As with all religious holidays, Easter suffers from too much emphasis on commercialization and too little emphasis on its religious significance. (See my article on Blogster detailing the religious significance of Easter.)

However, it might come as a surprise that the non-religious symbols associated with the holiday-the rabbit and the egg, for example--are NOT creations of some advertising genius working for Wal-Mart but are, in fact, older than the holiday itself. Even the name "Easter" is older than the religious observance.

Since its inception in the second century, Easter has had its secular side. In fact, it was, as are at least parts of many of our religious holidays, originally a Pagan festival.



Every Spring the ancient Saxons held an uproarious festival to honor their goddess of offspring and springtime, Eastre.
When the missionaries encountered the Saxons of the north, they immediately set about to convert them to Christianity. But they did so in a subtle manner.

Realizing that they would be committing religious suicide if they immediately told the Saxons that their Pagan worship of Eastre had to cease, they instead incorporated its traditions into the celebration of the Holy Days. Thus, as the Saxons gradually became Christians, they were able to continue their Springtime celebration but in a religious vein. Eventually the spelling was changed to its modern version of Easter.



When the Easter bunny shows up this year, we might want to remember that the ancient Saxons worshipped the bunny as the earthly personification of their goddess Eastre.



he exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.

From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.