Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a consort, Attis, who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. Attis was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25.
Gerald L. Berry, author of “Religions of the World,” wrote:
“About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill …Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.“ 3 Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians:
“… used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation.” Many religious historians and liberal theologians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus’ life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus’ life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity.
Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. 4 Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value with no connection to Jesus. They regard Jesus’ death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.
Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer’s crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding.
Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. In those places where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.
What concern is it to you about Easter? Your religion is LIFE and I am your prophet. We have nothing to do with the Jewish Jesus. We are racially different from Jesus and his Jewish people am I right.
MY RELIGION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU HARRY ,,,,NOTHING ,,YOUR NO DIFFERENT THEN THE RABBIT IN THE PIC ,,,CARTOON !
Monday, April 1st 2013 at 3:28PM
DAVID JOHNSON
David,
Of course, your religion has everything to do with me because both of us are Black Americans and I am my brothers’ keeper stupid!
I don’t what to see you go astray and still mentally dead minded. I came to resurrect you and all 41 million Black Americans as Moses resurrected the Children of Israel.
my brothers’ keeper haha like Cain killed his brother, Abel, and lied to GOD ,,,hell NO,,Harry you are not my brothers keeper you are the root cause for the down fall of the black race your no different then the white man
the white mane want to keep blacks down mentally,BY BLEIVING EVERYTHING HE SAYS ,, HARRY will put the brothers and sisters down for not going along with his foolishness as to being a prophet ,,HARRY has done nothing to help the growth of our youth ,nothing to help the poor blacks ,nothing to help the older blacks ,,,Harry has done nothing for black people but ranting and raving like a raving lunatic definition:mentally deranged person Synonyms: dement, fruitcake, head case, lunatic, madman, madwoman, maniac, mental defective, neurotic, non compos, nutter,
get some HELP ,,,HARRY ! ,,FACT !
Tuesday, April 2nd 2013 at 8:13PM
DAVID JOHNSON
David,
The slogan, “am I by brother’s keeper?’ you are looking at it out of the eyes of Cain and you know that Cain was wrong because he killed his brother out of jealousy. In other words, Cain should have been looking out for Adel like I am looking out for you and 41 million more Black Americans.
Have you researched the topic of this blog? Does/will your religion LIFE have a Spring equinox celebration, since every Spring is given to us by the hand of God?
