The Pagan Roots of Modern Christian Traditions
...ck. They were play-acting the part of evil spirits that had to be appeased, just as in the old Samhain festival the people believe they really did have to appease spirits. In the 700s AD the Church decided to combat this festival by replacing it with a celebration of the Lord of life. Instead of honoring evil spirits and the souls of the dead, the church chose to recognize the saints or hallowed ones who had lived godly lives. The Church seemed to be saying, "All right, if you must have a day to celebrate the dead, then celebrate those who died [in] the Lord." So November 1st came to be called All Saints' Day, also called All Hallows' Day. The evening before was called All Hallows' Evening. From that we get the modern name of Halloween. The celebration of Easter day, attributed by the Christian church as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, is a holiday adopted by modern Christianity that has no biblical origin or instruction. The word Easter is from the Anglo-Saxon Oestre or Eoster and the German ostern. Ostara was an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. She was called "goddess of the morning light," or "goddess of the return of the sun." The fourth month of the year, corresponding to our April, was dedicated to her worship, and was called Eosturmonath. The worship of Ostara was derived from that of Baal, Ashtaroth, Ishtar, Astarte, Tammuz, etc. These were sun deities, the worship of which extends back through all pagan history. The early Britons were sun-worshipers, so that the veneration of Ostara in their experience had a very direct relationship to the worship of the heavenly bodies. For long ages, antedating the Christian era, the pagans celebrated a great annual spring festival in honor of the sun, under the name of Tammuz. When the sun returned in the spring of the year, bringing new life and causing vegetation to revive, a great feast of rejoicing was held. The worshipers decked themselves with evergreen and flowers, and engaged in parade and gorgeous display. The worship of Tammuz, as was all sun-worship, was the worship of nature, the worship of life or reproduction. Hence this worship was attended with lascivious rites. In consequence the egg came to be used as the most fitting symbol of this nature worship. The pagans also believed that Astarte, one of the sun deities, was hatched from a large egg which fell down from heaven. Preceding the Tammuz festival, the pagans celebrated a fast of forty days. This was a time of lamenting and weeping. Surrounded by these conditions, and receiving into its communion half-pagan converts, the church of the third and fourth centuries became leavened with heathen superstitions. There was developed a marked spirit to cater to the prejudices and customs of their heathen associates, hoping thereby to win the favor of the unconverted, and bring them within the fold of the church. Expediency rather than principle became the controlling motive. A tendency was manifested in the church to perpetuate the old Passover celebration with special reference to its Christian signification in the sacrifice of Christ. This was called the Pasch service or festival, and occurred at the same season of year as the heathen festival. Seizing upon this spirit of celebration as a pretext to bring about closer concord between professed Christians and the heathen, the work of transformation was insidiously entered upon. Pagan temples were re-consecrated as Christian churches, and little by little the church sought to make its services conform to the spirit of heathen celebrations. In this way the heathen festival of Tammuz was taken, and on the pretext of commemorating the resurrection of the Lord, it was transplanted to the Christian church. This was a transformation in name only; the character of the festival was but little changed. It was still celebrated with display and ostentation. The flower and evergreen adornment was retained, as was also in various ways the employment of the pagan symbolic egg. Even the annual tradition of Valentine’s Day, while not celebrated as a direct religious celebration, was also originally a pagan practice before the church turned it on its ear and made it its own in an attempt to stamp...