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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Jesus Christ! Bunnies?


for those who don't know, a lot of Christian symbolism, practices etc were adopted from pre christian, usually pagan ones. so if you ever wondered where the rabbit and egg came from in the holiest day of the christian year:

passover, the crucifixion etc took place in spring. spring has of course been associated with fertility and new life since probably earliest human time. eggs and rabbits (hump like a rabbit e.g) have for very long been understandably considered symbols of fertility. so in Spring the pagans celebrated with their symbols, then when Christianity rolled in, they were adopted for the birth and re birth (resurrection) similarities. or maybe the cute little bunnies and fun filled eggs were just kept for the kids.

of course this practice is very evident in a lot of christian holidays, especially Christmas: the evergreens, lights, being with loved ones etc all were celebrated pre christian almost world wide.

other christian and secular holidays "borrowing' from paganism: groundhog day (the ending of the darkest days), Midsummer (Summer solstice), timing of holidays like Jewish high holy days, halloween (all pagan, desperate attempts to steal by church with 'all souls day' etc).

so keep in mind that Paganism at least in general form is the oldest and probably the most widespread (in area at least) of all spirituality.

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