Ancient rituals gave rise to modern holiday celebrations

By Mary Garrigan, Journal staff writer | Saturday, December 09, 2006

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Ah, Easter.

A day to celebrate the resurrection of a savior, the renewal of nature, the rebirth of hope or a large bunny who delivers colorful eggs in grass-filled baskets.

Huh?

Easter is a religious holiday, but many of its symbols and rituals have their origins in pre-Christian legend and lore.

Even its name probably first belonged to the pagan goddess of spring, Eostre, for whom festivals celebrating the end of winter and the birth of spring at the vernal equinox were held. According to mythology, the goddess, in a fit of rage, turned a large sacred bird into a hare, which, over time, evolved into today’s cute Easter bunny. The rabbit still retains some of those original bird-like qualities, since he makes straw nests full of eggs.

The egg, that ubiquitous secular icon of Easter, is also an ancient pagan symbol of life and immortality, containing the new life that nature returns to the world each spring. Many early cultures regarded the egg as an emblem of the universe, the germination of life. A Latin proverb says “All life comes from an egg.”

Christians borrowed the egg as a reminder of the tomb from which Jesus Christ broke forth and the new, eternal life that arose from it. Medieval Christians dyed eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ.

Lilies are a common Easter flower, perhaps because they bloom near Easter time or, maybe, because their trumpet-shaped blossoms remind us of the trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15:52 that heralds bodily resurrection and immortality in heaven.

The trumpet lily has become a mainstay in Easter floral arrangements and on church altars, its whiteness symbolizing the radiance of the risen Lord.

Many churches host Easter sunrise services, a tradition that stems from the gospel of Luke in which the women visited Jesus’ tomb “at early dawn” only to find it empty.

Some historians believe that the sunrise services may connect to the Easter fires that were a continuation of the fires lit at the vernal equinox in antiquity, welcoming the sun and its power to bring new life to the world.

Christians often wear new clothes for the day, a remnant of the early church when people who were baptized at the Easter Vigil dressed in white robes that they wore all during Easter week as a symbol of their new life in Christ. People who had been previously baptized wore new clothes to indicate they shared in that new life.

The custom of a new Easter bonnet may come from the old superstition of wearing three new things on Easter Sunday to ensure good luck for the coming year.

Source: Hallmark historian and archivist Sharman Robertson.