Easter

[Josh]

[Josh]

Maybe you've seen memes like this on facebook. Besides the fact that they often get the details wrong (for instance, Christians were celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection for more than a century before Constantine, if not going back even earlier) or make assumptions (as does this one and it's identification of Easter with Ishtar), a larger point I'd like to make is that for the most part I think it was brilliant of the early church to take whatsoever things that were good, honorable, noble, and true in pagan traditions and "baptize" them in light of Christian truth. Spring represents fertility, so does sex. Both of them are good aspects of God's creation. It's very fitting that the Passover and the Resurrection, which represent new life, also fall at this same time. The hedonism and worship of the created things rather than the Creator are the real problems with the original pagan holidays. But in light of Jesus' resurrection, we can see all sorts of deep spiritual truths in all things spring related.

For a far more balanced view on the origins of Easter, read the Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter