the Eostre cult

Eostre, "goddess of Dawn"


According to Bede (c. 672 - 735), "Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eostre


Another symbol sacred to Eostre is the Hare, which eventually became the Easter bunny of today. In the cult of Eostre, the hare was a symbol of fertility, a common tradition amongst Anglo-Saxon speakers.

The Christian church eventually took over the festival of Eostre, incorporating ancient customs into early Christianity. As the festival of Eostre was about celebrating life and re-birth, the Christians found it easy and convenient to exchange Eostre for their own symbol of re-birth, the resurrected Christ, while retaining the name Eostre or Easter.

http://myths.allinfoabout.com/feature64.html


Eostre worship consisted of: Ostern Hare, Ostara eggs, the Ostara sword, and hilltop ceremonies at dawn.


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What the early Church fathers accomplished by inserting the spring equinox into the calculation of the date of pascha was to cut the Passover loose from its moorings in Scripture and move it to the date of pagan Eastre.

Whether accidently or by intent, you decide.

 

Wopik,

I'm having trouble understanding what you're trying to do in this board. Are you trying to bring about some sort of an online reformation, or something?

Easter is a name. A word. That's all. It's a name given to a Christian celebration of Christ's death and ressurection. The notion that it's name is tied in with some alleged pagan Goddess does not make it evil.

Jesus was a common name around Christ's birth. Does that take anything away from him? Absolutely not. Names are just that. Names. What did God tell Moses to tell Pharoah when he went to him? That I AM sent him right? Does that make sense? Yes. Because God is the one and only true God. The word GOD is not his name. It's simply a word we use to address him. He doesen't have a name in the human sense. The word GOD was used of all sorts of pagan religions (and still is). Does that take away from God? They're just names, Wopik. Words.

---Justin

 

I see virtually no similarities in the Christian celebration of Easter.

---justin

 

YES..one has to wonder what is up with some of these post.

Yet..I will reply without reading the links.

One day of the year is just like any day of the year, until we place value on it. Its not what others have done with a day, or name for that matter, It is more what do we do that counts.

Case in point..halloween. Some run from this day and say it is the day of the devil...very evil. I say, why give any day to the devil. Why let him take a perfectly made day, made my God, and let the "evil one" have his way. On the day others call halloween I can call Oct 31st and can praise my God as well as any other day. If you give Oct 31st to the devil by saying it is that day that he trys to do this that and the other..a evil day...then he will glady take it. He wins..and you loss your joy....and fear wins over Gods love that has more power then a name of a day.

Easter no matter how it was used in the pass....how it is used today by some....or what the word comes from...matters little. what matters is what you do with that day...just as any other day. What does Easter mean to you?


In Christ...James

 

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and I trust you will all attend church and bring home the palm leafe the vicar passes out to begin Easter Week. We will have morning prayer services at the church each morning at 7:AM and on Friday we will fast and prayer to remember Christ as He suffered on the cross for us. On Sunday, Easter Sunday, we shall carry an empty cross through the village streets to show the world that Christ is risen. We celebrate a living Christ. That is what Easter means to me. Call it what you will.

Cheers, and God bless,

Jim

 

There is nothing wrong with traditions if done in the right way. Traditions can add much to worship and help teach very good truths and great value to children. I practice many tradtions with my family. For years our family would get up early on Good Friday and go down to the river to eat breakfast. This was not a “fun” time, for most of the time it was kind of cool and a few times snowing. We cooked out…and ate. We did this …with this thought in mine…..What mind frame was the apostles in, the next morning after Christ death. What He had taught them about Johan being in the belly of a fish 3 days…and the building of the temple in 3 days..had not been completely understood by them. They were not sure what to do…what to say to each other…or where to go. The Christ they had followed…was put to death. NOW WHAT?

I feel like most of them went back to the Sea of Galilee, because this is what some of them did for a living. In that day…fishermen would gather by the Sea of Galilee and have breakfast together before they went out to sea. Others in the towns near by would join them. This is why I had my family do this. We eat…looked at the river..and said very little telling our girls to think about Christ and his death. We then prayed and thanked God for sending His Son to die for our sins.

We also sang..
”At the cross…at the cross…where I 1st found the light….and the burdens of my heart rolled away….

And…

On a hill…far away…stood a old rugged cross…

We had many other tradtions at Christmas to many to tell at this posting. The bad thing that can happen with traditions is that they can be looked at as being holy…or things that must be done in order to be holy. I always took the time to tell my girls that this was something that WE (mom and dad) did to remember what Christ did for us…and someday they MAY want to do this…or they may want to do other things. I told them…whatever you end up doing..make show it is for the right reasons. Traditions are not to be looked at as being a holy thing to do.

For Easter as a young boy, we always bought new suits. My dad said we did this, for Christ gave us a chance to have a NEW life in Him. My new suit was teaching me about a new life in Christ..being pure…and clean from ALL sin.

