Most Americans hip to Easter’s real meaning?
An interesting article in “The Baptist Standard” claims that fewer than half of all Americans associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus! That’s very surprising, considering that some 80% of American citizens define themselves as Christians. Although this article does not say – it seems to avoid the subject, in fact – that all these people recognize Easter as a pre-Christian Pagan holiday, it would not be surprising if a significant percentage of them do so know the real meaning of this “Christian” celebration.
Fewer than half of Americans link Easter to Resurrection
WASHINGTON (RNS)—While most Americans describe Easter as a religious holiday, fewer than half of the adults surveyed link it specifically to the Resurrection of Jesus, a Barna Group study shows.
Further Reading
Easter: The Resurrection of Spring
Easter: Christian or Pagan?
42 thoughts on “Most Americans hip to Easter’s real meaning?”
Comments are closed.
Thanks for this. I save myself time by playing these videos for people.
HeHe
An old Cadbury’s cream egg commercial, a little boy with a southern accent says “thank you ISHTAR BUNNY!” HEHEHE! Well at least they know what it’s all about. And be sure to have your ham, deviled eggs AN TATER SALAD sorry just had to say it. Man now I’m hungry!
Fertility cults of mystery Babylon Yeah babble/bible on, and ON the subject of some one else profiting from your ignorance.
“I send what I can to the man from ministry he’s apart heavens plan and he talks to me, I send what I can to the man with the diamond ring, and he sure can sing” Dire straights: Ticket to heaven, On every street, good band good album.
As a young boy, before I could understand the religions, I like to “hunt” for egg`s as the contain sweet in form of chocolate.
Even if I did not understand the meaning of religion, I was reworded for good beehive in church. Candy again. Child associate religion with “sweet reward”. Latter on as I grow up and begin to understand, I was “brainwash” about Heaven and Hell. At the ago of 20 I “got over” with religions. I am 58 now and still like some candy`s, but the only “egg hunt” I attend is in food store.
There are so many idiots in USrael
Easter is about crucification of jesus by jewish criminals.The zionist media are trying hard to supress this fact and large herd of nuts believe them .But those who should know the truth wil know and no jewish crap and lie would change it
To that ignorant A hole Ivana Koskova
You’re a Nazi bitch. How about the Romans who tried Jesus and sentenced him to death? You make no mention of that fact! Crucifiction was the Roman form of execution. Ivana you impress me as being a criminal. Why? Because of the lies and distortions your willing to print on the internet. So, shut your biggoted trap and go to hell!
no balls
You are calling dirty names to a female but not able to show your balls and put your name by your comment!!! What happened you got castrated like Paul the apostle and many other as such. There is no history about Jesus other than what we are told by the priest of Rome who worship the phallus or phallic god and many other crap made up with Sun worshiping!!!
:silly:
Easter
The truth is that the death of Christ was always God’s plan to save humanity from itself so those so called “criminals” were simply God’s chosen people, chosen to crucify the Lord for all of us.
You ignored something.
The article stated that 75% of those from ages 45-63 recognized Easter as being related to the ressurection of Jesus Christ, while on 3% of those from ages 18-25 did.
So its NOt the wholesale rejection of Christianity as you fervently would seem to hope- but in fact typically stunning ignorance on the part of young arrogant Americans. This is the real story. How the agnostic Government and our satanic culture has suceeded in brainwashing this genration into becoming obnoxious liberal atheist drones.
But there is hope- if the fading and aging Hippie Boomers can turn to Christ after all the wicked excesses of their drugged out generation, then probably too will this nacissic computerized generation of drones find spiritual enlightenment in the Christian faith as they grow older and wiser.
SO Put that in your wizard bong and smoke it.
Typical pleasantries from a member of the cult…
Why the obnoxious ‘tude? What is so great about Christianity that you are willing to be insulting to your fellow human beings?
In this brief post I did not say anything about a “wholesale rejection of Christianity” – that’s an angry straw man on your part.
I am discussing here the reclamation of an ancient pre-Christian sacred holiday that was taken over by Christianity – that’s a real injustice for a number of reasons. The first of these reasons is that this sacred Pagan holiday was every bit as worthy of respect as any other holiday – in fact, more so. Christians derogated this sacred time, all the while stealing it.
What are your pre-Christian roots? Why are you so hateful towards them? Only because Christianity taught you to be.
The time is now to put all these divisions behind us that are causing such anger and violence as to make us denigrate our own ancestors and to erupt onto total strangers.
What my blog post [i]does [/i]do – not at all “ignoring” the percentages you raise – is to wonder whether or not the younger generation is actually tuning into the TRUTH about Easter, which is that it has nothing to do with the crucifixion of a historical Jewish man but is in fact a pre-Christian fertility ritual having to do with the [b]RESURRECTION OF SPRING[/b].
“…3% of those from ages 18-25 did”
This is actually quite encouraging, so thank you for pointing it out.
Your snide, suspicious and snarling personal attacks on these youngsters is your own problem, based on the bigoted, hateful cult you’ve been indoctrinated into. Like I say, it’s quite refreshing to read that the youth of America is apparently learning the truth about Easter, which has been buried up by the same agencies that have brainwashed you to be so hateful of a large segment of humanity, including your own ancestors.
What I see here in defense of Christianity is almost always angry, nasty, vicious, spiteful, snide and hateful. And arrogant.
Well researched
Congratulations for a well researched video. You have done your research.
👿 Just more people trying to ruin a good american holiday.
Pagan or not, religous or not, it is a holiday we celebrate with our kids.
Now if you love Jesus than go to church. If you love paganism go do
whatever pagans do. I know that i am like most when i say i dont care
about any other beliefs but finding my kids a easter basket.
Why is restoring the true meaning – giving it real meaning – of a holiday “ruining” it?
While Christians may certainly celebrate the supposed resurrection of a Jewish man at this time, they will need to realize that they are in fact observing a natural phenomenon that does not belong to any one group, cult, sect or ethnicity, etc. This phenomenon belongs to us all, and it has been vitally important to the continuation of human civilization.
Again, [b]Easter is the resurrection of spring from the death of winter[/b]. It is an absolutely vital time of the year, and the celebration based on this natural, astrotheological phenomenon is entirely understandable, since [b]spring represents the real savior of mankind[/b].
In Greece, the spring was celebrated as the resurrection of the goddess Persephone out of the underworld of Hades – this story existed and was observed centuries before Christ supposedly existed. It is patently obvious this [i]myth [/i]- which was one of many – was “borrowed” in the gospel tale.
For more on these subjects, please feel free to read the articles linked above.
Interesting story in Sydney Australia during Easter we have the world’s biggest Easter Fair called the Royal Easter Show over a million people attend.
This year for the first time religious themes are banned and Christian groups aren’t allowd to have exhibits. The reason given is that the Royal Agricultural Society don’t won’t to offend non Christian groups.
would it were so
I couldn’t fin that particular bit of information on their website so I suspect the martyrly-complexed of crying victim once more. I did however find this:
“Can I attend a religious service at the Show on Easter Sunday?
Yes you can. The service will take place on Sunday 8th April 2012 from 8.30am – 9.30am in the Big Top Amphitheatre.”
Christmas was just conveniantly place on the calander replacing what was a pagon holiday celebrating the harvest at winter solstace.
Orthadox date is wrong as well.
You put your own picture next to Jefferson, Paine, and Franklin! What unmitigated gall!
I greatly admire these individuals – I didn’t even think in the terms that you are ranting about.
These individuals are part of the Freethought Nation – they are also part of [i]me[/i], as I even studied the same subjects they did, because I admired their education so much.
What unmitigated gall to call yourself “James the Just!”
The Easter Bunny Must Go
That Easter bunny is an abomination !! It should not have anthing to do with Christ. But because Satan is brilliant and deceptive; he has millions side-tracked into observing and worshipping the Easter bunny and the Easter Egg. For if you observe any of these two during Easter; you are nothing but an idol worshipper and a false Christian that could be very well going to hell for this great sin.
That Christian cross is an abomination!! It should not have anything to do with Easter.
And the rest to the hysterical blather from bizarro-world. I grow weary of this insidious rubbish.
