June 27th, 2010 | 
Author: The Internet has opened up a lot of knowledge to the everyman and this is something that organized religions really don’t like. The problem they have is keeping the real truth hidden from their members while continuing to promote their own truth without letting the proverbial cat out of the bag.
Easter, now called Resurrection Sunday in many branches of the Christian faith, is a good example of this. There is no reference to Easter in the early Christian writings, nor can it be found anywhere in the Bible. That’s because it wasn’t originally a Christian holy day (holiday). It was, in fact, an early pagan celebration, the name of which is traced back to Eastre, the Teutonic goddess of Spring.
Christians took over the festival in part to give their own congregations something to do so as they wouldn’t follow the old pagan traditions and in part because they needed some sacred event to celebrate at that time of year. The contemporary mix of Calvary, resurrection, and a bunny who delivers painted eggs, is a blending of the two rituals. It was always interesting to see how the church tried to explain the rabbit thing.
We have a local Methodist church that holds a Saturday fund-raising event each year they call Carnival. They also hold a tailgate-style trick or treat event in the church parking lot to provide a kid-safe Hallowe’en. If the little old ladies who organize these events only knew the real origins of the terms they might think twice about continuing them. Carne vale (farewell to meat — or, perhaps, more accurately farewell to flesh) is not really about giving up meat for Lent!
Ain’t religion fun?