With Easter just around the bend, I have found myself thinking about how amazingly significant this “holiday” is. It is one of two such holidays (Christmas being the other) that celebrate with a special reverence toward the awesomeness of God and his love for his children. Sadly, Easter has become so commercialized that there is virtually no remnant of what it is we should be celebrating. Bunnies? Hidden colored eggs? Huh? What has happened?
While believers in Christ recognize Easter as an observance of the events which form the basis of our faith, to the surprise of many, it doesn’t have its origins whatsoever in Christianity. The modern idea of Easter is actually based upon ancient pagan celebrations and not the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Easter dates back to ancient times, when Nimrod (a grandson of Noah) turned from following God to be come a rather tyrannical ruler. According to the records of the Bible, Nimrod expanded his kingdom into Babel, Asshur, Ninevah and other cities known for being rather seedy places; full of wickedness and perversion. When he died, Nimrod’s wife, Semiramis, declared him to be the “Life Giver”, or “Sun-God.” Later in history, he became known as Baal and was the center focus of religious followers (aptly named Baal worshipers). These followers had a reputation for demon worship, human sacrifices, idolatry and a host of other evil practices.
Queen Semiramis had an illegitimate son called Tammuz, of whom she convinced her people was actually Nimrod (Baal) reborn. People had been looking for the coming of a promised savior from the beginning of mankind. So when Semiramis claimed that Tammuz was supernaturally conceived, they turned to him, worshiping him as their savior as well as Semiramis as the goddess of fertility. She has also been known in other cultures by the names Ishtar, Ashtur and Easter.
According to tradition, Tammuz was killed by a wild boar, who, through the power of his mother’s tears, was resurrected in the form of new vegetation which appeared. As such, a springtime ritual was instituted by Semiramis to memorialize her son.
The Bible speaks of a certain city called Babel where its people tried to defy God by building a great tower up to the heavens. According to biblical record, up until this time, everyone on earth shared one language. Genesis 11:7 says God confused their tongues to prevent them from being further unified and continue their false practices and beliefs. People scattered to different lands, taking many of their pagan practices with them.
As for the bunny and the egg (there has to be a joke in there as to which came first), their origins can also be traced back to Semiramis. Rabbits have long been associated with fertility—Ishtar is known as its goddess. Ancient Babylonians believed in a fable about an egg that fell from heaven into the Euphrates River. Sadly, that egg was not filled with creamy, sugary filling, but purportedly was one from which Semiramis (or Ishtar, or Queen Astarte) was “hatched.”
Thankfully, Easter is much more than chocolate bunnies and hidden eggs. Arguably, however, it is the most important time of the year, commemorating the most important event in all of history—one for which I am quite literally eternally grateful.
More to come…
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