[It has come to my attention that the information presented in this article is incorrect; please see my more recent post Revisiting Easter for a more factual presentation.]
Today is Easter Sunday. Many hold it to be the day that Yehoshua ha’Mashiach/Jesus the Christ rose from the dead. It’s a festival full of bunnies, eggs, and chocolate. But is it actually so? As pointed out in my posts Pesach – The Feast of Passover and Matsot – The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Plus: Evidence for the Exodus), He was crucified and resurrected on those feasts – not on Easter. What is the origin of Easter and its customs?
Origin of Easter: From pagan festivals and Christianity to bunnies and chocolate eggs
On Easter Sunday, a bunny will deliver chocolate eggs to many households across Australia.
Have you ever wondered how this seemingly bizarre tradition came to be?
Well, it turns out Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity.
“Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times,” University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack said.
“The spring equinox is a day where the amount of dark and the amount of daylight is exactly identical, so you can tell that you’re emerging from winter because the daylight and the dark have come back into balance.
“People mapped their whole life according to the patterns of nature.”
Following the advent of Christianity, the Easter period became associated with the resurrection of Christ.
“In the first couple of centuries after Jesus’s life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals,” Professor Cusack said.
“Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion.”
Easter’s changing date
In 325AD the first major church council, the Council of Nicaea, determined that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.
That is why the date moves and why Easter festivities are often referred to as “moveable feasts”.
“There’s a defined period between March 25 and April 25 on which Easter Sunday must fall, and that’s determined by the movement of the planets and the Sun,” Professor Cusack said.
In most countries in Europe, the name for Easter is derived from the Jewish festival of Passover.
“So in Greek the feast is called Pascha, in Italian Pasqua, in Danish it is Paaske, and in French it is Paques,” Professor Cusack said.
But in English-speaking countries, and in Germany, Easter takes its name from a pagan goddess from Anglo-Saxon England who was described in a book by the eighth-century English monk Bede.
“Eostre was a goddess of spring or renewal and that’s why her feast is attached to the vernal equinox,” Professor Cusack said.
“In Germany the festival is called Ostern, and the goddess is called Ostara.”
Rabbits and eggs as ancient symbols of new life
Many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of spring eventually became absorbed within Christianity as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus.
“Eggs, as a symbol of new life, became a common people’s explanation of the resurrection; after the chill of the winter months, nature was coming to life again,” Professor Cusack said.
During the Middle Ages, people began decorating eggs and eating them as a treat following mass on Easter Sunday after fasting through Lent.
“This is actually something that still happens, especially in eastern European countries like Poland,” Professor Cusack said.
“The custom of decorating hard-boiled eggs or blown eggs is still a very popular folk custom.”
Rabbits and hares are also associated with fertility and were symbols linked to the goddess Eostre.
The first association of the rabbit with Easter, according to Professor Cusack, was a mention of the “Easter hare” in a book by German professor of medicine Georg Franck von Franckenau published in 1722.
“He recalls a folklore that hares would hide the coloured eggs that children hunted for, which suggests to us that as early as the 18th century, decorated eggs were hidden in gardens for egg hunts,” Professor Cusack said.
Commercialisation, confectionery and greeting cards
Commercialisation during the 19th century saw rabbits become a popular symbol of Easter with the growth of the greeting card industry.
“Postage services became affordable and people wanted to keep in touch with people,” Professor Cusack said.
“Card companies like Hallmark became big by launching images of cute little rabbits and Easter eggs on cards.”
The first edible Easter bunnies made from sugared pastry were made in Germany in the 19th century.
Big confectionery companies, like Cadbury in England, started manufacturing chocolate eggs.
“Chocolate that used to be something that’s bitter and drunk became something that was sweetened and turned into a confectionery treat,” Professor Cusack said.
“Easter eggs were one of the areas of marketing for chocolate.”
Today, chocolate eggs and egg hunts are a popular part of Easter celebrations around the world.
Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days after his crucifixion at Calvary. It is also the day that children excitedly wait for the Easter bunny to arrive and deliver their treats of chocolate eggs.
Easter is a ‘movable feast’ which is chosen to correspond with the first Sunday following the full moon after the March equinox and occurs on different dates around the world since western churches use the Gregorian calendar, while eastern churches use the Julian calendar.
Christian’s today celebrate Easter Sunday as the resurrection of Jesus. Image source .
Most historians, including Biblical scholars, agree that Easter was originally a pagan festival. According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives.
Resurrection as a Symbol of Rebirth
One theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.
According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. “Naked and bowed low” she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.
After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.
Dr Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”
The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, “Ishtar”. In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and the So Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian world.
Dr Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.
Easter as a celebration of the Goddess of Spring
A related perspective is that, rather than being a representation of the story of Ishtar, Easter was originally a celebration of Eostre, goddess of Spring, otherwise known as Ostara, Austra, and Eastre. One of the most revered aspects of Ostara for both ancient and modern observers is a spirit of renewal.
