Lent.”
But where did “Lent” come from ?”
Is it the past tense of “to lend” ?
Is it something found in one’s navel ?
It certainly is not found in the Bible ! Let Hislop answer:
“The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess.
Such a Lent of forty days, `in the spring of the year,’ is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan devil-worshippers of Koordistan,
who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians.
Such a Lent of forty days was held in the spring by the pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt [ Mexican Researches, v. i. P. 404] where he gives account of Mexican observances: `Three days after the vernal equinox…began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the sun.’
Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson’s Egyptians.
This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god” (ibid. p. 105).
There is no part of “Easter” which is not rooted in rank paganism.
“But we don’t do it with those pagan meanings in mind,” one might protest.
Naturally ! That is the whole point !
It is the disguise, the deception, the counterfeit which Satan uses to delude and deceive, not a direct admission of the truth. As Hislop says,
“To conciliate the pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated,
and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity _now far sunk in idolatry _ in this as in so many other things, to shake hands” (Ibid. p. 105).
What does God Almighty say about His people “adapting” pagan rituals and ceremonies into their worship toward the true God ?
“When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them,
and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; “Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them,
after that they be destroyed from before thee;
and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods ?
“Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God:
for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods;
for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
“What thing soever I command you,
thou shalt not add thereto , (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).