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Eostre and Spring: Is Easter a Christian Holiday?

April 10, 2021 The Rational Heathen Comments 0 Comment

Every year about this time, Heathens, pagans, and those who don’t celebrate the Christian holiday of Easter are quick to point out that Easter isn’t a Christian holiday; yours truly included. But I do wish to address Easter as a Christian holiday, even if it has taken its name and customs from pagan celebrations.

Easter as a Christian Holiday

I’m talking about Easter first as a Christian holiday so we can distinguish between the Christian holiday and a pagan celebration. Despite the name, Easter, the holiday has its roots in the Jewish celebration of Passover.

If you’ve ever watched The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, you know that Passover celebrates the flight of the Israelites from the Pharaoh’s oppression as described in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. Never mind that archaeologists are pretty sure that the pyramids were built by paid labor and not slaves. Furthermore there are no records by the Egyptians of Israelites in Egypt, let alone slaves.

Jesus purportedly entered Jerusalem for the week of Passover, which, for his troubles, ended up getting him nailed to a cross.

Why Easter is Primarily Christian

Now, before we go into all the pagan traditions surrounding Easter, I’m going to point out that despite my dislike of Christianity and its destruction of paganism, pagans can only superficially claim Easter because it is around the Vernal Equinox. The whole fairy tale of the “purportedly magic Jew” rising from the dead after being crucified is more or less their shtick. It happens around the time of Passover, which is based on the Book of Exodus in the Bible.

I can hear you saying “But Tyra, what about the other resurrection myths? What about the celebrations of Dionysus and Osiris? What about Beltane? And what about Odin hanging from Yggdrasil for nine days?” Yeah, yeah. All that is true and chances are the Christians stole the ideas from pagans, but the whole bullshit celebration of Easter is undoubtedly theirs. They wove the pagan stories together to fit their religion and there you have it, a Christian story.

Nothing is particularly new with the Jesus story. There have been many instances in religion of gods becoming men or appearing to be men. There are many instances of gods being crucified or hanged from trees. And there are plenty of instances of men or gods rising from the dead and becoming more powerful. The Jesus story is just a narrative that puts those elements together in a one god, Christian fashion.

But Easter is Pagan! Right?

Easter isn’t as pagan as Christmas. Sure, it takes elements from various beliefs and spins them into a story that has both familiar and new elements present. The story uses archetypes that are ingrained in our psyches. But it is a Christian story. Why? Because it doesn’t quite mimic any other pagan myth out there.

Before Easter, pagans may have celebrated the equinoxes, although the solstices seem to be more popular for obvious reasons. Imbolc was the Celtic version of Entschtanning (celebrated by those in Urglaawe) also known as Grundsaudaag, which happened around the first or second of February, which we now celebrate as Groundhog’s Day. Beltane was the Celtic version of Mayday, which celebrated the beginning of summer. As Heathens, we really didn’t have an Equinox celebration, as far as I know.

Although St. Bede mentions the Anglo Saxon month of Eostre, which is named after Eostre/Ostara, we know very little about Eostre. She had a feast day around the same time as Easter, which probably made the whole Christ thing more palatable. The fact that Eostre gave Easter its name is probably one more way the Christian church co-opted Pagans.

What About the Pagan Trappings Around Easter?

Sure, Easter took on the pagan trappings of Eostre/Ostara. No bunnies were visiting Christ on the cross, as far as we know. And while eggs are purported to be the symbol of rebirth among the Jewish peoples, I haven’t done enough research into that to back that up. But you can read about my opinions, Was Easter Appropriated? HERE.

Ignoring Easter

This year I nearly forgot about Easter except my husband had the day off. And to be point-blank honest, I was more concerned about avoid talking to my Christian family that day instead of anything special. So, our dinner was stir-fry venison. Because that’s a proper Eostre dish. I’m just saying…

This doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate Eostre bunnies and stuff yourself full of Cadbury eggs. The whole candy thing was a 19th century invention anyway to give candy makers a boost, so it’s not religious at all. Personally, I’m good with any holiday that promotes candy.

Chickens and Nazis, or maybe, Chicken Nazis

May 22, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

Lately I’ve been reading about how the Nazis and the White Supremacists have been joining and

changing Heathen and Asatru groups. Quite frankly, I just don’t get it.

Let’s Talk Chickens

Apparently folks here like to hear about the cluckers, so let me tell you a story. My mom would only eat white eggs (true story). She thought the brown eggs tasted funny. She was pretty sure there was something wrong with the brown eggs, because they were brown and not white. Try as I might to convince her otherwise, she hated brown eggs.

When my coworker sold chicken eggs from his farm, the eggs were brown. I bought the eggs and enjoyed them. My mom wanted fresh eggs, but I told her he only had brown eggs. She was disappointed. She actually told me to tell him to get chickens that laid white eggs.

My coworker told me that egg color had to do with the breed of chicken (back before I had my own flock). He explained that most white egg layers were leghorns. He considered leghorns to be flighty and aggressive, so he didn’t have them. Instead, I believe he had Rhode Island reds, which he thought were more docile. (I actually think they can be a pain, too, but that’s my opinion.)