Celebrated at Spring Equinox on March 21, Ostara marks the day when light is equal to darkness, and will continue to grow. As the bringer of light after a long dark winter, the goddess was often depicted with the hare, an animal that represents the arrival of spring as well as the fertility of the season.
According to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, the idea of resurrection was ingrained within the celebration of Ostara: “Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the christian’s God.”
Most analyses of the origin of the word ‘Easter’ agree that it was named after Eostre, an ancient word meaning ‘spring’, though many European languages use one form or another of the Latin name for Easter, Pascha, which is derived from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.
Easter and Its Connection to Passover
Easter is associated with the Jewish festival of Passover through its symbolism and meaning, as well as its position in the calendar. Some early Christians chose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the same date as Passover, which reflects Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest Jewish period. Evidence of a more developed Christian festival of Easter emerged around the mid-second century.
In 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened a meeting of Christian leaders to resolve important disputes at the Council of Nicaea. Since the church believed that the resurrection took place on a Sunday, the Council determined that Easter should always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter has since remained without a fixed date but proximate to the full moon, which coincided with the start of Passover.
While there are distinct differences between the celebrations of Pesach and Easter, both festivals celebrate rebirth – in Christianity through the resurrection of Jesus, and in Jewish traditions through the liberation of the Israelites from slavery.
The Origins of Easter customs
The most widely-practiced customs on Easter Sunday relate to the symbol of the rabbit (‘Easter bunny’) and the egg. As outlined previously, the rabbit was a symbol associated with Eostre, representing the beginning of Springtime. Likewise, the egg has come to represent Spring, fertility and renewal. In Germanic mythology, it is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts.
The Encyclopedia Britannica clearly explains the pagan traditions associated with the egg: “The egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom of colouring and eating eggs during their spring festival.” In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolised the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates.
Relief with Phanes, c. 2nd century A.D. Orphic god Phanes emerging from the cosmic egg, surrounded by the zodiac. Image source .
So where did the tradition of an egg-toting Easter Bunny come from? The first reference can be found in a German text dating to 1572 AD: “Do not worry if the Easter Bunny escapes you; should we miss his eggs, we will cook the nest,” the text reads. But it wasn’t until the tradition made its way to the United States via the arrival of German immigrants, that the custom took on its current form. By the end of the 19th century, shops were selling rabbit-shaped candies, which later became the chocolate bunnies we have today, and children were being told the story of a rabbit that delivers baskets of eggs, chocolate and other candy on Easter morning.
In many Christian traditions, the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead, showing that life could win over death. For Christians, the egg is a symbol of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was placed, while cracking the egg represents Jesus’ resurrection. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross.
Regardless of the very ancient origins of the symbol of the egg, most people agree that nothing symbolizes renewal more perfectly than the egg – round, endless, and full of the promise of life.
While many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of Spring were at one stage practised alongside Christian Easter traditions, they eventually came to be absorbed within Christianity, as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox.
Whether it is observed as a religious holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or a time for families in the northern hemisphere to enjoy the coming of Spring and celebrate with egg decorating and Easter bunnies, the celebration of Easter still retains the same spirit of rebirth and renewal, as it has for thousands of years.
Top image: Spring Goddess (Nejron Photo / Adobe Stock)
While I of course disagree with the attempts to write off Yeshua’s death and resurrection as a recycle of old paganism, it’s a fact that Easter IS a recycle of old paganism and nothing Christian.
From Ishtar to Eostre, the roots of the resurrection story go deep. We should embrace the pagan symbolism of Easter
Hot cross buns: pagan symbols? Photograph: Alamy
Easter is a pagan festival. If Easter isn’t really about Jesus, then what is it about? Today, we see a secular culture celebrating the spring equinox, whilst religious culture celebrates the resurrection. However, early Christianity made a pragmatic acceptance of ancient pagan practises, most of which we enjoy today at Easter. The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a well worn story in the ancient world. There were plenty of parallel, rival resurrected saviours too.
The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. Even as late as the 4th century AD, the sol invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church had to overcome. Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother. Dionysus also brought his mum, Semele, back to life.
In an ironic twist, the Cybele cult flourished on today’s Vatican Hill. Cybele’s lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshippers and pagans who quarrelled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation. What is interesting to note here is that in the ancient world, wherever you had popular resurrected god myths, Christianity found lots of converts. So, eventually Christianity came to an accommodation with the pagan Spring festival. Although we see no celebration of Easter in the New Testament, early church fathers celebrated it, and today many churches are offering “sunrise services” at Easter – an obvious pagan solar celebration. The date of Easter is not fixed, but instead is governed by the phases of the moon – how pagan is that?
All the fun things about Easter are pagan. Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. Exchange of eggs is an ancient custom, celebrated by many cultures. Hot cross buns are very ancient too. In the Old Testament we see the Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders trying to put a stop to it. The early church clergy also tried to put a stop to sacred cakes being baked at Easter. In the end, in the face of defiant cake-baking pagan women, they gave up and blessed the cake instead.