EASTER IS THE RESURRECTION OF SPRING.
The Easter bunny is very cute – and it was there first, before the Judeo-Christian cultus was created. The bunny represents fertility, which is the real reason for the Easter season. Christ’s crucifixion was merely placed at that time in order to overwrite the Easter celebration, which even had its own sacred cross at that time.
All the rest is a frantic and sadistic fantasy world that has been created in your head by bibliolatry.
Easter
Being a Pagan for almost 50 years, I am glad that the Pagan origins of Easter is coming out to the general public. Even the word Easter was not in the “original” Christian Bible, it was placed there by King James’ people as an affront to the Jews.
Acharya, I love your stuff. I have almost all of your books and I will get the rest soon. You are tops in my book.
And BTW, I consider myself to be a Spritual, Pagan Athiest.
Earliest Gospels Have No Mention
Looking for the inerrant word of god? The earliest gospels have no mention of any crucifixion/resurrection of the Teacher. Funny how it should show up later, eh?
Easter
Very nice video presentation on the origins of Easter. I never knew that the word Easter came from East! Somehow the preacher always left that little tidbit off on his Easter Sunday sermon! You have such a nice speaking/reading voice Acharya. Have you ever thought about putting the Gospel According to Acharya S. on a CD so people can listen and learn while on the road?
It’s for the kids, like christmas is for the kids.
As a small child we always celebrated Easter with eggs, itsy-bitsy bunny rabbits, little lambs, little fluffy yellow chicks, spring flowers and lots of chocolate…..
It never occurred to us, as kids, that we were celebrating the death of a Jewish rabble-rouser called Jesus – The chocolate, food and the long walk to our special place to break open our eggs was more important back then….
In fact, our kids still celebrate the Spring-time today!!
Lets be very clear here. Easter has nothing to do with Christianity.
It was usurped just like the rest of their holydaze.
Only some crazy *dark sorcerers of Rome* would wait until the first sunday after the Egg or Seed Moon (first full moon after EQUINOX) to hold their holiday. Pagans rightfully celebrate this time on Ostara or Equinox and then really get things going at Beltane which is the High Holyday or the hight of the season being midway between Equinox and Solstice. Blessed Be Peeps
beyond belief
A few years ago, the guy who made the movie ‘the God that wasn’t there’, declared war on easter.
http://www.thegodmovie.com/press/releases/041106releaseEAST.html
It was great family fun and we got a singed copy of the movie inturn for us planting the one we already had in a church, along with other pagan origins info. We hit several churches in our area with plastic easter eggs filled with panthlets on the origins of easter as well. We even handed some to the mormons riding their bikes. Their reactions were priceless! Ahh, good times. I don’t think they are doing it anymore though. 🙁
Could that have had anything to do with so many of the young turning away from the dead guy on a stick and back to coloring eggs?? lol
Worshipping a bloody pulp of a man slapped up on wood, should be deemed anti-life and psychotic.. It is the celebration of violence, torture, and a cruel inhumane death. Thats just morbid! 😡
Eddie sums up Acharya’s argument
Though having a laugh Eddie Izzard (who’s politics I care little for but who’s physical feat for charity is staggering) comically sums up the Pagan Origins of Easter beautifully here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ9RUNOd8u0 the next logical step he misses, is that all is usurped and Christ is a myth, not a lynched roman era rebel.
A beautiful video once again Acharya.
Just got back from a Gambian adventure to promote solar cookers to remote villages and our Christian bus drivers loved them that much that they coveted and stole one from the first village, when I already had one lined up for them back at the hotel lol They were however aware of Ishtar and I dropped hints about the glorious sunshines crown of thorns, its beams walking on water and its turning of the grapes water to fine wine 👿 along with the rapid spread of the madonna motif, due to startling similarities to horus and Isis-Meri :kiss: . I was still handed a converting leaflet to curb my sinful ways however :dry:
Happy Easter one and all upon the pale blue dot
world full of nutzzzz
:whistle: comments are what they are, everybody has one, just like you know what, the bottom line is your faith, where is it? the lord said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me, forgive is: grace is the kindness and favor of god extended to you, it is nothing you can earn or deserve,grace is god saying to you, you can do nothing to save yourself there is no need to even try, because I have done it all,I have givin my son to die for you and he has made the perfect sacrifice for your sin, come and receive my free gift. dont forget what he did, its that easy.
