Is Easter a Pagan Holiday?

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While rabbits and eggs have no direct connection to Jesus, the word “Easter” is derived from the ancient German word for “rise,” which is synonymous with the concept of rising from the dead; this is the reason we call the direction the sun rises in “east” in English. English is a Germanic language, not a Latin one, so it uses a different word for Easter than Latin-based languages like Spanish and French. Latin languages use a variation of “Pasha,” the Latin/Greek translation of “Pesach.” Pesach is the Hebrew word for Passover, a.k.a “The Festival of Unleavened Bread”. Some argue that Easter is a pagan holiday because it is linked to the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar. The connection between Ishtar and Easter is a false cognate. Those language groups aren’t even in the same family, since the word “Easter” is derived from English and German.

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The Church and Halloween

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Should Christians celebrate Halloween? The first question is, what is Halloween? Halloween comes from “All Hallow’s Eve,” which was the day before “All Hallow’s Day,” when ancient European Christians would remember the dead. The name “All Hallow’s Eve” changed over time and became “Hallowe’en.” In the early 7th century, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, a temple dedicated to all the gods of ancient Rome. Instead, they would celebrate all the saints, and the chosen date was May 13th. Later, Pope Gregory III changed the date to November 1st. This change was likely intended to counteract former pagan celebrations that were occurring at the time. Alternative theories suggest that it is based on Samhain, an ancient pagan holiday that the church sought to absorb to facilitate the more straightforward conversion of people. There are various theories about the origin of Halloween, but what is known for sure is that the Roman Church celebrates All Saints’ Day to honor the dead. They later designated November 2nd as All Souls’ Day to honor all the dead. The concept of celebrating or honoring the dead, primarily, is not based on the Bible, so it seems more like an attempt to maintain certain cultural traditions in post-Christian Europe.

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