The Traditions of Easter

by Pastor Ronald Boelte

As with many "Christian" holiday tradition, Easter has its own symbols, and they are not necessarily a modern fabrication. Ever since the second century, Easter has had a non-religious side. When the early missionaries went into ancient Saxon to try to bring Christian faith to the people, they did so in a manner that would often bring in some the pagan celebrations into their own practices so that the people would be more likely to accept the new faith.

The first such symbol was the Saxon celebration of the return of spring called eastre. In this celebration the Saxon used the rabbit as a earthly symbol of the goddess Eastre, who was seen as the goddess for fertility. As time passed the Saxons were to accept the Christian religion and the celebration of Eastre would become the celebration of Easter. The rabbit became symbol of Easter in their traditions. The rabbit would seek out the children's baskets and give them colorful eggs. The German people are the ones that brought the Easter Bunny into America, but it was not until after the Civil War that the symbol seemed to catch on in America.

As with the Easter Bunny, the Easter egg pre-dates Easter celebration itself. The exchange of eggs in the spring was a custom that was centuries old when Easter was finally celebrated by Christians. From the very beginning the egg was a symbol for rebirth in most cultures. The early Christians used this symbol to help show the resurrection of our Lord and the rebirth of all Christians. The exchange of brightly colored eggs was just one way of showing our faith and belief to other Christians and to wish them a rebirth of their faith in the resurrection of Jesus.

While these traditions do have pagan beginnings, they still can be used by the Christian church today as a reminder of what Jesus has done for us. During this season the traditions are not bad if we see Jesus as the reason for the season.