Easter

Sorry I've not posted recently. I was down with the ick.

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I would be remiss in my duties as head of the Church of Dougintology if I didn't take a swing at Easter. As usual Easter is one of those holidays that the Christians corrupted for their own uses.
The spelling varies depending on who you ask. Most common is Eastre, meaning spring, but I've also seen Eostre, Estre, Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos. All are names for the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Eastre was a week long fertility festival to encourage the crops to grow, celebrate getting out of that cramped house after a long winter, and to see which of the neighbors survived the harsh winter.

The holiday was associated with the Spring Equinox (when day and night are both 12 hours long). As with most holidays associated with the placement of the sun they weren't alone in their celebrations. People also had festivals for Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus, Ashtoreth from ancient Israel, Astarté from ancient Greece, Demeter from Mycenae, Hathor from ancient Egypt, Ishtar from Assyria, Kali from India, and Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility.

Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period 22 Mar to 25 Mar. Cybele's main cult was housed on Vatican Hill.
Many religious historians believe that the death and rebirth of Jesus was lifted from Attis to help convert pagans. Others claim that it was lifted from Hindu's Krishna or any one of dozens of other saviors and dieties that came before Jesus.
The position of the Christian Church was that Satan knew Jesus would come so he spent centuries scattering the story among other culture to throw doubt on the story of Jesus.

The eggs and the bunnies are, of course, symbols of birth and fertility that came with the adoption of Eastre. The cross is Christian addition. Alas, one tradition that was lost was building a fire on top of a mountain using new fire made from friction. I'm not much of a tradition guy, partially because I'd be the guy told to stand quietly on top of a cold mountain and watch them try to get a fire started, but I kind of like this tradition. Easter mountain, in Osterberg, was named for this ritual but any mountain will do.

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I'm rather partial to the idea that Jesus is an adaptation of Krishna. Many of the events in Jesus' life parallel Krishna's as do many of his philosophies. Some Hindus accept Jesus as one of the many reincarnations of Vishnu. Some Christians believe that during the missing years of Jesus' life (from childhood until age thirty) were spent traveling including spending time in India.