Across
the world, the Christian communities today are celebrating the Festival of
Easter. The religious practice of Easter seeks to commemorate the resurrection
of Jesus Christ (as). The rituals and traditions that make up this festival have
interesting origins in the ancient world. In other words, the lineage of the
present festival and associated rituals can be traced back to the pagan worship
norms of ancient communities. As it happened, the pagan practices were adapted and
modified and transformed to a ‘Christian’ milieu. It is apparent that to
accommodate the deviations from the original message of Jesus (as), much
theological engineering was done to reshape and reconstruct the belief systems
within Christianity as well. In his Friday Sermon of 29 March 2013, the
Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius throws
searching light on the pagan origins of these Christian religious practices by
drawing upon the studies and writings of Christian scholars.
Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:
Easter
is a day that is honoured by nearly all of contemporary Christianity and is
used to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Hazrat Isa (as)).
Christian believes that Jesus (as) rose again from the dead three days and
three nights after he was crucified. The holiday often involves a church
service at sunrise, a feast which includes an “Easter Ham”, decorated eggs and
stories about rabbits. Free thinking Christian scholars in bewilderment have
often questioned all these incongruous activities. Why rabbits? Why not a puppy
or any other animals? Rabbits do not lay eggs, why not orange or onions etc.,
because they also roll. Why are these traditions
so ingrained in Easter Sunday? And what do they have to do with the
resurrection of Jesus?
Those who love truth learn to ask
questions, and many questions must be asked regarding the holiday of Easter. Is
it truly the day when Jesus (as) arose from the dead? Where did all of the
strange customs come from, which have nothing to do with the “resurrection” of the
Mosaic Messiah (as)?
Easter and Easter symbols beg for an
explanation and a systematic analysis of this religious celebration. The first
thing we must understand is that professing Christians were not the only ones
who celebrated a festival called “Easter.”
Many children are made to believe that the
Easter Bunny brings their share of
Easter eggs and this man-made ritual is played out in many western countries,
especially so in the United States of America. The story behind the Easter
Bunny defies any rhyme or reason for adoption by a religion which claims to be
established by God, the All Wise and the Source of All Wisdom. Bunnies, eggs, Easter gifts and fluffy, yellow chicks
in gardening hats all stem from pagan roots. These tropes were incorporated
into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of
honouring the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This thus leads our
attention of the festival to Easter itself.
What is Easter? Just like the popular
Christmas festival, Easter festival also stems from pagan sources. “Ishtar” which is pronounced “Easter”, was
a day that commemorated the resurrection of one of the Pagan gods that they
called “Tammuz”, who was believed to be the only begotten son of the
moon-goddess and the sun-god of the ancient civilization. It was said that Ishtar
was the goddess of love and fertility and that her love for Tammuz caused him
to be sent to the underworld.
And Tammuz is the son of the sun-god who
is none other than Nimrod. After the Flood, Prophet Noah had a talented, but
evil, great-grandson named Nimrod (Genesis
10: 6-10) who rebelled greatly against God. The Bible says that he was “a
mighty one”. Jewish
tradition indicates that Nimrod
was a tyrant “who made all of the people rebellious against God.” It is evident from history that Nimrod
was not only a political leader, but also the lead priest of a form of occult
worship. Thus,
Nimrod built and organized major cities. The Bible notes that these
included Babel, Asshur, Nineveh and Calah (Genesis 10:10-12). These were cities of
great, almost unimaginable practices and perversion.
When Nimrod eventually died, the
Babylonian mystery religion in which he figured prominently continued on. His
wife Queen Semiramis saw to that.
Once he was dead, she deified him as the Sun-god. In various cultures he later
became known as Baal, the Great Life Giver, the god of fire, Baalim, Bel,
Molech, etc. And when she gave birth to a son, she declared that the baby,
“Tammuz” was Nimrod reincarnated, and she said that he was born without the
intervention of any human. Thus, she became known as being a virgin mother, without being one
actually.
The
Quran mentions the worship of the false god, Baal in these terms:
“And indeed, Elias was from among the
messengers, When he said to his people, "Will you not fear Allah? Do you
call upon Baal and leave the best of creators – Allah, your Lord and the Lord
of your first forefathers?”
(37: 124-127)
Prophet Elijah (Elias) came much after Prophet
Ibrahim (as), and it was the second coming of Elijah whom the Jews awaited, but
instead Yahya (John the Baptist) and Isa (Jesus) who made their appearance as
the second coming of Elijah and the Messiah the heir of David respectively.
And
it was Nimrod who was the greatest enemy of Hazrat Ibrahim (as), the Prophet
and Friend of Allah. It was Nimrod who tried to burn him alive before Allah
came to his rescue, by commanding the fire: “O fire, be coolness and safety for Ibrahim.”
(21: 70)
The following are some sources who have talked about the Easter
festival:
“The
name Easter may have come from Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of spring, or from
Tectonic festival of spring called Eastur.”
(The World Book Encyclopaedia; vol. VI, page 25).
Reverend
Alexander Hislop in tracing the worship of a
goddess Mother and her divine son writes on pages 20 and 21 of his book “The
Two Babylons”:
“The
origin of that mother, so widely worshiped, there is reason to believe, was Semiramis, who was worshipped by the
Babylonians, and other eastern nations under the name of Rhea, the great Goddess Mother. Certain feasts were celebrated
connected with the only begotten divine son of the virgin mother… The feast of
Astarte or Ishtar, the queen of the heavens or the virgin goddess of spring and
fruitfulness, was observed on the first Sunday after the full moon following
the “spring Equinox”. The Vernal Equinox
occurred at that time when the sun in its elliptical revolution, as it passed
the Equator, made the shape of a cross in the constellation of Aries or the
‘Lamb’. This was taken as the triumph of the sun-God, whose virgin queen
had succeeded in rescuing her only begotten son, who had sacrificed his life to
the power of darkness to a save humanity and sent him to heaven to look after
his believers. Therefore, he became “Aries” or “The Lamb” of the heavens. This
event is celebrated with hot-cross buns; the round bun represents the sun and
the cross on it is the magical sign made by the sun, which saved the saviour
from the imprisonment of the forces of the darkness.”