Easter is essentially a pagan festival which is celebrated with cards, gifts and novelty Easter products, because it’s fun and the ancient symbolism still works. It’s always struck me that the power of nature and the longer days are often most felt in modern towns and cities, where we set off to work without putting on our car headlights and when our alarm clock goes off in the mornings, the streetlights outside are not still on because of the darkness.
What better way to celebrate, than to bite the head off the bunny goddess, go to a “sunrise service”, get yourself a sticky-footed fluffy chick and stick it on your TV, whilst helping yourself to a hefty slice of pagan simnel cake? Happy Easter everyone!
Easter, which celebrates the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, is a holiday actually based on an ancient Pagan ritual. Unlike most holidays, Easter does not fall on the same set date each year. Instead, Christians in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, Easter is celebrated each year between March 22 and April 25. The exact origins of Easter are unknown, but some sources believe that the word “Easter” is taken from the Teutonic goddess of fertility and spring – Eostre. Easter has also been traced to the Latin words Hebdomada Alba – meaning white week – referencing Easter week in which white clothing is worn by people who get baptized.
The Pagan ritual of the Spring Equinox is a celebration of renewed life and the change that comes with spring. This solar festival is celebrated when the length of the day and the length of the night are equal, which occurs twice a year at the spring and fall Equinox. Throughout history, this turn in the seasons has been celebrated by various cultures that had held festivals in honor of their gods and goddesses at these times of the year. Today, Pagans continue to celebrate spring and attribute the change of the seasons to the powers of their god and goddess – also portrayed as The Green Man and Mother Earth.
For Christians, Easter is associated with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ approximately 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Lent, a 40-day period that leads up to Easter Sunday, is a time of reflection that represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ had spent alone in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. At this time, Christians believe that he had survived many temptations by the devil. The day before Lent starts, known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, is a final celebration of fun and food before the fasting begins. The week before Easter is known at the Holy Week. It includes several important days, including Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the last supper, Good Friday, which honors the crucifixion day, and Holy Saturday, which is associated with the transition time between the crucifixion and resurrection.
People celebrate Easter according to their religious denominations and beliefs. On Easter Sunday, many children wake to find that the Easter Bunny has left them a basket of goodies, and that he has hidden eggs decorated earlier in the week. Children hunt for the decorated Easter eggs around their home, and many organizations hold Easter egg hunts for children in the neighborhood. The Easter Bunny, or “Easter Hare”, is a symbol of fertility, as rabbits have often multiple births. Roman beliefs state that all life comes from eggs. In Christian societies, eggs are considered to be a seed of life and are symbolic to Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
Easter remains one of the most popular religious celebrations in the world. In addition to the holiday’s religious significance, Easter also has a commercial side. This is evident in the mounds of marshmallow chicks and jelly beans that appear in stores at the start of every spring. Over the centuries, pagan traditions and folk customs from all over the world, including the Easter Bunny, candy, baskets, and Easter eggs, have become a standard part of this holy holiday.
Learn more about Easter and its origins with the following resources:
The Calculation of Easter: History of the Western calendar and information on Easter in the early Church, Alexandrian Easter and the medieval Easter table.
Questions and Answers About Easter: Learn more about Easter, where the name “Easter” comes from, the significance of the rabbit, and answers to other common questions about Eater.
Origin of Easter: Details about the origin of Eater and Pagan roots that date back to Genesis 6-9 of the Bible.
The Easter Season: Information on the origin and significance of Easter, including Easter colors, the Easter Vigil, and Easter symbols.
Wiccan/Pagan Holydays: Web page discussing the Vernal Equinox and Wiccan and Pagan holidays, such as Easter
History of Lent: Learn about the origin of Lent and if the church had celebrated Lent before the time of Easter.
The True Origin of Easter: In-depth article discussing the true origin of Easter and how rabbits and eggs became associated with the holiday.
Easter History and Traditions: Information on the history of Easter eggs, the Eater bunny, the Goddess Ishtar, and the First Resurrection.
Why Do We Have Eggs at Easter?: Web page on why we have eggs at Easter, what the first Easter eggs looked like, and various Easter egg customs.
The Easter Connection: Learn about the origins of Babylon and its connection to the Easter holiday.
Easter is an annual celebration observed throughout the world. However, there are absolutely no verses in the Bible that authorise or endorse the keeping of this tradition. Further – ever wondered what does eggs and rabbits have to do with Yahshua Messiah’s resurrection?
The Bible does not mention anything about Easter eggs, Easter baskets or Easter bunnies. Contrary, these were parts of the pagan rituals of the evil Religion of ancient Babylon and as the photo below shows, has a history of child sacrifice, notice the child being killed. When people fully understand the origin of “Easter”, they are usually very shocked, disgusted, horrified and disturbed.
So where did the tradition of celebrating Easter originate? Well there are a few theories. Some believe that Easter gets its name from “Eostre” or “Ostara”, which was a Germanic pagan goddess. (Notice the rabbit in the photo below). But even this theory has major problems, since there is no real evidence that anyone ever worshiped a goddess named Eostre—we have no shrines dedicated to Eostre, no altars of hers, and no ancient documents mentioning her.
