I have lots of friends who believe in a god. The overwhelming majority is Christian of one flavor or another. I am constantly seeing their posts saying things like, "thank you baby Jesus" or, "pray for" this or that.
I personally do not care what they do in the privacy of their homes or churches, and have NEVER told any of them I find their constant blathering about their god or their faith annoying.
So at the end of the night on Easter I went to Facebook and started a diatribe about the TRUE history of the day and how Christianity just took over somebody else's beliefs and now pretends it's theirs. This rant was about 2200 characters. I tried to post when I learned FB has something like 200+ character limit.
Not to be dissuaded, I then broke up my lengthy post in about nine "installments" and posted them to my wall. Within an hour I had a response:
(1st post) Easter to me (derivation of Ishtar, an ancient Assyrian/Chaldean god) is one of the best days of the year! It symbolizes the changing seasons and the renewal of life... new foliage, new baby animals, coming out of our homes and opening our windows back to nature. I love it
(2nd post) Just some facts though about the origin of Easter and the customs associated with it. The Encyclopedia Britannica comments: There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians.(1910), Vol. VIII, p. 828.
(3rd post) The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.(1913), Vol. V, p. 227.
(4th post) In the book The Two Babylon's, by Alexander Hislop, we read: What means the term Easter itself 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 found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. . . . Such is the history of Easter.
(5th post) The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now.(New York, 1943), pp. 103, 107, 108; compare Jeremiah 7:18.
(6th post) Since this origin, it has taken on many other derivations and was finally adopted by Christianity. It has nothing to do with the Jesus character or his becoming a zombie after coming back from the dead.
Happy zombie Jesus day.
(7th post) Love those around you because it's the right and human thing to do!
