Jesus held on the cross with nails in his hands

[TaFox]

DD5 is in year 1 and has been learning about Jesus at school. Great stuff in the spirit of Easter.

The RE teacher told the class how Jesus was NAILED to the cross.

This is quite graphic for a little girl who believes that the Easter bunny will leave eggs in our garden.

Should I tell school that this is too much info for little ears?

It isn't called 'Easter' in Hebrew. The two dates are close together so I would imagine at some point it was easier to just use the existing Germanic Spring festival name to cover the new Christian festival

And as for the confusion of 'Immaculate Conception' with 'Virgin Birth' .....

It’s ridiculous teaching 5 year olds about religion. They don’t have the concept of myth vs fact vs belief etc. If parents care they can tell their own children themselves. And of course the UK is a country in which a whopping 6% of people are practising Christians. Stick to the eggs and bunnies, at least that part of fun and encapsulates the wider meaning of Easter which predates Christianity.

Not time immemorial. Just since the Romans brought Christianity to our shores and forced it upon us. Before that the British isles has a huge amount of history and ‘religion’ was a more Pagan style tradition that followed the seasons and we worshipped the sun and nature.

So actually Easter IS about bunnies and chicks (ie new life) as the festival of Ostara/Eostre was celebrating new life, springtime, the return of the warmer days and the sunshine for centuries before Christianity arrived here. Christianity appropriated that festival and called it Easter and added a story of new life/being reborn into it (ie Jesus on the cross/resurrection).

@AmethystSparkles you’re right, apologies for mistyping.

Well, yes, but ... if you're interested, check out How Does the Spring Equinox Relate to the Timing of Passover?

As Rabbi Posner points out, "The primary factor, which overrode all others [for the Sanhedrin deciding this actual date from year-to-year], was the spring equinox."

Given that the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt most likely happened in the C13th BCE, I think it's probably unlikely that Passover is based on the Celtic pagan celebration of the Vernal Equinox. It is based on the date of the Paschal moon, the first full moon after the equinox, of course it is, no one would dispute that. It's dating is probably tied to the goddess Ishtar, but I don't know enough about early Sumerian/Mesopotamian/Canaanite religion to be definitive. I expect eggs were involved but I very much doubt bunnies were.

It is untrue, though, to say that Christianity hijacked a pagan festival for Easter. It is based on the date of the Passover, when Jesus was crucified. This is obvious from the name of Easter in many other languages. We used Easter probably because the word would have been somewhat familiar to native people when Christianity was introduced by the Romans and then reintroduced by the Celtic missionaries.

Ostara/Eostre is absolutely the origins of Easter. It’s clear from the wording!
It an old English tradition from LONG before Christianity was brought here by the romans.

It’s the same with Xmas. Our ancient ancestors celebrated Yule which was around the winter solstice and celebrated the return of the sun (or son 🤔!).

I haven't read the full thread but you should probably let your daughter know they didn't nail people to the cross by their palms as this wouldn't support the weight.

It's much more likely the nails went through the bones of the forearm.

That is fascinating. I knew about the three year leap year but not the Sanhedral judgement on how when to add an extra month previous to the standardising.

It’s the same with Xmas. Our ancient ancestors celebrated Yule which was around the winter solstice and celebrated the return of the sun (or son 🤔!).

Also a myth. Quite an outdated one now

https://www.google.com/amp/s/ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/christmas-isnt-pagan/%3famp

Looks like an unbiased source…….

Ostara is the origin of the word Easter in English. But Easter is not an English festival. As I said above, it's probably called Easter here because the pronunciation of the original British/Celtic term was probably already familiar to native speakers, so church fathers decided to keep the name when they introduced Christianity to the people.

Excuse my ignorance for being wrong about pre Christian rituals and Osteria but didn't people also sacrifice to the gods??

Apologies for being wrong there too -- I don't want to start a bun fight.....

@Whereareallthemillionaires that's good to know, mine are home ed, so I cover things from all angles. As an atheist, I think it's how I can give them broadest approach. I know when I was at senior school, I did a project on witchcraft in RE, but I didn't know if things like the Pagan beliefs were looked at.

I literally got taught the same thing

Literally thought nothing of it and can't say I'm scarred for life op

Did Ostara/Eostre predate Christianity in the British Isles? I'm not sure she did. She arrived with Germanic invaders/settlers (who eventually became the Anglo Saxons) in the post-Roman era. Christianity first arrived in the Roman era.

I don’t believe it but that’s what’s in the bible and what was being taught in religious studies. I can’t believe you read all this and can’t comprehend what I said.

Ah that's fine then. Let's give her the detailed facts. Never mind she is in reception!

@benefitstaxcredithelp Nope, not true for Christmas either. A lot of these ideas are outdated Victorian scholarship which have since been found to be completely wrong

I tried reading some of it, it's horrendously biased.

Err...

It's all a work of fiction @TaFox .

I failed to see the 't' on the end of rabbit and considered converting!

I was raised Catholic, we’ve heard it all from a very young age. In fact watching any kind of depiction of The Crucifixion was pretty normal for us wains from a young age.
You can’t have a proper Easter without blood, nails and an empty tomb I’m afraid.

Honestly, as a child I loved fun facts like these. I loved Horrible History too like most children!