Again I have to say grow up and take responsibility for your own actions!! You worship a God who demanded his so called son be blood sacrificed in order to expiate your sins!!! Do you also revere Abraham, the so-called father of the Abrahamic religions who was willing to slit the throat of his own son to prove his loyalty to the psychopathic war lord, Jehovah!!?? And the bottom line is that it’s YOUR faith, not those of use who are intelligent enough to realize all that claptrap has been invented in order to control us. Don’t put that ridiculous concept of faith on non-Christians, keep it to yourself. Instead of faith, why don’t you start by just reading the old testament, that holy book in which your new testament is based, and take notice of the slaughter, the genocide, the vengeance that your god wrought upon the tribes of the Middle East through his so-called chosen people (of which your savior is one, and remember he NEVER repudiated Judaism). He was as blood-thirsty then as he was when he allowed his so called son to be butchered and hung on a cross. If this psychopathic, blood thirsty killer is what you want to worship and have faith in, keep him to yourself.
Easter = Amanita Muscaria
Easter, and much of the Christian religion, comes from the Amanita Muscaria mushroom, a hallucinogenic mushroom that grows under conifer or pine trees and is indigenous to Siberia where the Christmas and Ester traditions formed. The rest comes from Astrotheology and ancient Egypt and Babylon.
At the time of Easter, the mushrooms are still in their “egg” stages and can more easily be picked by children under large conifer and pine trees, than could be by a larger adult. This is where the Easter egg hunt comes from, and it is really about hunting hallucinogenic mushrooms.
As the Amanita Muscaria grows, it first takes a “round table” appearance (think Knights Templar), thena cup or “grail” phase, and then it burns up in the sun, like a phoenix trying to fly, only to be reborn of its own ashes. In the courtyard of the Vatican you can see two fountains depicting the Amanita in both its growth and “round table” stages, and the red and white spotted mushroom can be found in dozens, if not hundreds, of Easter cards and other artwork. The houses in which the Smurfs live are Amanita Muscaria mushrooms, and there is a very specific reason Smurfs are blue with white pants: They represent Psilocybin mushrooms, which have white stems and bruise blue.
The Cross pose is the Amanita mushroom in the “round table” phase, and we see other deities / symbols take this form – the Egyptian Ankh and the Medical Caduceus are a few examples. Eating of the Amanita Muscaria is the communion sacrament, and when the mushroom is in the “holy grail” phase, it often fills with morning dew that turns red. To drink this hallucinogenic liquid is to drink the blood of Jesus.
Really interesting! Acharya, do you have any comment on this? I know the pagan religions use hallucinogenic plants in their rituals, but this is totally new info for me.
I don’t trust this “Jesus” guy. Show me a birth certificate or he is a fraud.
Birthers Unite!!!
Unless this “Jesus” fellow can produce a birth certificate, I will call him a fraud and a phony.
Irony is so ironic
How can any one of us know the real truth? No one alive today was alive when these things were first thought of. What we have are myths, stories, speculation, and proclaimed ‘truths’. Truth by definition has only one version…the true version. Any variation on it is technically ‘untruth’, even though portions of a story may be factual, other portions of it aren’t. It’s either truth or not. There are no variations of it. So how do we know what to believe? Hunches? Gut feeling? The heart? The ironic part of all this in my personal experience is since I was not around to witness any of these things happen, then it’s a matter of faith. Whatever name you use to refer to The Creator, it is one and the same. Being raised to refer to the Creator as God, that’s what I do. I have faith that God will reveal the Truth to us as ‘he’ (another man-made reference as far as I’m concerned) sees fit…as we can absorb it. Personally, once this request was made from the heart, in faith, then things started clearing up. Reading Acharya’s articles and blogs I feel is part of that revealing of truth. Ultimately after this life has been lived, I hope to learn the real truth direct from the Author, the story behind the stories, without being diluted, twisted or affected by human imaginations for whatever reasons. We have been created with the curiosity and urge to know where we came from, and maybe the reason for our journey here is to learn how to pursue the truth, even though we not capable of comprehending it all. A big circle…put here as blank pages by the Creator to search for the truth and have it written inside as we learn a little at a time, which eventually leads us back around to the discovery that there really is a Creator. Unfortunately, humans have scrambled the truth so thoroughly that it is all but impossible to tell how it all started. For power over the masses, political control, whatever. I can’t wait until all the BS is finally flushed down the cosmic toilet by the Big Hand so truth and clarity can be enjoyed once and for all.
