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EASTER
The most joyous of Christian festivals, and one of the first celebrated
by the Christians, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, on
the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. The
English word "Easter" corresponding to the German "Oster", reveals the
association of many Easter customs with those of the Teutonic tribes of
central Europe. When Christianity reached these people it incorporated
many of their heathen rites into the great Christian feast day. Easter
month, corresponding to our April, was dedicated to Eostre, or Ostara,
goddess of the spring. There was in common the time of spring and the
triumph of life over death.
The practice of eating eggs on Easter Sunday and giving them as gifts
to friends and children probably arose because, in the earlier days of
the church, eggs were forbidden food during Lent (the 40 days before
Easter) and were therefore always eaten on Easter Sunday. But the
custom of coloring eggs goes back to the ancient Egyptians and
Persians, who practiced this custom during their spring festival.
The Easter hare, or bunny, comes from antiquity as well. The hare is
associated with the moon in the legends of of ancient Egypt. It
belongs to the night when it comes out to feed. It is born with its
eyes opened and, like the moon, is "the open-eyed watcher of the
skies". Through the fact that the Egyptian word for hare, "un", means
also "open" and "period", the hare became associated with the idea of
periodicity, both lunar and human, and so became a symbol of fertility
and of the renewal of life. As such, the hare became linked with the
Easter, or paschal, eggs. In the U.S. the Easter rabbit is fabled to
lay the eggs in the nests prepared for it or to hide them for the
children to find.
Although Easter was celebrated very early in the church, its date was
not established until A.D. 325 when Constantine convened the council
at Nicea, where it was decided that it should be observed on the first
Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, to be fixed each
year at Alexandria, then the center of astronomical science. The date
is an approximation, and may vary. This means that its date may vary as
much as 35 days!
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Plus Passover in a similar time zone...
And let's not forget the Thai Lunar New Year is this same week-end as well. (And I doubt that any Thai people ever met any Gauls, but ya never know for sure...)
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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No Message Body
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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Sorry to disappoint you though, but no. It's just something I made up while looking at the Hotmail registration screen. In fact I was so clever I promptly forgot my newly created login name only a day or so after making it! Took me like a week to re-discover it, heeh!
When Googling on it, the only hits I got on my name was some goddamn racehorse! (Not implying I am hung as one, hehe... Thankfully the picture's changed somewhat since, now I am on top of the horse: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=zustara), while 'Orur' seems to have something to do with Russian scout organizations or something?
Okay, that is enough name trivia for now I think.
Today has not been a good day, but trying to remain cheerful anyway...
-L
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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Hi Lenny...sorry you're having a difficult day...I'm thinking about you...and I DID finally get that email I owed you written, huh?
And here I was thinking that your pen name was some cool and obscure Nordic mythical or mystical something or other. What a hoot, tho...race horses and Russians?! Cool!
And about that other race horse reference...hehe
I think being hung like a race horase might have disadvantages...like having to piss like a race horse all the time. Very inconvenient, probably.
Where DO those cliche expressions originate, anyhow, I wonder??
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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http://minibytes.mondominishows.com/easter/main.asp?seed=3223&serial=663380
I suggest starting with the topmost button first; "Yummy"...
Also, don't let Stephen slip too far down the page! Stop by his thread and pay your respects please.
Don't make him feel lonely.
-Lenny
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13809
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So it's basically all to do with eggs. It is, like Christmas, a decent heathen festival, co-opted by the Christian church for its own purposes.
I like the heathen concept of each festival.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Easter 
Hmmm......Ostara.....Zustara......? Any connection there? 
Re: Interesting theory, David! 
Easter for those that are young at heart... And a request for all! 
