Fradam

.. and what have you done? Hang on, wrong song. Similar idea though, given that yesterday I was queried regarding the origins of Easter, and my thoughts on it. Some people find it odd that I do not see it as the time to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection - similar to the reaction to my feelings on the origins of Christmas - especially as I make no secret of being a Christian.
Let’s start with the etymology, as that might lead to more answers - turning to the all powerful centre of knowledge, Wikipedia.

The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Eastre, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to the goddess Eostre, who was celebrated at the Spring equinox, and has cognates in Old High German ōstarūn, plural, “Easter” (modern German language Ostern). The Old English term Eastre ultimately derives from ēast - meaning the direction of east. This suggests it originally referred to a goddess associated with dawn. Corresponding traditions occur with the Roman goddess Aurora and the Greek goddess Eos.

So, Easter as a word, has it’s origins in a West Germanic goddess known as Eostre - not too dissimilar in concept to Roman and Greek contemporaries.

What about Easter itself as a festival, or a time of celebration? Well, the way Easter is calculated is based upon the vernal/spring equinox - a day upon which the day and night time hours are approximately equal. Unsurprisingly, this mystic equality led to much revelry amongst other religions at the time - the Wicca for example would partake in a Sabbat about that time. The Christianising of Europe was a process of merging these kinds of festivals so that integration was an easier process. So from a timeline point of view - well, it is coincidental that it marries up well with other festivals of the time - not dissimilar to Christmas.

What about the actual religious / spiritual significance? Much like Christmas, the word Easter is missing from the Bible (you probably would realise this based upon the etymology above), but the idea of acknowledging the death of Christ and celebrating the resurrection? That idea surely isn’t that bad, and actually would be spiritually ‘healthy’, to be reminded of what he died for and such. Well, I agree - which is why I partake in that each week already!

Having said all that, much like Christmas, I do appreciate what Easter provides us now - a time to spend with family (due to public holidays!), the chance to engage in over-commercialisation of chocalata (which we all know is the -real- significance of Easter), and those bread.. things.. with little crosses on them…!

So go on .. have one!

There are two questions commonly asked of me around this time of the year:

1. Fradam, how did you get so tall!?

2. Fradam, why don’t you celebrate Christmas like everyone else?

The answer to at least one of these questions is simple: drink lots of milk.

The other question however, is vastly more complex, primarily arising from most people being aware that I am a Christian, yet don’t seem too big on what many suppose to be the biggest Christian celebration around. But how Christian is Christmas? On a purely aesthetic level, yes, they share many of the same letters, but it is a bit more than that

As a Christian, I believe in what is in the Bible: which Christmas is not. Surprised? I hope not! Christmas is an amalgamation of many different cultures’ celebrations: Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, Yule, mid-winter night and the winter solstice. Between these, glory was given to the Roman Gods Saturn and Sol, the Syrian God Elah-Gabal, the Persian God Mithras and the Norse Gods Thor and Odin. It’s promotion into the Christian world was fuelled by Catholicism and the merging of pagan practices into less pagan equivalents. This is not particularly new knowledge — there was a lot of rioting and fighting about this in England and the US in the past few hundred years.

Ofcourse, that is what Christmas is technically defined to have originated from, but is that what Christmas is? Many would argue that Christmas is what you make of it, and that it means whatever you want it to mean — it can be a religious thing, it can be a secular thing, it can be a family thing, it can be a communal thing. Not everyone celebrates it the same way, and yet all are valid, right?

With my family, we take advantage of the fact that nobody is at work and can actually spend a degree of time with each other. It is not a religious acknowledgement of Christ’s supposed birth day. There’s rarely a tree. No candy cane, or stockings. It is simply time spent with those closest, those that are loved the most, with the joy of giving. Is that a form of Christmas? Well… considering the above thoughts, I suppose it is. Might not be the same as everyone, but it’s something

So on that note: Merry Christmas everyone!