Do Catholics celebrate Easter

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SonSearcher said:
But you have never been there have you? How do you know it truly exists without experiencing it, you know because you are so evidential in need.
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Good point. Maybe it does not exist. I will think on that 🙂
 
The title of your thread makes no sense if you are not sincerely seeking answers.
 
aprilfloyd said:
Simply, my question is why use a word associated with a different goddess , for a popular day in the Catholic Calendar, I asked it because it is nearly ‘Easter’
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People have given you hints at the right answer to this question, but nobody has quite spelled it out.

First, you can forget about Ishtar. “Easter” comes from the name of a Germanic/Teutonic goddess, while Ishtar was an Assyrian/Babylonian goddess. They were not worshipped within a thousand miles or a thousand years of each other. The names of the two goddesses probably both derive from a common Proto-Indo-European linguistic root referring to dawn or the east, but that is the only connection between them.

So, if not Ishtar, did the Church decide to name its key feast after the Teutonic goddess Eostre? No. Because Eostre was celebrated in the spring, eventually her name became the term for a month-long period of springtime. Subsequently, when Germany was Christianized, the name of that month was given to the great Christian feast that falls in it.

Let me give you a parallel case. The word “Wednesday” comes from the name of the Germanic god Woden (whose Scandinavian form you know better as Odin), and literally means “Woden’s Day.” Over time, it just became the name of the day; you didn’t have to be a believer in Woden to call hump-day “Wednesday.” For historical reasons, that’s just the word for it. And that’s why it would make no sense to claim that the Church “named Ash Wednesday after Odin,” or that “Ash Wednesday has pagan roots in Odin-worship,” or something like that. The same, mutatis mutandis, is true of Easter and the “pagan roots” of its name in Germanic-derived languages.

Does that make sense?
 
SonSearcher said:
I mean that is sinister in and of itself.

You reduce the single Holiest few days of the Catholic Liturgical year to a little fun with the kiddies eating chocolate. and add on to that the ancient heresy of denying Jesus’ divinity and you have an action packed slap in the face.
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Don’t take all this too seriously - not every one believes what you believe. I am sure there are many religious festivals you don’t follow
 
MarkThompson said:
People have given you hints at the right answer to this question, but nobody has quite spelled it out.

First, you can forget about Ishtar. “Easter” comes from the name of a Germanic/Teutonic goddess, while Ishtar was an Assyrian/Babylonian goddess. They were not worshipped within a thousand miles or a thousand years of each other. The names of the two goddesses probably both derive from a common Proto-Indo-European linguistic root referring to dawn or the east, but that is the only connection between them.

So, if not Ishtar, did the Church decide to name its key feast after the Teutonic goddess Eostre? No. Because Eostre was celebrated in the spring, eventually her name became the term for a month-long period of springtime. Subsequently, when Germany was Christianized, the name of that month was given to the great Christian feast that falls in it.

Let me give you a parallel case. The word “Wednesday” comes from the name of the Germanic god Woden (whose Scandinavian form you know better as Odin), and literally means “Woden’s Day.” Over time, it just became the name of the day; you didn’t have to be a believer in Woden to call hump-day “Wednesday.” For historical reasons, that’s just the word for it. And that’s why it would make no sense to claim that the Church “named Ash Wednesday after Odin,” or that “Ash Wednesday has pagan roots in Odin-worship,” or something like that.

Does that make sense?
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It makes sense. I have read other views though. I must admit I did like the Norse gods when I was a kid, probably still my favourites
 
aprilfloyd said:
Don’t take all this too seriously - not every one believes what you believe. I am sure there are many religious festivals you don’t follow
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But see that is the difference between myself and you.
I take my life seriously, you don’t.
I live for the One True God, you don’t.
I found my life completely on the fullness of Truth in God Christ Jesus, you don’t, you found your life on a relative wishy washy version of truth that changes from person to person.

and of course I don’t follow many religious festivals because where they may contain certain truths, those truths are inherited from the One True God.
 
aprilfloyd said:
I have read other views though.
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No doubt you have. There are a lot of people very heavily invested in this sort of claim, mostly (1) ultra-Protestants, bent on showing that they are real Christians while Catholics are the paganistic Whore of Babylon, and, ironically, (2) neo-Pagans, determined to prove that their practices are “mainstream” by convincing people that the mainstream was actually pagan all along.
 
SonSearcher said:
But see that is the difference between myself and you.
I take my life seriously, you don’t.
I live for the One True God, you don’t.
I found my life completely on the fullness of Truth in God Christ Jesus, you don’t, you found your life on a relative wishy washy version of truth that changes from person to person.

and of course I don’t follow many religious festivals because where they may contain certain truths, those truths are inherited from the One True God.
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It depends on what you mean by seriously. I find being a living human being on this planet quite a bizarre and unusual experience. I don’t fully understand how or why I came to be and will not know or understand how I cease to be. It’s all fascinating. I was born into a Catholic family who believes in the same ‘God’ as the protestant families across the street, yet they both fight and sometimes kill each other. It makes no sense. I have a short time on this planet before I expire and cease to be and this little trip has been fun but also surreal.
 
aprilfloyd said:
It depends on what you mean by seriously. I find being a living human being on this planet quite a bizarre and unusual experience. I don’t fully understand how or why I came to be and will not know or understand how I cease to be. It’s all fascinating. I was born into a Catholic family who believes in the same ‘God’ as the protestant families across the street, yet they both fight and sometimes kill each other. It makes no sense. I have a short time on this planet before I expire and cease to be and this little trip has been fun but also surreal.
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Your family kills people?
Just kidding, see that is not being serious.

I am serious… deadly serious at how I view my faith. I would call your world view nonchalant and indifferent and I wish to live my life with zeal for the One True God. Good night and I hope we can continue to discuss things on here.

Your inquiries always drive me to a deeper conversion. God Bless You Senora.
 
aprilfloyd said:
The roots in paganism - Ishtar goddess of fertility
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Well, never mind Easter - what about the cross as an icon? Its roots were the universal pagan symbol of a criminal’s shameful death.

Did something historical happen that forever changed the cross from pagan symbol of shame to Christian symbol of hope?

Could this same thing have occurred to the date of other pagan events?

Let’s see here… celebration of the false goddess of fertility forever changed by Christ’s defeat of death into the celebration of a new birth for mankind. What a concept! 👍
 
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