Polish Easter Tradition is also pagan!

Easter is a great time of the year for many people around the world none less for Polish people. It is the time when two great cultural and religious traditions: pagan and Christian come together and we should celebrate that. In Slavic pagan times at around the time of spring arrival the eggs were exchanged between people as a sign of good fortune and fertility, mainly the fertility of the land as agriculture played huge significance in the lives of Slavic people and Polish at that, who spent the bulk of the year working on the fields making sure these bring fruits of labour the food! Hence the Easter tradition of having eggs consecrated/blessed at the church by the Catholic priest and consuming them in large quantities at the family table. In Poland what also happens is that eggs are also painted on either empty of yolk or still full, it is one of the most unique traditions within Polish folklore and also dates back to pagan times.

interesting

That's not all, the reason why Easter changes its dates every year is because it follows the phases of the moon. Very pagan.

Not the only page tradition that the Church stole too, Jesus wasn't born on Christmas Day, he was born in March.


There are many parallels between Jesus and Egyptian gods Osiris & Horas too:

Halloween was a Celtic festival and has been rebranded in Christian countries as a 'Day for all Souls'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Even the idea of transubstantiation, the crux of the Catholic mass, isn't originally a Christian idea. The same goes for the virgin birth. They were all lifted from other previous religions.

Some religious scholars even claim that during Jesus' missing years he studied as a Buddhist monk, many of his parables and stories certainly share many, many similarities with Buddhist teachings.

Do your own research and make you up own minds, don't mindfully swallow everything the Church(es) tell you.

I did not know that, so how does it work?


I agree with you about certain traditions belonging to other religions and cultures and having been taken on by the Catholic Church but the Church does not deny this, this is the normal course of events, new religion always builds itself upon the older religions. The great thing about Christianity is that it features many, many pagan customs so it is not so difficult to accept by pagans and I think that was the idea of the early Christians: to make it more familiar for the pagans.

Well, I woulldn't say it's a great thing, but it was certainly done so that pagans would switch their beliefs without spending too much brain power on it. I just wish that more people knew that Christianity lifted so much from older religions.

True! I agree, but I understand that for political reasons Poland needs Christianity right now, it is our big strength and so I do not want to criticise it because today people do not offer much of constructive criticism on the subject of Catholic Church but only jump on it because it has become a popular trend.

That's all falling away rather. I don't see any great movement towards the things you seem to want though. More a case of increasing educational levels leading to more rationalism and less religion. Also for the less well educated, more television leading to other things in their lives than yesterday's superstitions.

What is falling away? In Poland religion is not falling away, it is a wishful thinking of those who want Poland to fall apart but it is not that easy to achieve in Poland, a country that always gets up from being down, so do not get your hopes up, Poland and its religion are still going strong and neopaganism consists of patriots as dedicated as those on the catholic side, and it is growing in strength, a second powerful wing is growing in Poland that is devoted to protecting Poland's interests so do not be too happy traitor.

Curious statement since all the polls and everyday's life proves the opposite...

You read too many polls manipulated by those who want you and others to think it is all insignificant now, talk to different people around Poland instead.

Not curious when one considers that the vast majority of article about those polls are in Polish and one needs to at least visit Poland in order to see what everyday life is like in Poland.

I do, everyday since I was born.

I love it when foreigners come here and tell Polish how it is in Poland, this is the impression foreigners get, they confuse our hospitality for weakness and permission to stick ones nose into Polish business, because those same foreigners would not be so cocky in their own country or their country's forums but they think they can say or write anything to Polish people, the arrogance of Westerners is unbelievable, looks like they need to be told sometimes more harshly, syndrom of the rich feeling too confident and superior towards Polish people, it is so evident on this forum.


I didn't mean talking about weather.

I didn't either.

This isn't anything new to Americans in my age group...

I am glad finally someone has come out with true words

While it is the case that Jesus probably was not born in December, there is no proof that he was born in March. I hear that Biblical scripture says summer time is more likely.

For that matter, Christmas is a pagan holiday as well, at least the way it's celebrated in Northern Europe with a tree, gifts etc.

"Easter" is related to "Ostra" and refers to a pre-Christian, Indo-Germanic fertility ritual:-) "Bunnies" were a German addition, the human fascination with the ability of certain animals to multiply in excess, hence the expression "to multiply like jack rabbits".

Yes we know Christmas was also 'religioulized.'

The term Easter is pagan and that is why I don't like to call it that, but there is no other term for it in this language. In Poland, Wielkanoc [the great night I suppose] is much more Christian, as is Boże Narodzenie for Christmas.

Yet this celebration of "Wet Monday" (Śmigus Dyngus) following Easter Sunday is distinctively Polish, I believe, yet clearly in keeping with the Christian concept of baptism as renewal, not a heathen idea at any rate.

Umm... Wet Monday is celebrated in many slavic countries, including Hungary. It may have originated in Poland but even that is uncertain.

What is wrong with using the term "Easter"? It is after all more pagan than anything else.

we've named several things that are pagan, or from some other origin....i guess the right question to ask now is.....what traditions are exclusively "Christian"?

People who disbelief in God because they have no evidence of his existence or they don't agree with the religious information that exists concerning him. If you do not believe in God how could you ever understand his existence or find a place to research a higher power.


In Christianity the Holy week is a moveable feast.

The dates for celebrating Easter and Passover are calculated the same way .
The date is the first sabbath after the first full moon after the vernal equinox .
Easter and Passover can be on different dates because the Sabbaths in each religion are different .

That's a champion effort from you brother.
Obviously you aren't following this thread properly, I've shown that the Easter traditions were lifted from earlier religions, this thread is not about whether your god exists or not, so stop trolling and please post something that's on topic.


That's an interesting question.
I can't find any.

Here are some more than the Christian church lifted from other religions/traditions

seiyaku.com/customs/pagan-symbols.html

Attendance markedly down at the churches attended by people I know in Krzyki. However, plenty attended the basket 'blessings' in shifts in other parishes towards the city centre. Far fewer younger people at the 'blessings' than I recall seeing in the past. Starting to look like the UK where the younger ones drop out.

Passover , in the Christian Bible at least, begins on the 10th of April (which is to be the first month of the year), and lasts for 7 days after the first meal on the 14th. I do not understand why most other Christians do not celebrate Passover. (The last supper was the passover meal) . So Jesus was killed on the 15th of April and came back to life 3 days later.

Easter is not something we have to celebrate (like Passover and Sabbath) - but it is nice that people do recognise a day and remember this great sacrifice.

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating.

If you wish to debate Holy week then it would be more relevant to use Judaism as an important marker over paganism.There are over 40,000 denominations within Christianity it is therefore understandable that some denominations take regional traditions into their celebrations.