I told my mom this, but she never ate a brown egg if she could help it. As a result, she didn’t get farm fresh eggs.

People versus Chickens

Obviously people aren’t chickens, but there’s a good point here. Whether you eat brown eggs, white eggs, green eggs, or blue eggs, they’re all from chickens and they all taste good if they’re fresh. I tend to like the blue/green eggs because they’re cool looking, but I’ll eat brown and white eggs too. Oh, and I have chickens that lay chocolate colored eggs. Those are the coolest to see.

Now, granted people aren’t chicken eggs, but the prejudice is similar enough to talk about. It’s about judging by the outside wrapping. You can’t look at an egg by the color and say it is a great tasting egg. You can’t point to a brown egg and say it is better than a white egg because it it brown. Likewise, you can’t point to a white person and say he or she is better than a black person just by the color of their skin.

Apparently, Some People Don’t Get It

Race is a construct. We’re all humans under the skin. We’re mostly Homo Sapiens mixed with Neanderthal and Denisovian. We may have genetics from a third race (race in the true sense) running around in us. And you know what? Only those who are purely from African roots are pure Homo Sapiens. Surprise!

So, if you’re a white person, you’ll find you are not only not a race, but you’re a mutt as well. There isn’t anything special about that white skin, except that those of us with lighter pigment needed it to absorb more of the sun’s rays to produce enough Vitamin D to avoid rickets. Gee, using color is really a great way to determine worthiness of an individual. NOT!

My Experience with Nazis

When I was growing up, no one except the fringe lunatics would ever consider joining the Nazi cause. Hitler’s Germany was a totalitarian government. He oppressed people, including his own people. Hitler and his Nazis tortured and murdered millions. And he started an incredibly horrible and costly war that involved most of the civilized world.

I was born less than 20 years after that war, which probably puts me on the end of the Baby Boomer generation. My dad joined the Army when he was 17. He was in Germany after the war and got to see the horror of the concentration camps and the overall devastation. He was also in Japan in the late 50s.

I grew up knowing full well that Hitler and his Nazis were evil. It is no secret, which is why it puzzles me that anyone would be attracted to those beliefs.

Uh, You Weren’t Even Born Then

A lot of white supremacists weren’t even born during the time Hitler rose to power, let alone experienced the Third Reich for themselves. Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power because of the terms of surrender enforced on the Weinmar Republic after World War I. We could argue all day whether the Treaty of Versailles actually caused Hitler’s rise to power and World War II, but that’s not really the point of this piece. If you were born after 1945 and claim to be a Nazi, I’d asked with all sincerity, “What the fuck?” You weren’t affected by the war personally. Maybe your grandparents were, or great-grandparents, but seriously? It’s HISTORY. Most WWII veterans are dead. Most people who lived through it are either dead or in nursing homes.

Nobody has Held you Down

One of the things I really don’t get about white supremacists is the thought that other ethnicities (often called incorrectly, “races”) are inferior and that somehow they’ve held the white man down. Seriously? Let’s address the holding the white man down idea first.

According to the United States census, about 77.1 percent of Americans are “white,” and “whites” are expected to remain in the majority at 73.1 percent by 2050. Looking at the largest minority class, that being blacks/African Americans, they are around 12.4 percent in this country. Every other minority is a smaller percentage yet. As for businesses, guess who owns them? Yes, whites. According to US News and World Report, only 17.5 percent of businesses were owned by minorities.

Now, let’s look at the Jews, since the white supremacists and Nazis seem to have issues with them. In the United States, we have a 2.2 percent population (or 5.3 million people) of those who are Jewish out of a population that is more than 300 million. This includes those Jews who are atheist, those have a Jewish background who don’t practice, and those who only consider themselves partly Jewish.

Are there a lot of Jewish business owners? Yes. Why is that, you wonder. Could it be that they worked their asses off to get where they are today? Could it be that because they weren’t allowed to own land in the past due to discrimination during the Middle Ages, they were forced to become bankers (because Christians didn’t become moneylenders at the time) and business people? So, they have a legacy of working in those areas. Nowadays you have fewer people who identify as Jewish than back in the 1950s (I believe the number was around 4 to 5 percent), so those whom you consider Jewish don’t even consider themselves such.

If you feel that Jews or other ethnicities have caused some sort of wrong against you, I’ve got news for you. You’re wrong. Nobody has held you down. If you’d get off your ass and get a job, or at least move out of your parents’ basement, it would be a good start. You can still get educated, get a job, and be a productive member of society. Look, kid, nobody hands anything to anyone on a gold plate. You have to go out and work for it. Quit wasting your time with losers (the Nazis, by the way, were and still are, losers), and try working toward improving your life. You’d be amazed at what a change of attitude can do.

