Today even as the world is celebrating Good Friday and soon will be celebrating Easter, it becomes quite important to understand the pagan origins of these Christian festivals.
The question that
we need to ask is – “Are these really Christian in nature or were they copied
from much earlier pagan religions of the world, particularly Middle - East?”
So let’s begin our
fascinating journey into hidden and long forgotten ancient world, its religions
and its shocking connections with modern Christianity.
Easter story comes
from an ancient Sumerian legend called “The Descent of Inanna” according to which G-d Damuzi (Tammuz) dies his wife Inanna (Ishtar) is grief–stricken and
follows him to the underworld.
In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her clothes are 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.
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| Inanna's Decent |
In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her clothes are 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 G-d 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.
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| Goddess Ishtar |
After the six
months, Tammuz returns to the
underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water
G-d to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.
Ishtar is known as Astarte,
and her counterparts in the Greece and Rome are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In
the 4th Century, when Christians assumed a particular site in Jerusalem to be
an empty tomb of Jesus where a temple of Aphrodite
(Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) was standing, they torn it down and that’s how Church
of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian
world.
The most commonly practiced
customs on Easter Sunday relate to the symbol of the Rabbit (‘Easter bunny’) and the Egg. As per Encyclopedia Britannica:
“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.”
“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.”
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| Roman Goddess Cybele |
In Rome, the Cybele cult flourished. 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 after three days. He gets resurrected
each year during March 22 - March 25, at the time of the vernal equinox.
There was violent
conflict on Vatican in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus
worshippers and pagans who quarrelled over whose God was the true, and who is the
imitation.
Hot cross buns so
popular today 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.
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| Easter Eggs |
So the final
riddle that needs to be unravelled is why was this Spring Equinox so much celebrated?
Astronomically
speaking during this spring equinox (March 21th ) tilt of the
Earth’s axis is neither away from nor towards the Sun, but completely parallel,
resulting in a night and day length that are the same.
From here onwards
as the year progresses the days get longer and longer. Meaning Goodness and
Righteousness begins to conquer Cold and Darkness.
So Earth’s tilt is
parallel to Sun is picturized as a Saviour who died for atonement of sins of
Mankind to bring them in the glory and righteousness of God i.e. make them
stand in front of God (Making both parallel to each other).
By the act of
Sacrifice the mythical figure called Jesus did the balancing act, by balancing
the two sides of Weighing Scale and bringing them at par with each other i.e.
Making Men stand in front of G-d, enter kingdom of heaven through the
sacrificial act on cross.
In conclusion,
Christianity is nothing just a collection of pagan rituals and practices which
it cleverly copied from its predecessors.
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