Yet others believe it came from “Ishtar”, which was a god of sex and fertility, which may explain the eggs of fertility we see today at Easter time.
The truth is that these Easter festivals were initiated long before the birth, death, and resurrection of Yahshua Messiah. Ishtar was worshiped as the moon goddess, the goddess of spring and fertility. She is known by so many other names in other countries and cultures that she is often referred to as the goddess of one thousand names.
[Inanna is the Sumerian name of Ishtar, and definitely the most important one. Inanna was the granddaughter of Enlil, who in turn was Anu’s son. Anu was the highest ranking Anunnaki and his name translated “Great Sky Father”. Anu was revered as ‘god of the Heavens’ and he was the central figure of mankind’s first religion. According to the Sumerian tablets, he visited Earth twice]. There is a Babylonian Connection, (John 8:44, II Corinthians 11:14, 1 Peter 5:8) Ishtar – the Babylonian goddess – is the one for whom Easter is named. Ishtar is but another name for Semiramis – the wife of Nimrod. This post-Flood festival was part of the false religion Mystery Babylon and was started by Nimrod and his wife Semiramis (also known as Ishtar). They not only instituted the building of the Tower of Babel, they also established themselves as god and goddess to be worshiped by the people of Babylon. They are the co-founders of all the counterfeit religions that have ever existed. Nimrod was worshiped as the Sun god. He was worshiped in numerous cultures and countries under a variety of names: Samas, Attis, Uti, Merodach/Marduk, Ninus, Bel/Baal, Moloch, and sometimes as his sons name – Tammuz – the list is virtually endless. [He was also known as Dumuzi by the Sumerians and as RA by the Egyptians].
Millions of people are worshiping and praying to this pagan goddess called “Easter” today and celebrating “Easter” in her honour, and many of them do not realise they are being deceived by Satan!
The Babylonians celebrated the day of Ishtar as the return of the goddess of Spring – the re-birth or reincarnation of Nature and the goddess of Nature. Babylonian legend says that each year a huge egg would fall from heaven and would land in the area around the Euphrates River. Now you know why “Easter eggs” are part of Easter, and it has an evil disgusting and sickening origin.
[By the way, the Pope’s ceremonial clothes copy those worn by the ancient priests of Dagon, and not by coincidence. According to the Sumerian tablets, when the Anunnaki god Enki first arrived on Earth, he landed his space ship on water. He later emerged from water wearing his ‘scaly fish-suit’ (astronaut’s suit). Thousands of years later, the ceremony of the fish god was still celebrated in Akkadia, Assyria and Babylon, by the priests of Dagon… and it still is today].
In her yearly re-birth, Ishtar would break out of this egg and if any of those celebrating this occasion happened to find her egg, Ishtar would bestow a special blessing on that person. So now you know the origin of our modern-day tradition of Rabbits, Easter eggs and baskets and Easter egg hunts, that millions of deceived young children have been taught to do by their parents.
Other pagan rites that were connected with this celebration and which are part of our modern Easter tradition are Easter offerings to the “Queen of Heaven”(consisting of freshly cut flowers, hot buns decorated with crosses, and star-shaped cakes); new clothes to celebrate this festival (The pagan priests wore new clothes or robes and the Vestal Virgins wore new white dresses or robes and bonnets on their heads.); and sunrise services (to symbolically hasten the yearly arrival of Ishtar’s egg from heaven – the re-incarnation of the spring goddess).
Festivals for this goddess, were important parts for these pagan celebrations, which included the rabbit, red eggs, and gifts – all of which represented fertility. Easter is steeped in the Mysteries of ancient Babylon – an evil and idolatrous system.
Easter has connections to Satanic Ritual of Sacrificing Children!
Every year, the priests of Ishtar would impregnate young virgins on an altar dedicated to herself and her husband. The children were born on Christmas, and the next year they were sacrificed in the Easter’s Sunday at the sunrise service. The priests would take Ishtar’s eggs and dye them in the blood of the sacrificed children. Most people do not understand or realise this!!!
Children were – and still are – sacrificed in Satanic rituals. Satanism is the religious worship of the Anunnaki, and the human and animal sacrifices were/are part of their rituals.
If you’re finding it hard to believe, then here is an excerpt of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, which identifies Ishtar and her husband as the gods to whom children were sacrificed:
“(…) The identification of Hadad-Baal with Moloch provides the background to Jeremiah 32:35, which fulminates against the bamot-altars of Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom where male and female children were burnt to Moloch, i.e., Baal-Hadad. Furthermore, a series of Assyrian-Aramean documents analyzed by K. Deller showed that Adadmilki or Adadšarru (“Adad the king”) was actually the god to whom children, sometimes firstborn, were burned (see photo below).
