Happy Ostara

[pastwatcher]

Unlike many Christians, my family and, I imagine, a lot of Irish have no problem saying that Christian traditions come from pagan ones. We tend to be happy that rich Celtic traditions have survived. But check this out, it's pretty great.

Edit: I enjoyed reading that but it's not really careful at all about distinct cultures, and it has the false etymology of "estrogen". Too bad.

Comments

[multiplybytwo.livejournal.com]

Nice link!

I don't think it's particularly controversial that the eggs and the bunny come from pagan traditions, along with Christmas trees, mistletoe, the timing of Christmas and miscellaneous other customs. There are some conservative Christians who avoid many of these traditions because of the pagan influence.

But I dunno about the timing, it's supposed to align with Passover, which is also in the spring and on a lunar calendar. Of course, Easter doesn't align with Passover, so maybe that's because of pagan influence?

[pastwatcher]

Hmm--well, more what I mean is my family has generally seemed to regard pagan traditions and Christianity as enriching each other. I do think that's because of a pride in how Ireland mixed its cultural influences.

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Of course, Easter doesn't align with Passover, so maybe that's because of pagan influence?

Not pagan influence, just different calculations based on using different calendars with different reference points. It's for much the same reason that the Eastern Orthodox Easter is on a different day from in the West (they're still using the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian).