Ēostre ([ˈeːostre])[1][2][3] is an Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work The Reckoning of Time. He wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in her honour during the month named after her: Ēosturmōnaþ (April), and that this became the English name for the Paschal season: Easter.
Whatever fictional character you ascribe it to, the fact is that the modern Christian festival of Easter partly replaced, and is named after, an earlier pagan festival.
None of this makes it Pagan. That’s like saying the 4th of July originates in Julius Caesar. Might as well have just stopped at Christians having “Sunday Services”. Go after Muslims too having “Friday Prayers”. The Pagans had a celebration in Spring - so what? If China gets Christianised, are you going to claim that Easter actually had it’s origins in the Qingming festival because it has similar dates? Sure, for some former-pagans, their old feast days would have been replaced with Christian ones. Same way how Muslims who convert to Christianity would replace their fasting season from Ramadan to that of Lent and Eid with Easter. Doesn’t mean Lent and Easter would have Islamic origins either.
If China gets Christianised, are you going to claim that Easter actually had it’s origins in the Qingming festival
If the entire Christian world then adopts elements of the Qingming festival and changes the name of it’s spring solstice festival to “Qingming”, then yes, of course.
Look up the history of Christmas and Saturnalia. There is no mention of when Jesus was born in biblical text. December 25th is completely random. What’s not random: December 25th is the winter solstice according to the Roman calendar.
There are more examples of traditions that overlap with Pagan celebrations and don’t really have a connection to Christianity.
The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.
In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.
So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.
Saturnalia ended before Christmas. The only “evidence” we have of Christmas potentially being a spin on Sol Invictus is from the Chronography of 354 which states that the 25th of December is both the date of Christmas and Sol Invictus… So it’s also likely that Sol Invictus was actually copying Christmas, not the other way around. In fact, more likely, as that is over one hundred years after Sextus Julius Africanus recorded the 25th of March as the date of Jesus’ conception.
This is factually untrue.
It’s absolutely, unequivocally not.
Whatever fictional character you ascribe it to, the fact is that the modern Christian festival of Easter partly replaced, and is named after, an earlier pagan festival.
None of this makes it Pagan. That’s like saying the 4th of July originates in Julius Caesar. Might as well have just stopped at Christians having “Sunday Services”. Go after Muslims too having “Friday Prayers”. The Pagans had a celebration in Spring - so what? If China gets Christianised, are you going to claim that Easter actually had it’s origins in the Qingming festival because it has similar dates? Sure, for some former-pagans, their old feast days would have been replaced with Christian ones. Same way how Muslims who convert to Christianity would replace their fasting season from Ramadan to that of Lent and Eid with Easter. Doesn’t mean Lent and Easter would have Islamic origins either.
If the entire Christian world then adopts elements of the Qingming festival and changes the name of it’s spring solstice festival to “Qingming”, then yes, of course.
Except that never happened with pagan festivals either, apart from Easter taking the name of the month that was named after a pagan deity.
Look up the history of Christmas and Saturnalia. There is no mention of when Jesus was born in biblical text. December 25th is completely random. What’s not random: December 25th is the winter solstice according to the Roman calendar.
There are more examples of traditions that overlap with Pagan celebrations and don’t really have a connection to Christianity.
The 25th of December is not completely random.
The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.
In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.
So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.
Saturnalia ended before Christmas. The only “evidence” we have of Christmas potentially being a spin on Sol Invictus is from the Chronography of 354 which states that the 25th of December is both the date of Christmas and Sol Invictus… So it’s also likely that Sol Invictus was actually copying Christmas, not the other way around. In fact, more likely, as that is over one hundred years after Sextus Julius Africanus recorded the 25th of March as the date of Jesus’ conception.
Here’s an article debunking this further.
It’s not.