“The Assyrian material sheds new light on II Kings 17 where Adadmelech (to be read instead of Adrammelech) is the god to whom the Sepharvites burn/dedicate their children (verse 31). Adadmelech in this verse stands next to Anammelech who has been correctly related by scholars to Anath who bears the title ‘Queen of Heaven,’ the standard term for Ishtar…). The pair Adad and Ishtar, or the ‘king’ and the ‘queen,’ are the ones to whom children are dedicated in the Assyrian-Aramean documents quoted above.” – The Cult of Moloch, Jewish Library;
…
Notice the fish-god priests conducting the ritual. Here below is a depiction of Ishtar.
The world’s traditional Good Friday to Sunday celebration account for Yahshua’s being in the heart of the earth for two nights and one day is actually not true! The story of Yahshua’s death, burial, and resurrection has been purposely distorted! There are absolutely no verses anywhere in the Bible that authorise or endorse the keeping of an Easter celebration. Further, the Bible says nothing about the practice of observing Lent, colouring Easter eggs, having Easter egg hunts, baskets of candy, bonnets – and so on…it’s simply NOT Biblical, in fact, it’s deceptive and Satanic! Easter has long been known to be a pagan festival and even America’s founders knew this. In the children’s book Easter Parade: Welcome Sweet Spring Time (pp 4-5) Steve Englehaty states:
“When the puritans came to North America, they regarded the celebration of Easter – and the celebration of Christmas with suspicion. They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter. (…) For the first 200 years of European life in North America, only a few states – mostly in the South – paid much attention to Easter.
“Not until after the Civil War did Americans begin celebrating this holiday… Easter first became an American tradition in the 1870’s… The original 13 colonies of America began as a Christian nation, with the cry of ‘No king but King Yahshua (Jesus). The nation did not observe Easter within an entire century of its founding.”
Most people accept evil and pagan and anti-biblical traditions as fact because they have been part of our culture for so long. Unfortunately, the truth however is, such traditions as “Easter” are dark, evil and nothing more than Pagan and Satanic rituals.
Even thought nobody can prove that the word Easter is etymologically related to the name of a pagan goddess such as Ishtar or Eostre, We at Yahweh’s House Ministries know for a Scripture fact that it does NOT have an origin in Bible, so we are disgusted, as you probably are now, when we learned these truths. We care about you and want you to know the truth, “Easter” is an evil tradition and must be repented off immediately and renounced!
The word “Easter” appears in the KJV translation, but in the Greek from which it is translated, it is ‘pascha’, and it means Passover, from the Hebrew word “Pesach”. Credible Scholars admit that this is an error in the KJV translation, and it only appears ONCE, at Acts 12:4. Luke didn’t put it there as “Easter”, he wrote it as “Pesach/Passover”. The KJV is the only one with this error, since translators have since corrected it in all other English translations for Acts 12:4.
The Christian Orthodox Priests and many Christian Pastors teach that having red eggs during Easter (ISHTAR) symbolise the burial and resurrection of the Messiah, and are a symbol of everlasting life. And when an egg hatches, life bursts out, breaking the seal of the eggshell, a reminder of the Messiah’s resurrection.
Also, they teach that their Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of the Messiah, with further symbolism being found in the hard shell of the egg symbolising the sealed Tomb of the Messiah, the cracking of which symbolised his resurrection from the dead.
HOWEVER, the problem with that teaching is that it is 100% FALSE and 100% ANTI-BIBLICAL and has ZERO Bible support. You can ask any Orthodox Priest and they will fail to show you biblical support for red dyed eggs!
The truth is that red eggs has an evil origin that later infiltrated into the Christian Orthodox Church.
Festivals for ISHTAR (Later renamed to EASTER) were important parts for these pagan celebrations, which included the rabbit, red eggs, and gifts – all of which represented fertility. Ask yourself, what does rabbits and eggs got to do with the resurrection of the Messiah? Answer: NOTHING, it’s all part of evil pagan child sacrifice!
Anyone who sincerely researches will learn that Easter has connections to Satanic Ritual of Sacrificing Children!
Every year, the priests of Ishtar would impregnate young virgins on an altar dedicated to herself and her husband. The children were born on Christmas, and the next year they were sacrificed in the Easter’s Sunday at the sunrise service. The priests would take Ishtar’s eggs and dye them in the blood of the sacrificed children. Most people do not understand or realise this!!!
So whenever you see red dyed eggs, just realise, their origin is NOT in Scripture, but rather in evil Pagan child sacrifice!!!
We urge all parents to immediately REPENT of partaking in this evil custom and not lead your children into sinning.
Yahshua said, “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” – Mark 7: 6-7
Please watch the following video for more:
And please watch this video which shows that Yahshua Messiah was not resurrected on SUNday as most of the world so deceptively teaches: (Please NOTE: We are not affiliated in any way with this speaker or his group.)
Well, if that’s true, I want nothing to do with it. An abomination worse than Halloween.
Origin Of Easter
Origin of Easter – A Christian Commemoration
The origin of Easter, a holiday associated with the observance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is actually based on an ancient pagan celebration. Christians recognize this day as commemorating the culminating event of their faith, but like so many other “Christian” holidays, Easter has become commercialized and mixed with non-christian traditions like the Easter Bunny, Easter parades and hunting for Easter eggs. How did this happen?
