Easter Sunday On The Christian Calendar

The Easter bunny as a pagan fertility symbol? This animal may be portrayed as a frivolous, sometimes goofy character by the media, but it is indeed a remnant of the pagan fertility festivals that were inherited, and to some degree assimilated, by Easter Sunday, supposedly one of the most holy days on the Christian calendar.

There may be a Christian veneer over this celebration now, but the pagan symbols are just under the surface; a fact that can be quite disturbing to some Christians. Many believers actually entertain doubts about having any celebration at all of Easter Sunday or Easter in general.

It's well-known in certain circles that the church overlaid its own commemoration of the resurrection overtop of fertility festivals that already existed in the ancient cultures where it was trying to gain ground.

Some congregations today think that since the only element of Easter that actually relates to Jesus Christ is the Mass, or Holy Communion, the whole Easter celebration should be abandoned.

It's quite true that most traditions connected to Easter Sunday can't be found in the Bible story of Christ's death and resurrection. So should the celebration in general be abandoned?

In support of this idea, some argue that the event has actually caused more rancor than harmony in the church, citing divisive disputes over the proper dates of Easter as one example.

Yet it seems unlikely that the church will ever abandon this festival now. And you might view it as having taken those ancient pagan festivals and "sanctified" them, in the same way it claims to have taken sinful individuals and done the same.

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