Springtime, Easter, a truly magical time when the Earth seems to reawaken from the cold depths of winter.
The early peoples didn’t have a calendar and the ones who were smart and observant enough to figure out the wheel of the year, the passing of the seasons, were the ones in power.
The pagans were not, as far as history tells us, driven by greed. They were in tune with the environment.
AD 365, Emperor Constantine in the dying days of the then far-flung Roman empire, had to decide how to win over the scattered populations of Great Britain. He decreed that the Roman Empire will declare one religion, that was to replace the many religions of the various Roman “tribes.” (The most famous was the warrior God, Mithras).
He chose one of the many varieties of Christianity that existed at the time (one variety, the “Pelagians” were also Christians but were hunted and persecuted for hundreds of years).
He has a brilliant idea! Place the Christian holy days upon the same days as the extant pagan holy days!
Eventually the people would blend the two together and the cause would be won! It worked.
So, almost 2,000 years later, we have the pagan holy day, “Yule”, becoming “Christmas,” All Hallow’s Eve” becoming Hallowe’en, and “Oestre” becoming Easter.
Eggs and bunny rabbits are pagan symbols of fertility, they have nothing to do with Christianity.
According to Roman scriptures, Mithras died and was buried in a tomb. His body disappeared at Oestre when the maidens who were given the task of ministering to the body found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
Remind you of a Christian story?
Emperor Constantine has more to do with modern Christian stories than most of us know.
Chocolate was discovered later!
David Mathias
Red Deer