Origin of Easter – Its Pagan Roots
The origin of Easter dates back to ancient times, not long after the global Flood recorded in Genesis 6-9of the Bible. Nimrod, a grandson of Noah, had turned from following his grandfather’s God and had become a tyrannical ruler. According to the biblical record, as king, Nimrod created Babel, Ninevah, Asshur, Calla and other cities, all known for lifestyles that promoted unspeakable evil and perversion. When Nimrod died, his wife, Queen Semiramis, deified him as the Sun-god, or Life Giver. Later he would become known as Baal, and those who followed the religion Semiramis created in his name would be called Baal worshippers. They became associated with idolatry, demon worship, human sacrifice and other practices regarded as evil.
The origin of Easter involves the birth of Semiramis’ illegitimate son, Tammuz. Somehow, Semiramis convinced the people that Tammuz was actually Nimrod reborn. Since people had been looking for the promised savior since the beginning of mankind (see Genesis 3:15), they were persuaded by Semiramis to believe that Tammuz was that savior, even that he had been supernaturally conceived. Before long, in addition to worshiping Tammuz (or Nimrod reborn), the people also worshiped Semiramis herself as the goddess of fertility. In other cultures, she has been called Ishtar, Ashtur and yes, Easter.
The origin of Easter goes back to the springtime ritual instituted by Semiramis following the death of Tammuz, who, according to tradition, was killed by a wild boar. Legend has it that through the power of his mother’s tears, Tammuz was “resurrected” in the form of the new vegetation that appeared on the earth.
According to the Bible, it was in the city of Babel that the people created a tower in order to defy God. Up until that time, all the people on the earth spoke one language. The building of the tower led God, as recorded in Genesis 11:7, to confuse their tongues to keep them from being further unified in their false beliefs. As the people moved into other lands, many of them took their pagan practices with them.
Contemporary traditions such as the Easter Bunny and the Easter egg can also be traced back to the practices established by Semiramis. Because of their prolific nature, rabbits have long been associated with fertility and its goddess, Ishtar. Ancient Babylonians believed in a fable about an egg that fell into the Euphrates River from heaven and from which Queen Astarte (another name for Ishtar or Semiramis) was “hatched.”
Origin of Easter – Resurrection Day for Christians
For Christians, the origin of Easter is simply the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ about 2,000 years ago. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus Christ, the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Since that awesome event took place, those who believe Christ is their Messiah have honored that day and often celebrated it with the traditional Passover. As the Gospel of Christ spread throughout non-jewish nations, among people who did not have a history of celebrating the Passover, the pagan rites of Easter gradually became assimilated into what the Christian church called “Resurrection Day.” Compromising the commandments of God with the comfort of the world is as old as the nation of Israel itself. Actually, American history teaches us that Easter was dismissed as a pagan holiday by the nation’s founding Puritans and did not begin to be widely observed until just after the Civil War. Those interested in a Christian view of American history and the gradual compromise of America’s Biblical foundations may wish to read books such as The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.
I remember, when I was a kid, the fun we had at Easter. Most every year we would buy a dyeing kit from the grocery store and color hard-boiled Easter eggs many different shades and colors on the Saturday evening before Easter. Waking up on Easter morning and finding a large basket for each one of us kids, though not quite equal to the thrills of Christmas morning, was nevertheless exciting. Each basket would contain colored “grass,” usually green, and many colored eggs, which mom insisted we eat within the first day or so lest they should go bad. And lots of jelly beans. And small chocolate bunnies and candies. And the prize item – a large, sometimes solid sometimes hollow, chocolate Easter bunny.
We would also get dressed up special that day for church. The girls had brand new spring dresses and big hats. And I (as a small boy) dressed up in a suit and a hat. My dad would always want to take a picture of everyone dressed up and holding their Easter baskets full of the goodies. So we would line up on the front porch steps and pose with our best smile.
Sunday services that day were special, too. The church would usually be packed with all the regulars and the folks who, out of some sense of obligation, would show up only on Christmas and Easter. I guess they figured that it would be better to go at least a couple times a year than not at all. God would have to look at that act of righteousness with some sort of favor! After all, it was the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Or so we thought….
What we were doing was in line with a tradition which the Christian church had been doing for over 1600 years. Now that kind of long history is hard to argue with. We had supposed, in some moment of reflection, that even the apostles of Jesus had celebrated Easter, just like we were doing. Well, a little bit of research, coupled with a sobering realization that traditions are not always from our Creator, had proved us wrong in our assumptions. And shocking were the results of our investigation.
The celebration of Easter is not biblical after all! The Torah, Elohim’s [God’s] instructions to his covenant people, does not teach the celebration of Easter. Yahusha’ never taught his disciples to celebrate Easter. Nor did Sha’ul (the apostle Paul) or any of the other prophets, apostles or disciples in the Bible. The celebration of Easter is not in the Bible because it is not from our Maker!
