The Pagan Roots of Easter
Easter is another one of those holidays with a colorful history, a lot like Halloween. On Easter Sunday the churches in America will all fill up. New clothes will be worn for the very first time. Christ is said to have arisen from the dead. A parade on Fifth Avenue has been announced. A long tradition of women wearing great big hats persists. Pastel shades of pink and yellow and blue will dominate the day. Little boys and little girls will hunt for gaily painted eggs and run about on perfect lawns. The menu promises a ham!
Scratch below the surface, though, turn back the book of time, and you’ll discover that Easter is a very different beast than we pretend it is today. Long before the name of Jesus Christ had e’er been uttered by a living soul, a lively bunch of European bon vivants (The Pagans, if for want of a more specific name) invented Easter. They called it Oestre, and for them the holiday was all about The Spring. To celebrate they danced, they took their clothes off, and they fucked like bunnies in enormous, flaming orgies in the middle of the night. It is funny that the bunny is an Easter symbol, still.
