Easter has been hijacked

Who on earth has called people names GG?

I have observed that sometimes GG you tie yourself in a complete knot of nonsense.

I have been delighted to see Easter return to it's original pagan roots over the years. It was a celebration of the reawakening of Spring, Fertility and new life (The name says it all) long before Judaism with it's Passover and Christianity with it's Resurrection ever existed.
The Christian church simply welded it's mythology onto pre existing practices. Easter has much deeper roots.

I assume that all the pagans/ atheists here who wish to return to the pagan festival will start celebrating it on 21 March and not piggybacking on the popular Christian festival that just happens to share the same name.

Thanks for your post Esspee, another interesting element of Easter I was not aware of.

Happened the other way round M0nica. The Christians took over the Celebration and moved it to the Passover in time.

Come on folks, it isn’t a competition is it? My faith/athienism/paganism is better than yours.
Easter, spring time - it all symbolises new beginnings, surely an opportunity to love and let live ?

I agree everyone should celebrate any festival any way they wish, but I think the OP was really getting at is the COMMERCIALISM of it all. There is so much bordering on glutony that the simple pleasures that I, for one, experienced at not only Easter but Christmas are being lost. I used to love waking up to chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday and going to church and my grandchildren still do. The only difference now is that THEY get chocolate eggs (kinder, Cadbury's cream eggs) any day of the week all year.

Similarly Christmas is not the same now as they get toys throughout the year. Whereas WE only got toys on birthdays and Christmas. Yes they still enjoy it in their own way but sometimes I cringe at the amount of presents they get. I feel sad for people who have nothing in other parts of the world.. Last year I didn't give any of my children/grandchildren presents - instead I donated to a school in India. Nobody even noticed t.b.h. They still had an abundance of presents, but I think the kids in India would have appreciated a few books and pencils more.

I took two of my grandchildren to church this morning and it was beautiful, so colourful with lots of singing and all the children were given an Easter egg, with beautifully decorated cakes for all with teas/coffees.

Times are changing and I guess we just have to accept it and do what WE want to do Floradora9.

The term for this is syncretism.

Ohh Monica you have just added another date & celebration I wasn’t aware of . I need to get reading.

I agree wholeheartedly with your post Blugal.

Yggdrasil wrote:
"Still we do get a public holiday for Beltane, only one month away :-)" I know I little Borders town where there is a Beltane festival.

GracesGran is there something impolite about identifying as an atheist? I sometimes do as it's simpler than explaining complex theology.

I thought that the main theme of Casualty last night was a gloss on the Resurrection.

Why are the atheists being lumped together with pagans?

I was wondering that.

Not at all Alexa. But then that was not what I was saying.

Why are the atheists being lumped together with pagans?
Thank you grumpa, that brought a smile to my face though maybe it shouldn't. I think it may be a "anyone who doesn't declare themselves to be Christian" group just as we have an "anyone who doesn't declare themselves to he anti-Corbyn" group name applied to those who may not see themselves in the way that it describes. Perhaps the answer is just laziness.

I do agree that people should be aware of the significance of Easter and other key events to Christian religion (and of key beliefs in other religions), but I don't think anyone can or should dictate how people ought to spend Easter. We, fortunately, do not now live in a society where everyone must worship a particular religion or else be a social outcast, or worse.

I too dislike the way every occasion now - Easter, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Firework Night, Halloween, End of School Proms, Christmas, Childbirth, etc, etc, etc - is so cynically exploited in order to make money. But surely that is a separate issue.

Atheism is, as I understand it, disbelief in any religion and therefore does not include acts of worship. I think I'm right in saying the paganism is a religion in that it is made up of certain beliefs and contains acts of worship. Agnosticism, I think, is a state of acceptance that neither belief nor disbelief in a god or a religion can be proved or disproved.

anniebach You always insist that "Christians have no problems with atheists". The premise of the original post, along with criticism of commercialism, seemed to me to imply criticism of those who do not celebrate Easter in a religious way, in particular by attending church. Given that the post was couched in those terms, it is hardly surprising that it received posts from people who had a non-religious take on the issue.

The few devout Christians that I know are not at all showy about what they believe in but spend much of their time in helping others rather than in trying to demonstrate spiritual one upmanship.

Religions or belief systems are not inborn. They are cultural phenomena. Christians are born into a Christian family/culture, as are Muslims/Jews/Hindus/Sikhs, etc etc. And yet each religion, though some are more tolerant of different beliefs than others, sees itself as being the true religion.

Yes, there is commercialism, but everyone can take, or leave, what they choose. Most people I know don’t go OTT and buy into all the glitz and hard sell, they take what they want from these ‘feasts’ and enjoy what they have to offer.

Eleothan, I did not write the O/P.

Celebrate Easter as you will - as long as it harms no-one and is celebrated in a loving way, who cares?

Of course there is commercialization - that is the reality of modern life, for better or for worse. Nothing escapes its grasp.

But I for one have had a lovely weekend - all my children and GC around, sharing each others company, playing happily (mostly!) together and showing the best of what family means - togetherness and sharing. It has been truly lovely.

I am not prepared for anyone to imply, as the wording of the OP does, that this is anything but positive.

I love the coming of spring and the rebirth of the earth? and enjoy the beautifully decorated Easter eggs ( non chocolate) Easter bunting which I do have? and other Easter/spring decorations. I know that some don’t like the decoration aspect but communities have for millennia decorated their homes at key season changes I like to feel part of this link with the past!
As a vegetarian I don’t eat lamb (my 3 DC and lovely DGC also vegetarians) so although I enjoy a roast it doesn’t feature meat. Chocolate is eaten but not too much.
This year I was given a Lindt Easter egg,and made some tiny Easter cakes.The DGC each had a small Easter parcel from me,which featured little bits and pieces of fun, but nothing huge and a small amount of chocolate.
When the DGC were smaller I gave them each a glass Easter egg with their names on,and with tiny chocolate eggs in side that can be refilled each year.
I also love the many Easter egg hunts and craft making days around my town, and have tried to take my DGS to as many of these as I can.
Easter is surely a festival about life and new beginnings something we can all embrace

I think “hijacking” only extends as far as you will let it.
Christmas , Mothering Sunday, Easter all can be a commercialised riot of material expectations, pressure and emotional baggage, but they need not be.

“To thine own self be true....”

I know I little Borders town where there is a Beltane festival

So do I, with a Beltane Queen ! And not a million miles from my hometown .

Yes Eloethan Cultural Phenonema.

As a child I lived next door to a Jehovah Witness family.
Their beliefs were strong. My agnostic family had no time for them.
I have often wondered how different my life would be now had I been born into that family.