Ishtar (Easter)
It’s not hard to find information about the customs of Easter. It turns out that Easter is an old pagan worship day which Yahuwah [The Lord] hates. Our modern day version of Easter is just a remake of some very ancient pagan traditions and practices. If the Christian would really think about the source of “Easter” he would most assuredly abhor it.
The word Easter is derived from the ancient name Ishtar, a pagan goddess and an abomination to our Creator. She is also known as Ashtarte in historical literature and as Ashtoreth in the Scriptures:
Shemuel said to all the house of Yisrael, “If you are really turning to Yahuwah with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign elohim and the images of Ashtoreth. Give your hearts to Yahuwah and serve only him. Then he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Yisrael removed the Baals and images of Ashtoreth. They served only Yahuwah. (1 Shemuel 7:3,4)
These “images” are referring to the idols and statues of Ishtar, the fertility goddess of the Philistines with large, bare breasts. The record of Shemuel refers to her again later:
Then they cried out to Yahuwah saying, ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken Yahuwah and have served the Baals and the images of Ashtoreth. Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’ (1 Shemuel 12:10)
There can be no doubt that the images, statues and idols of this offensive goddess of fertility was an offense to Yahuwah. Israel, in their rebellion against their Creator, worshipped this woman Easter. What makes the modern day Christian think that the festival honoring Easter (Ashtoreth) now brings a smile to Yahuwah’s face? The last time I looked, Elohim wants us to have nothing to do with the customs and practices of the pagans in worshipping their gods. He does not want us to worship him by using pagan days, dates, customs and practices. And this includes the festival which is in honor of Ashtoreth (Easter).
What’s Wrong with Easter?
Easter is filled with detestable practices, including the slaughter of innocent babies, which Yahuwah hates. John Michael Rood very succinctly tells us what’s wrong with Easter in his cut-to-the-chase, in-your-face, in-a-nutshell summation of that springtime festival:
The Saternalia originated as the birth date of Tammuz, the bastard son of Semiramis, the widow of Nimrod of biblical evil fame. After Shem cut Nimrod in pieces, Babylonian legend insists that he ascended into the heavens and became the sun god himself. The rays of the sun implanted the seed into his widow and presto! The son of the sun god was miraculously conceived, as was the adoration of the mother and child evident in every culture on the earth. On the winter solstice Tammuz was born; as were most of the traditions surrounding “the child-mass” season. Tammuz, the reincarnation of the sun god – Nimrod, was killed in a hunting accident when he was gored to death by a wild boar in his 40th year. Those who worshipped the son of “the sun god” then set aside 40 days of weeping for Tammuz. They celebrated “Lent” one day for each year of his incarnation – in which they would deny a worldly pleasure for his pleasure in the afterworld (see Ezekiel 8).
After many years, his mother Semiramis died. The gods looked favorably on “the mother of god” and sent her back to earth as the spring fertility goddess – always depicted as an exaggeratedly endowed bare breasted queen of sexual desire. Semiramis, the queen of heaven, was “born again” as the goddess Easter (Ashtarte) as she emerged from a giant egg that landed in the Euphrates river at sunrise on the “sun” day after the vernal equinox. To proclaim her divine authority, she changed a bird into an egg laying rabbit. As the cult developed, the priests of Easter would impregnate young virgins on the altar of the goddess of fertility at sunrise on Easter Sunday. A year later the priests of Easter would sacrifice those three-month-old babies on the altar at the front of the Sanctuary and dye Easter eggs in the blood of the sacrificed infants.
The forty days of Lent – or weeping for Tammuz, starts the Easter fertility season. The festivities culminate on Easter Sunday, when the priests of Easter slaughtered the “wild boar that killed Tammuz” and the entire congregation would eat the “ham” on Easter Sunday. (John Michael Rood, The Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8)
Yahuwah has told us that worship of this kind is completely unacceptable with Him. Yet, all of Christianity is caught up in the celebration of the resurrection of the son on Easter day. Little do most Christians know that the son, whose resurrection is celebrated on Easter, is Tammuz, not the Messiah of Scripture.
Elohim described the abominations that were going on by the priests and in the temple of those who worshiped Tammuz. The prophet Ezekiel was brought, in vision, into the temple of Yahuwah and was shown what abominable things were happening there:
Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.” Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of Yahuwah, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz. (Ezekiel 8:13,14).
The whole modern day season of Lent is the carry over of the 40 days of weeping for Tammuz. And Yahuwah hates this. Yahuwah hates all that is associated with the Easter season, especially when we try to pass it off as legitimate worship of the Master Yahusha’.
The Fish (Dagon It!)
Another aspect of the Easter season is the so-called “Good Friday.” This is believed by Christians to be the day that Christ died on the cross and was buried. Theologians do a lot of interpretive gymnastics to arrive at a Friday death of Messiah, followed by a Sunday morning resurrection. This flatly contradicts what the Messiah himself said about the length of time he would be in the grave. He specifically and repeatedly instructed his disciples that he would be in the tomb for three days and three nights.
