Easter

Resurrection Celebration,
or
Age Old Fertility Rites?

Considered to be the most important of the Christian holidays, Easter began as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Instituted by the Roman Catholic church, it morphed into a mix of Catholic ritual, and pagan rites.  Easter Sunday signals the end of Lent, a 40 day period of fasting and reflection, followed by Maundy Thursday and  Good Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixion.
Easter, is derived from the name of the goddess "Ishtar", the goddess of fertility, whose feast was celebrated at the vernal (spring) equinox. 

     

Under Constantine in the 4th century AD, the Catholic Christians
assimilated this festival and called it the Resurrection.
The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: "A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility."

Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven..."

The Easter Bunny & colored Easter eggs are symbols of fertility and reproduction.

Our God, the only true living God, warned the Israelites (his called out people), not to follow the ways of the heathen.

       Exodus 34:10  And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Yahweh: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
Exodus 34:11  Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exodus 34:12  Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
Exodus 34:13  But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Exodus 34:14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for Yahweh, (God) whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exodus 34:15  Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
Exodus 34:16  And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
Exodus 34:17  Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

from Wikipedia: "First Council of Nicaea"
Another result of the council was an agreement on when to celebrate Easter, the most important feast of the ecclesiastical calendar, decreed in an epistle to the Church of Alexandria in which is simply stated:

In their own words:
             We also send you the good news of the settlement concerning the holy pasch, namely that in answer to your prayers this question also has been resolved. All the brethren in the East who have hitherto followed the Jewish practice will henceforth observe the custom of the Romans and of yourselves and of all of us who from ancient times have kept Easter together with you.[13]