I hope I’ve at least given you some thoughts to consider. If you’re the bigoted type, maybe I’ve brought you a bit out of your comfort zone to start thinking about your worldview. Maybe you might quit blaming other people for your problems. Or maybe, at least, you won’t care what color your eggs are.

Are You Genuine? Heathenry as an Adult Choice

May 16, 2017 Tyra Ulfdottir Comments 0 Comment

Saturday I went down to the food bank to drop off some eggs from my chickens. They had been
laying up a storm and there was no way for me to use them all up or sell them before they went bad. So, I went to one of the many food banks we have in the town nearby and dropped them off.

Eggs and Christians

It happens that this is a food bank run by Christians. You go in there and chances are you’ll hear some talk about Jesus. I expect that. But what I didn’t expect to hear was one of the folks saying that they were helping the poor “because they love Jesus.”

I almost asked, “Would you still do this if Jesus didn’t exist?” But I didn’t feel like taunting the people who were helping me out. After all, I was under their roof. But it did get me thinking. Would these people really operate a food bank and help the poor if their god didn’t promise some sort of reward, i.e. eternal salvation, for it?

This is the problem with being a follower of Tyr. You get lots of uncomfortable and unpopular ideas.

Are They Giving Because it’s the Right Thing to do?

To me, the whole idea of helping the poor because they expect a reward in return seemed disingenuous. I mean if you’re helping the poor because your god commands it and not because you genuinely care about other human beings, you’re basically a fraud. Granted, you’re a fraud doing good work, but you’re expecting something instead of being as altruistic as you claim to be. Now, one can argue with me that the motivations really don’t matter; it’s the actual act of providing food to poor people that makes the difference. And you’d be right to a certain extent, because people can’t eat intentions. People eat food. But by the same token, it helps to understand what the motives are because it may be the difference between feeding people and not.

My Intentions aren’t Pure, Either

I’m not saying my intentions are lofty. To be brutally honest, I had too many eggs and I hate to see them wasted. I also will take a tax write off, if I can find the slip they filled out for me. I suppose I could have used the eggs to feed my dogs or even thrown them out, but as I said, I hate wasting things and if I can’t use the eggs, I’ll give them to people who will use them. But I don’t expect an eternal reward over just being nice to other people. I suppose one could argue that I am helping those within my “tribe,” and I am just offering help to those in need.

Ethics of Reciprocity (or the Golden Rule)

No doubt you’ve heard Jesus’s proclamation to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That “Golden Rule” is actual a version of Ethics of Reciprocity and all religions generally have their own versions. Even ours. We should treat people the way we want to be treated. (Or don’t be an asshole.) The reason is pretty clear–if everyone is nice to others, we all get along. Look at the way we’re told to treat travelers: we are to open our homes and treat them well. We hope to have that same treatment should we travel. In earlier times, those who traveled needed hospitality in a dangerous world. While our world isn’t quite as dangerous (at least in developed countries), hospitality in a strange place is welcome. It is a form of Ethics of Reciprocity.

Which Came First: the Christian or the Eggs?

Getting back to the whole Christian thing, I really had to wonder what kind of people I was dealing with. If these people did acts of kindness only because their god commanded it, what kind of people did that make them? Would they act another way if their god didn’t tell them to behave? And what if they found out I was Heathen and not Christian? Would they change their behavior after finding out?

There are other food banks around town, some run by Christians and some that are simply nonprofit without any religious affiliation. It happens that I was in town on a day when the Christian food bank was open and the unaffiliated food bank was closed. To me, it didn’t really matter what the affiliation was as long as it went to someone who could use them, but you see, the unaffiliated food bank volunteers didn’t necessarily work in the food bank because a god dictated it.

Heathenry as an Adult Choice

One of the things I like about Heathenry is the lack of divine handouts of rewards and punishments. We really don’t have a code of conduct that commands us to behave, although the Havamal highly recommends certain behaviors. It makes sense that our gods want us to act like adults, rather than kids who need to be afraid of a punishment if we don’t behave. Adults usually don’t expect gold stars when they do something nice, nor they expect external damnation for being shits. Now, if we break the law, there are certainly punishments, and there are certainly consequences to our actions, but that is usually handled within our interactions with other people. You act like a shit and people will behave negatively toward you. You behave and act nice, people are more likely to be positive.

I guess the upshot to this very long–and getting longer–post is that Saturday I got a really good look at the differences between Christianity and Heathenry– besides just the monotheistic versus polytheistic mindset. As a follower of Tyr, I’m pretty transparent in my motivations; Christians, however, do nice things because they’re earning brownie points with their god (assuming he exists). While heathens can be sneaky and crafty, one of our big no-nos is breaking oaths. Christians, however, have a whole slew of commandments where many believe if they just believe in Jesus, they will be forgiven. Their commandment to not “bear false witness against thy neighbor” generally means to not lie, but oaths seem to not exist, except perhaps in marriage. And those can evaporate into thin air with divorces and annulments.

Perhaps it’s a matter of being genuine. I spend each day trying to live honestly, so when I see duplicity, it sort of gets on my nerves. It’s that Tyr thing again.