Anyway..Those are my thoughts on this. I would love to hear from others what they remember about Easter past.


In Christ…James

 

Are you sure you weren't just barbequing chickens? Offerings for Eoster, the dreaded Goddess of dawn?!? :D

---Justin

 

I just refer to it as Resurection Day, because that is what happened on that day.

I agree with Wopik, it origionally started because somebody wanted to incorperate the worship of the goddess Eostre, (or Ishtar, as some call her), into the Christian observance of the rising of the body of Christ. And it worked.

But we don't have to give up the day, just call it by it's rightful name.

:D

Peace,

Tam

 

On Easter Sunday, I will celebrate the resurrection of Christ and not some pagan goddess of the dawn. The days of the week are named after pagan deities. For example, Thursday is Thor's Day, the Norse god of thunder. Very few people still worship the Norse gods. Should we change the days of the week because of that? I think not.

 

Easter is a pagan holiday observed by "nominal" Christians. The origins can be traced to the days of Nimrod.

Easter Sunday is a double pagan "whammy". Some call it Resurrection Sunday. If one checks the chronology of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, one will find that He was not crucified on a Friday, but rather a Wednesday. He arose three days and nights later--Saturday.

The scripture says He was gone when the women arrived at the tomb on the dawn of the first day of the week--Sunday.

So we have the traditions of men, mostly pagan in origin--of course, they are probably sincere. The question is: Does God accept pagan idolatry? Now what?

You decide.

Selah,

Bro. James

 

it's interesting, but no one in the NT celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. He is Risen. We do not need a season or a day to remind us. He lives within us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Do we not repent daily of our sins? in that moment, does not the sacrifice of Jesus remind us of what He did? why do we need to "suffer" a day to remind us in sackcloth and ashes?

Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of Me. Say what? When you eat this bread and drink this cup, you remember My death til I return. Very simple, very clear.

 

Happy Easter to one and all.

God bless,

Jim

 

Bro. James...nice name.

Does your church even have a piano and organ or is this allowed?

In Christ...James

 

Worship with or without musical instruments--we do have a piano--we have functioned without a piano. Make a joyful noise to the Lord.

Now what?

Selah,

Bro. James

 

You know what? I think all of this anti-easter & Christmas rhetoric is because some people are so afraid of looking like a Catholic they will bad mouth the name of a holiday, just so they can prove to all their anticatholic buddies that they are good little anticatholics.

All of this is absolute garbage dreamed up by anticatholic bigots who want to make catholics and other christians look like pagans and themselves personally as the only "real" christians. I for one am sick of it. Get a life people nobody in the Christian church will be celebrating some pagan diety on Easter.

 

You can "trace" piano's and organs being 1st used outside of the Church. Does this boughter you, being you trace Easter to pagan days?

Organs were used 1st in bars and in side shows. Even today we see piano's in bars and used buy wicked rock bands. Does this tie to the world in its evil ways boughter you?

The internet has been shown to by many as the number one tool to get porn. Also, Message boards such as the one you just left a post on, have been tied to those sick people trying to get to our kids. Does it boughter you that there are ties to evil ways and even sin with the internet and yet you use it to post your thoughts?

If these things do not boughter you, for it is the way in which YOU yourself use the piano, organ, and internet that matters then why would it matter how others used Easter EVEN IF IT WAS WRONG in the past, if they use it to bring glory to God?


In Christ..James

 

I think it is deeper....
Its called living in fear. If we live by the law, we live in fear of the law and the law keeps growing and growing as more and more things get linked to the law. This is the ways of the OT and this is what happened to the jews. In the NT grace is to rule our life and remove fear as we rest in Christ not our works. Living under the law our joy can only come if WE do something. Yet under grace our joy is in Christ.

Just as you see above, people pick and choose what laws they want.

In Christ....James

 

I think P Jensen made a good study on this in his book Cosmologie der Babylonier.

I have no doubt that the Easter or Eostre was originated from paganism, even though it may be used by some true believers without understanding what is really means.

http://www.cwru.edu/univlib/preserve/Etana/JAST.REL/JAST.REL721.738.pdf#search='P%20Jensen%20Cosmologie%20der%20Babylonier'


I wonder why People do not like to call the day of Resurrection as Resurrection Day or Day of Resurrection, instead of calling it as Easter Day.

We should not celebrate the day in the name of Easter or Eostre, the pagan goddess.

God is neither glorified nor mocked in that way.

[ April 10, 2006, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Eliyahu ]

 

We already dealt with this paganism:

http://www.yahweh.com/booklets/EASTER/easter.htm

http://www.ldolphin.org/ishtar.html

http://www.retakingamerica.com/easter_and_ishtar.html

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

http://deoxy.org/gaia/goddess.htm

http://www.av1611.org/kjv/easter2.html

http://www.dragonrest.net/histories/ishtar.html

http://www.ishtartemple.org/sacredIshtar.htm

http://www.ishtartemple.org/history.htm

 

Happy Easter, everyone!