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?