Oh, please!! If you believe in that claptrap, what are you doing on this site? Grow up and take responsibility for your own actions, instead of relying on your so-called savior to save you. If your God is so almighty, why can’t he just forgive everyone for their sins and discretions, why does he need to send his son to be sacrificed? Under what mechanism does this, then, forgive the whole world’s sins? Pure nonsense. Do you not see how ridiculous that is and how it makes you seem infantile and naive?
Lila – Not sure who you were aiming that last comment to.
Easter 2012
Have a happy Easter, Acharya. It’s always nice to review your works during holidays.
Peace,
Mike
Thank you very much for your kind regards!
Happy Ostara to you too!
:cheer:
Krishna and Arjuna …
Well, A, I see that many or most posters are still entirely missing the point(s) of your research and writings. People, please get a clue.
Just another …
Hallmarkside attraction now.
Origin of Easter
Finally the truth arrived in South Africa as well. Dr Abel Pienaar, former minister (predikant in Afrikaans) in the Dutch Reformed Church ackowledged the fact Acharya S has for so long struggled to bring to the attention of the devouted, that it is a pagan celebration with its roots in the worshipping of the Sun. He posted a news letter to his congregation, now called Renaissance, that it is time to redefine our own understanding and knowledge about this pagan celebration. He not only explained that the Jews invented their own celebration of their escape from slavery by slaughtering a lamb to remind them of this, but that christians have invented their own version by the fictional slaughter of christ. To him the celebration of Easter is the cellebration of our escape from falsehood, uncritical thinking and finding love for one another. Pity that it is written in Afrikaans for it is a telling piece to read. I will however forward the link to Acharya for it is a most important essay to read. Afrikaans is very near to the Dutch language and I’m sure she can find a translator or do it even herself. Here is the link: http://www.renaissancegem.co.za and the newsletter is nr 13 dated 4 April 2012. Thanks Acharia! Keep it up. To you I can only quote what Dr Pienaar has qouted of Arundrati Roy, a woman philosopher of India:
“Another world is not only possible,
she is on her way.
On a quiet day,
I can hear her breathing.”
LOVE TO YOU ALL
shrooms
I suppose Amanita Muscaria were more available…otherwise, these shrooms, compared to say Azurescens, are lousy. I think the former also makes you nauseous. The smaller the shroom the more powerful and again, many other shooms’ effects are so much better – so we’re not sure why they were so popular. Availability perhaps. When I say better effects I mean as teachers as well.
In any case note the similarity; born into sin – born into debt. To some researchers, this is by no means a coincidence. Along these lines we find that Protestantism was the new counter for the coming Industrial Revolution. The ptb considered it more a conducive belief system for the coming consumer craze exploitation etc.
In this I found an interesting study that showed how Catholic masters were much more lenient on their servants as to Protestant masters.
Interesting about the youth percentage in that we all know how much status quo conditioning they receive. But we’ve got the net now so there’s less of an excuse to be totally clueless.
Funny, we’ve got the factions who cooked up this stuff, for use as a (socio-engineering) tool. Then we’ve got this same lineage of power mongers who have supposedly been trying to trash the religion. Not positive this is simply due to christian’s view of gov today.
Suppose it’s much complex, involving inertia as well as compartmentalizing. I’m raving….
Meaning of Easter
It is of interest that the story of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is nothing new in the various mythlogies of religion. The story of the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris and how Osiris was broughjt back to life through the power of the love of his sister-wife Isis. That legend predates the Christian festival by who knows how many centuries.