The name for Easter in some languages
comes from the Hebrew ‘Pesah’. Spanish speaking people call Easter, ‘Pascua’.
The Italians call Easter, ‘Pasqua’ and the French, the ‘Pasques’. Many customs
connected with the Easter season come from the Pagan festivals of spring.
Others stem from the Passover celebration (The World Book Encyclopaedia; Vol. VI p.26).
The triumph of the Sun-god was,
therefore and quite naturally ascribed to the influence of Aries (the Lamb of
the Heavens). The Lamb thus became the symbol of the Rising saviour and his
passage from the underworld into the height of heaven. (Pagan and Christian
Creed, p.39)
In “The
Golden Bough”, p.348-356, Frazer writes about the Phrygian virgin-born son
of God who was bled to death hanging crucified from a pine tree. His blood
renewed the fertility of the earth and thus brought new life to humanity. He
also rose from the dead.
Frazer states:
“In
celebrating his death and resurrection, his image was fastened to a pine-tree
cut in a form of a cross on March 24th and the day was called “The
Day of Blood” since on that day the deity was bled to death. The image was then
laid in a tomb, when there was wailing and mourning. But the coming night
changed their sorrow to joy. The tomb was found empty on the next morning, i.e.
25th March, when the festival of the resurrection was celebrated.
These rituals included a baptism of blood and a sacramental meal.”
Christian faith contends that Sunday was
the day on which Christ rose from the dead and that his resurrection is the
very reason for observing Easter. But, to add further to this plight, the
scriptures do not support the contention that Christ’s resurrection occurred on
a Sunday.
Easter
rites start with Lent, 40 days during which the fast of the faithful is based
on the self-restrictions which they impose upon themselves as a sign of fasting.
The origin and the significance of Lent itself are muffled in obscurity.
According to the “Catholic Encyclopaedic Dictionary”: “The origin of the penitential season of Lent is obscure, its length
has varied in different ages, but the principle of a fast of forty days (Lat;
Quadragesima, It; Quaresima, Fr; Carême) has been recognised since the fourth
century.”
Hoeh,
in “Plain Truth”, 1983
states:
“The
Lent was observed 2,000 years before Christ was born. The source of the word Lent
is an old English word Lencten meaning the ‘spring’ of the year as the Lent was
originally celebrated with the coming of the spring season. These days it has
been changed in winter. The Bible is
silent about Lent. It did not originate with Christ. None of the apostles
celebrated it, not even Paul or Peter.”
About 100 years after the death of the
last of the 12 apostles, there is the mention of Lent and Easter in a letter
written by Irenaeus, a bishop from
Gaul (modern day France) to the bishop of Rome which mentions the controversies
in these words:
“For
the controversy is not only concerning the day (Easter) but also concerning the
very manner of the fast, for some think that they should fast one day, others
two, yet others more, and some forty.”
There was nothing certain or definite
about Easter or Lent at that time. Jesus and his disciples had not addressed
this question as none of them practised it and the coming generations were left
in darkness and without guidance to the design of their own minds, even though
the observance of these customs had originated long before the birth of Jesus. And
the bishop, Irenaeus moreover observed that its observance has not originated
in our times, but long before, in the time of our ancestors. It is likely they did not hold to strict
accuracy, and thus formed a custom for their posterity according to private
fancy. (Eusebius:
Church History; Book 5, Chapter 24).
Eggs, being one of the different fancies
which the Pagans and later Christians added to the Easter festival, represent
the new life that returns to nature about Easter time. The custom of exchanging eggs began in ancient Egyptians and Persians
often dyed eggs in spring colours and gave them to their friends as gifts.
The Persians believed that the earth had hatched from a giant egg! It was but
natural niche amongst the dogmas of Trinity and bodily Resurrection. Early
Christian of Mesopotamia were first to use coloured eggs for Easter.
Other sources indicate that the Easter
eggs probably came from Germany. For example, “The World Book Encyclopaedia”
states:
“This
belief probably comes from Germany. One legend says that a poor woman dyed some
eggs during the famine, and hid them in a nest as an Easter gift for her
children. Just as the children discovered the nest, a big rabbit leaped away.
The story spread that the rabbit had brought the Easter eggs.”
This clearly denotes that Lent was not
commanded by God but rather it came into the Church through Pagan customs and
private desires of the later generations who wanted to add the attractions of
the false gods worship and include it in a festival of their own making, which
they named Easter, in memory of that Pagan festival, and much later, that
festival became so much an integral part of Christianity that the years of its
observance made the newer generations ignorant of its true origins which is all
but divinely commanded or observed by either Jesus , his disciples or even the
past prophets of God.
May the Almighty God illumine the hearts of all Christians worldwide
so that they cease to be blinded by the blend of Pagan traditions which the
Church has let creep into Christianity in order to Christianize the Pagan, but
instead of Christianizing the Pagans, they have Paganised the Christians, and allowed
in Christianity all that what is most hated in the sight of the True Almighty
God and all His prophets. May the light of truth
be apparent for them, and for all humanity, because only Islam has opened the
doors of the divine light which shows the truthfulness of all prophets of God
and that of the Pure Dogma and teachings derived from God. Insha-Allah, Ameen.