Easter
Easter is flippin' pagan nonsense!
Why do so many people take leave of their senses at this time of year? Suddenly they're falling in love with bunny rabbits and fluffy yellow chicks and becoming overwhelmed by a compulsion to buy lots more chocolate than normal - but only if it costs at least twice as much as normal and comes in the shape of an egg! What is going on?! Others will have gone further and deprived themselves of something they like for 40 days. They'll then go to church for the first time this year (the next time will be Christmas - but don't get me started on Christmas!).
I guess there are only 2 reasons why you might go bananas this Easter:
1. You're a sheep - and you blindly follow the rest of the flock. You've no idea what you're doing or why you're doing it. And you don't care. You'll buy your kids Easter eggs 'cos that's what everyone else is doing and you'll look like a meanie if you don't.
2. You believe it's a Christian celebration - and you might score Brownie points with the Great Brownie Point Reckoner in the sky.
I will not be celebrating Easter because: 1 - I am not a sheep, and 2 - Easter is anything but Christian. Let me explain:
Easter predates Christianity
Easter - the pagan celebration of fertility - can be traced back to Babylonian times. The 40 days abstinence of Lent was first observed by the Babylonians. Their goddess Astarte (Easter) was supposedly hatched from a giant egg and so the egg came to symbolise the goddess Easter. From here the customs spread to later pagan cultures around the globe.
Easter is the name of a pagan god!
Ishtar - another name for Semiramis, the Babylonian goddess - was pronounced the way we pronounce Easter today. Other versions include Ostera and Astarte. The Anglo-Saxons called her Eostre. They introduced the hare (the Easter Rabbit) as a further fertility symbol.
Nowhere in the Bible are we asked to celebrate Easter
The early church did not celebrate it. The Apostles did not celebrate it. In the entire New Testament there is not even a hint that we should set aside a day to commemorate Christ's resurrection. How can any so-called Christian church celebrate a blatantly pagan festival which bears the very title of a pagan god?!
I'll leave the last word with God Himself:
See that you do all I command you: do not add to it or take away from it Deuteronomy 12:32
...make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. Exodus 23:13