- Kashif Zuberi
kashifzzub@gmail.com
Spring is in the air! Flowers and bunnies decorate the home. Father helps the children paint beautiful designs on eggs dyed in various colors. These eggs, which will later be hidden and searched for, are placed into lovely, seasonal baskets. The wonderful aroma of the hot cross buns mother is baking in the oven waft through the house. Forty days of abstaining from special foods will finally end the next day. The whole family picks out their Sunday best to wear to the next morning’s sunrise worship service to celebrate the Savior’s 'Resurrection' and the renewal of life. Everyone looks forward to a succulent ham with all the trimmings. It will be a thrilling day. After all, it is one of the most important religious holidays of the year.
Easter, right? No! This is a description of an ancient Babylonian family — 2,000 years before Christ — honoring the resurrection of their god, Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife, Ishtar (after whom the festival was named). As Ishtar was actually pronounced “Easter” in most Semitic dialects, it could be said that the event portrayed here is, in a sense, Easter.
Or this depiction could just as easily represent any number of other immoral, pagan fertility celebrations of death and resurrection — including the modern Easter celebration as it has come to us through the Anglo-Saxon fertility rites of the goddess Eostre or Ostara. These are all the same festivals, separated only by time and culture.
Now notice the following powerful quotes that demonstrate more about the true origin of how the modern Easter celebration got its name:
“Since Bede the Venerable (De ratione temporum 1:5) the origin of the term for the feast of Christ’s Resurrection has been popularly considered to be from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre, a goddess of spring… the Old High German plural for dawn, eostarun; whence has come the German Ostern, and our English Easter” (The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. 5, p. 6).
“The fact that vernal festivals were general among pagan peoples no doubt had much to do with the form assumed by the Eastern festival in the Christian churches. The English term Easter is of pagan origin” (Albert Henry Newman, DD, LLD, A Manual of Church History, p. 299).
“On this greatest of Christian festivals, several survivals occur of ancient heathen ceremonies. To begin with, the name itself is not Christian but pagan. Ostara was the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring” (Ethel L. Urlin, Festival, Holy Days, and Saints Days, p. 73).
“Easter — the name Easter comes to us from Ostera or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, for whom a spring festival was held annually, as it is from this pagan festival that some of our Easter customs have come” (Hazeltine, p. 53).
“In Babylonia… the goddess of spring was called Ishtar. She was identified with the planet Venus, which, because… [it] rises before the Sun… or sets after it… appears to love the light [this means Venus loves the sun-god]… In Phoenecia, she became Astarte; in Greece, Eostre [related to the Greek word Eos: “dawn”], and in Germany, Ostara [this comes from the German word Ost: “east,” which is the direction of dawn]” (Englehart, p. 4).
As we have seen, many names are interchangeable for the more well-known Easter. Pagans typically used many different names for the same god or goddess.
The goddess Easter was no different. She was one goddess with many names — the goddess of fertility, worshipped in spring when all life was being renewed.
Origin of other customs associated with the modern Easter celebration.
Easter egg -
“The origin of the Easter egg is based on the fertility lore of the Indo-European races… The egg to them was a symbol of spring… In Christian times the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection” (Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, p. 233)
This is a direct example of exactly how pagan symbols and customs are “Christianized”.
“Around the Christian observance of Easter folk customs have collected, many of which have been handed down from the ancient ceremonial symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals for example, eggs have been very prominent as symbols of new life and resurrection” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991 ed., Vol. 4, p. 333).
The Easter Bunny -
Francis Weiser informs us of its origins:
“The Easter bunny had its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Easter bunny has never had religious symbolism bestowed on its festive usage. However, the bunny has acquired a cherished role in the celebration of Easter as the legendary producer of Easter eggs for children in many countries” (Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs p. 236).
Savior?
Even the concept of Saviour-God has its roots in pagan religions.
“…the conception of a Saviour-God was quite normal in the ancient pagan world, a conception of salvation underlies the notion of such gods as Osiris, Attis, and Adonis…” (John M. Robertson, Christianity and Mythology, p. 395).
The Islamic Perspective -
Islam completely rejects the concept of the 'Saviour-God'. According to Islam, Jesus Christ was a messenger of God.
"Christ the son of Mary was no more than an messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how God does make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!"
[al-Qur'an (5:75)]
Infact God is One, unlike any of His creations.
"Say: He is God, The One and Only.
God, the Eternal, Absolute.
He begets not, nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him."
[al-Qur’an (112:1-4)]
and God informs us through His final revelation that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was raised up alive, and will return to earth before his death and before the day of Judgment.
"That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God"; but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Nay, God raised him up unto Himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise. And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Judgment he will be a witness against them."
[al-Qur'an (4:157-159)]
Quran makes it clear that salvation lies in believing in God and following His commandments
"By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy."
[al-Qur'an (103:1-3)]
and if we fall into sin, we should repent
"Except the one who repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for God will change the evil of such persons into good, and God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
[al-Qur'an (25:70)]