So Friday was not, in fact, the day Messiah died. But it fits in really nicely with the activities which were traditionally practiced by the pagans on Friday. Thus, it’s convenient for Christians to force fit the death of Messiah into a “Friday” frame, because Friday and Sunday were significant days when the pagans practiced the worship of their god-idols.
Friday was the pagan day honoring the fish god Dagon. Scripture speaks of Dagon, the fish god:
The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their elohim and to celebrate. They said, “Our elohim has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.” (Shoftim 16:23)
And again,
The Philistines took the ark of Elohim and brought it to the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon. When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of Yahuwah. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place. But when they got up early the next day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of Yahuwah. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact. For this reason to this very day neither Dagon’s priests nor anyone else who enters Dagon’s temple step on Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod. (1 Shemuel 5:2-5)
Michael Rood continues his terse explanation of the Easter season by describing for us the pagan practice surrounding Dagon:
In later years “Good Friday”, the day that the Philistines sacrificed to Dagon, the Philistine fish god, also became an integral part of the Easter pageantry (if you are over 40 years of age, you will recall eating fish on Friday in the public school system in America). This entire menagerie of satanic festivities is the pinnacle of the abominations that God had pronounced to the Children of Israel before they entered the Promised Land. (John Michael Rood, The Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8)
During the time of the Messiah and afterward, Friday was well known in pagan circles to be a celebration of Dagon. And so, as the Scriptural practices of appointed times were being abandoned and the pagan sun-god and other deity worship began to get melded into the worship practices of followers of the Messiah, too, the blending of Dagon\fish-god worship into worship of the Messiah proceeded.
The Christian Church had adopted the pagan symbol of the fish. We all know how the third century “believers” took the symbol of the fish and used it as a representation of faith in Messiah (whom they called “Christ”). The justification goes something like this: The Greek word for fish, ivcqu,j, represents Christ because the letters which spell it also are the beginning letters of these words: the iota begins the Greek name of the Christ, Iaysous; the chi is the first letter in the Greek Christos (Xristos or “Christ”); the theta begins the word “theos” or “God”; the upsilon begins the word hwee-os (“son”); and the sigma represents “sotayr” or Savior. Thus, the reasoning goes, ichthus (“fish”) represents “Iaysous Xristos theos huee-os sotayr” – or “Jesus Christ God(‘s) son, (and) Savior.”
Of course, this is pure pig slop at its finest. The fish symbol really has nothing to do with the Messiah of Scripture. But in order to make palatable the fish god Dagon in “Christian” circles, the word “fish” had to be given a Christian meaning! And thus was born the adoption of the very pagan fish symbol and fish god into the worship practices of those who follow the Savior of the world.
[…]
What’s Wrong with Mixing Pagan Practices with the Truth?
Worship of the true Elohim must never be done in the same way that unbelievers worship their gods. The Scriptures are crystal clear about this:
Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship Yahuwah your Elohim in their way(Deuteronomy 12:1-4, mine).
You must not worship Yahuwah your Elohim in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things Yahuwah hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you;do not add to it or take away from it(Deuteronomy 12:31,32).
Yahuwah has made it simple to understand that he does not accept worship done the way that unbelievers worship their gods. He does not want his worshipers to add to or take away from his own prescribed way of worship. He must be worshiped in the way that he has revealed in his word.
Let’s leave all these pagan ritualistic practices, customs and traditions behind us. Let’s worship our Creator the way He instructs us to worship Him. Say “goodbye” to the Easter bunny, good Friday, fascination with “the fish” and all other such nonsense. Let’s worship the true and living Elohim by keeping His commandments.
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.” (Deuteronomy 18:9 ESV)
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Revelation 22:15 ESV)
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” (Hebrews 10:26-31 ESV)
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 ESV)
“When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. (Deuteronomy 12:29-32 ESV)
That last verse should particularly make you stop and think – because that’s exactly what Easter is! Taking pagan practices to honour their gods (and which apparently entailed human sacrifices), and “adapting” them for worship in order to win pagans (which is literally what the “church” did). And YEHOVAH never changes (Malachi 3:6, Numbers 23:19, Isaiah 40:8, etc).
(Of course, that’s only relevant if you’re a believer; if you’re not, this article is interesting history.)
Jesus Christ arose the day after the High seventh day of Passover, the day of First Fruits, I believe.:) We must go by the Jewish calender, not the Roman Calender..:))
First Fruits is the first Sunday in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which in the case of Yeshua’s year of death was in the middle of the feast. (I believe 🙂 )
Photo: Chocolate Easter treats now come in all shapes and sizes. (ABC Radio Canberra: Penny Travers)
J-M's History Corner 
You have shed light on the origin of Easter. I personally believe Christians should celebrate Passover.
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Agreed.
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Jesus Christ arose the day after the High seventh day of Passover, the day of First Fruits, I believe.:) We must go by the Jewish calender, not the Roman Calender..:))
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First Fruits is the first Sunday in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which in the case of Yeshua’s year of death was in the middle of the feast. (I believe 🙂 )
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Ty sweetie.:)
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