Any other Christians annoyed at what society has turned Easter into?

[Opol]

I’m resigned that the same has been done to Christmas. But for me that is “only” the birth of Christ.

As a Roman Catholic, Easter is of far more importance to me. For me, God’s love for humanity meant he sacrificed his only son. Jesus’ resurrection is literally the embodiment of the victory of light over darkness, good over evil etc.

I don’t wish to gate keep but seeing it reduced to Easter baskets and chocolate rabbits is unpleasant to witness. I’m more annoyed at society making everything hollow and superficial via consumerism and over consumption.

To be honest i get equally annoyed that Christians came along and took what was a perfectly natural, cheerful celebration of spring, & merged it with their religious festival.

Easter = Eostre/Eastre, west germanic goddess of spring

Please respect that most of us aren't Christians, and aren't celebrating the resurrection of jesus. We're celebrating:

• spring (chicks, lambs, flowers etc)
• fertility/new life (rabbits - its bloody obvious why, eggs)
• the return of abundant food after the winter (sweet foods eg eggs).

I assume someone has made this point already (haven't RTFT) but it's like turning Ramadan into a weight-loss opportunity.

OP, two-thirds of posters agree with you.

Hear, hear. This thread is a perfect example of people claiming to follow the word of Jesus yet behaving horrifically towards others.

Because it is a Christian country. We are not a secular country.
It is what it is.
Its currently irrelevant what most people do or believe in, we are still a Christian, actually Church of England, country.

When they were, in my country anyway, it resulted in no end of misery. 'Christ's teachings ' is too open to interpretation and abuse. I think most people are taught right from wrong, at home and at school nowadays. (Most people). So I'm not sure Christ is required. I think people have a sense of right and wrong. If they choose to take the wrong path, let them face the consequences.

Today I was goddess of spring, I weeded the garden, divided some plants and sowed seeds for new life. I also watched the fresh lambs, born yesterday and the birds building their nests.
That's what easter is about, not religion. Religion is just a form of control.

@SkyBloo

"Please respect that most of us aren't Christians, and aren't celebrating the resurrection of jesus. We're celebrating:"

Let's be honest here most people are celebrating two bank holidays and stuffing their faces with chocolate they are most definitely not celebrating flowers, lambs or rabbits (except for the Lindt chocolate variety).

It is a Christian country because it is, despite most people not being Christian.

That's a crap argument.

At least other countries that have a State Religion tend to have a majority of people in the country who believe in that religion

Please would people stop repeating the myth that Easter was originally a pagan celebration and was appropriated by Christians. A succinct explanation here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5LupYwusr6/?igsh=M2d1Y2tqempvNWFx

Yes, and it's about time that we disestablished the church and got rid of this anachronism.

People are entitled to follow whichever faith they wish, but the reality is that Christianity is an irrelevance to most people in the UK these days, so it is absurd to still have any formal relationship between the church and the state.

We can acknowledge the historical significance of Christianity in this country and the influence that it has had on British culture while recognising there is no longer any justification for having a state religion in modern British society.

This

Yes, that's it. Not off Google, off any historian that treats the subject. No ranting, no telling anyone what religious or cultural observance they should follow. Just pointing out that there is a very long historic record for Christianity and for Judaism, and there is practically no historic record for Eostre.

That's not the point I was making. Islam, Buddhism etc, have no points of reference for me. Christianity does. I'm not a Christian but my cultural life and values have been shaped by Christianity.

But what effect would disestablishing the Church have on that?

You talked about your cultural life being diminished?

Why?

Christmas and Easter would still exist.

This is one historians interpretation of it.

Many others don’t agree. Bede wasn’t the only person to mention Eostre, another scholar (whose name I forget) also did. Also it makes no sense for Bede, who was a monk trying to wipe out the Pagan religion, to invent a Goddess and festival.

In truth, we won’t know what really happened. As we don’t with most of history, especially as the Romans loved to twist the truth here and there. But this man saying it’s wrong is not correct either saying it was purely invented by Grimm, that’s not true.

Do a deep dive into it. There are arguments on both sides. But this man, who is a scholar of the Bible, declaring he knows the truth when many other reliable historians say differently, is suspicious.

My 5 year old daughter woke up in the middle of the night last week in floods of tears because she had a nightmare about 'jesus'. When I spoke to her she told me her teacher had told the class that 'jesus' was NAILED to a wooden cross through his hands and feet until he died. I've never told my children how much I despise religion of any kind until that night when I told her 'jesus' is a fictional character like Harry Potter or Peppa Pig. It's all character building though I suppose, next week she'll probably be told "allah" will reward her with 72 virgins in paradise if she becomes a suicide bomber.

Humans have always celebrated spring, traditionally there was a long, cold winter with a hungry gap.(before Tesco)
Spring brings new life, fresh food, longer, warmer days. How can that not have been celebrated?

Oh really? Not what I have read ... 'Easter actually originated as an ancient pagan celebration of the spring equinox. In Christianity, the day was dedicated to observing the resurrection of Jesus Christ, celebrated around the time of the Jewish Passover. As the Gospel of Christ spread, early Christians who did not participate in Jewish customs eventually merged their ceremonies with the pagan spring festival, recognizing Easter as "resurrection day.” '

What a wonderful world we would live in if Christ's teachings were embraced by the many

Really? The periods in which Christ's teachings were embraced by the many were littered with the oppression of women, religious wars, slavery.....

I think we are quite a bit better off without organised religion.

All four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The Epistles are all predicated on the Crucifixion and the resurrection. As indeed is the Book of Revelation. So all 27 books of the New Testament.

Its forerunner, Passover, is first mentioned in the Book of Exodus and then throughout the other historic books of the Old Testament.

Or a Tony's Chocolonely FLAT 2D EGG #scandal 😂#TAAT

Luckily she is the most chilled out little thing but they just got 2 bog standard £1.25 eggs each 😎

As a Christian, I don't mind other people celebrating Easter in their own ways. Makes no odds to me and my family. Hope everyone has had a lovely day.

But I did cringe at the thread because for some weird reasons, atheists pop up on these threads to be hostile to Christianity. Quite a few posts on this thread would never be allowed to stand if someone was saying the equivalent about another religious group or religion as well.

I hear you OP, but you're never going to get much support in AIBU! People would argue the toss about anything here!

I have had a lovely time at church in the past four days, hanging out with my local RC community. I focus on our services and ignore the commercial tat.

TBH, I don't find Easter that bad but the several month retail festival that is Christmas is awful. I'm happy to find solace in the church and keep myself to myself.

I wish you a blessed and holy Easter. Come over to the religion forum where there is a lovely chat about our favourite Holy Week hymn.

Nobody is stopping you from your religious celebrations but it’s 2024, it shouldn’t be a surprise to you that most people are not religious and Easter is more about having time off work, relaxing and spending time with family.

Why are you still ignoring me? I want to know why you think it’s acceptable to mock others beliefs yet demand we pay respect to yours?! You’ve been incredibly insulting.

There’s a longer record for Christianity because the Romans recorded it all. But that doesn’t mean Paganism didn’t exist before Christians.

And Bede and a 9th century scholar both referenced Eostra. Bede making up a Goddess for the religion he was trying to destroy makes no sense. And you keep arguing that more historians believe he invented it, yet I haven’t seen that. It’s generally accepted it was the case and some historians have been skeptical and are saying it was made up.

I could sit here and point out all the historians who say Jesus was made up and so on and so forth but I don’t do that because I’m not a dick. But you keep going.