So, what is Easter … ?

The 2011 Australian census states that 61.1% of Australians call themselves “Christian”. This I would say was highly, highly questionable as this is not observable in the numbers that feel driven by their faith to go to their local places of worship each Sunday.

The local Church as a place of worship has been significantly eclipsed in this day and age by the Malls, the mega Hardware store, Markets, anything but a church!

I would contend that a significant majority of Australians filling out census forms put down in the ‘Religion Box’ what they have been raised as; or feel compelled to put ‘something’ when in actual fact the only times that will ever darken the door of a Church is through the rituals of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

From a personal point of view I detest having to shop and this brings me to why we have Good Friday and Xmas Day totally closed to commerce, (not even the mega hardware stores are open). Don’t get me wrong, as a working person I love my designated holidays, but what puzzles me in the 21st century is that we are bound by some fairy-tale that has been appropriated by the “Christian Church”, hijacked from Pagan ceremonies which are supposed to be welcoming of Spring and rebirth…. it’s completely out of phase in this part of the world where the opposite is happening and we are headed into Winter.

Put simply, if I want to buy something on this so called “Good Friday” and Xmas Day, why do we have to be dictated to by some religious myth. Below is a part of an article from – http://www.spanglefish.com/PAN/index.asp?pageid=304876 – which explores some of the ways that traditions have been hijacked to fit in with some at the time newly found fairy-tale, in this case ‘Christian Religion’.

SO WHAT IS EASTER

“So what of Easter, Good Friday etc and the history behind the institution of Easter as a chief festival within the Church?

Xtians celebrating the Easter/resurrection feast at this time of year are merely recreating the ancient Pagan festivities associated with beloved earlier gods of ‘natural’ rebirth such as Attis, Adonis etc who were lamented and glorified by millions of adherents throughout many countries, long before the Christ myth was first thought up by ecclesiastical activists intent of theocratical world domination via evangelical/missionary means.

The Christians hi-jacked Easter from the Pagans and built their myths around it in order to firstly conjoin with Pagan festivities and then, when they had usurped power from the Pagan priests, outlaw and outcast them. Direct comparison remains with deities such as Dionysius being nailed to a post and blooded so his vital fluid would sodden the ground to bring forth new life for all.

The Judeo-Christian Passover became merged with heathen fertility veneration to generate a new festival celebrating the resurrection of Christ. This of course was also a hammer to convert the native Pagan populace away from their indigenous spring fertility festivities. This was observed at a different time from the Passover. Known as the Quartodeciman controversy, the dispute over when this celebration concerning Christ should be observed reverberated across the empire through the second, third and fourth centuries. Eventually it was established by the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and reinforced at the Synod of Antioch in A.D. 341.

With its iron-fist theological stranglehold on the masses the Synod called for the excommunication of anyone who dared to resist the new-fangled, man-made Easter observance.

Those who opposed it were forced to move outside the reach of the empire. Emperor Constantine was a driving force behind this action. This man, amongst numerous other atrocities, murdered his son and wife; the bishops gladly accepted Constantine as an authority on ‘godly’ Christian matters and he reputedly said:

“It seemed to everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who polluted wretches! Having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that, rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we have kept from the first day of our Lord’s passion even to the present times. Let us have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews. We have received another method from the Saviour”

Thus the Xtian celebration of Easter (which is incidentally named after a Saxon goddess of spring) obviously stems from incredibly intolerant origins. It is nothing but a clandestine gala of theocratical lies, deceit, subversion and suppression of other smaller faiths.

Easter stands as a shining example of Christian fundamentalist totalitarianism in action”.