In honor of TVUUC
Is There Nothing New Under The Sun? Easter as a UU
First
delivered at UUCB on April 8, 2007
Good morning and Happy Easter!
Easter Sunday is always a challenging one for Unitarian Universalists. Many
of us here today do not accept the literal death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ and some do not even accept it as a metaphorical truth. While Christians
throughout the land are celebrating this as their holiest day of the year, it
might interest us to explore the sources and meaning of Easter festivities.
One Spring a few years ago, some friends and I were having a lively
discussion about the origins of Easter symbols and festivities right here in the
UUCB social hall. We got the point where we were stumped on finding an original
contribution from Christianity itself. The most devout Christian at the table
piped up, “I know! We’re the only religion that turned an execution device
into a piece of jewelry.” Well I don’t know if that is being entirely fair,
but she did have a bit of a point. Christianity is a highly syncretic religion
and that is a mark of its brilliance and endurance.
Easter is derived from two ancient traditions—Judeo-Christian and pagan.
Both traditions honored death and resurrection themes following the Spring
Equinox. Historians generally accept that elements of the Christian observance
were derived from earlier pagan symbols and rites.
The name Easter likely originated with the names of an ancient God or
Goddess. Eostre was the great mother goddess of the Saxon people in Northern
Europe. It might surprise some of you when I tell you that I am almost as nuts
about Easter as I am Christmas and it has mostly to do with the fact that this
time of year is traditionally a celebration of the female aspect of divinity.
Eostre’s name is found today in the word “estrogen.”
The Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility was known as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern,
Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra,…you get the idea. There were additional
similar goddesses in the ancient world around the Mediterranean with festivals
celebrated in the springtime.
- Aphrodite in Cyprus
- Ashtoreth in Israel
- Astarte in Greece
- Demeter in Mycenae
- Hathor in Egypt
- Ishtar in Assyria
- Kali in India
Let’s look at some of the familiar aspects of contemporary Easter, shall
we?
Ancient Saxons sacrified an ox at
the feast of Eostre. The horns became a symbol for the feast and were carved
into the ritual bread. The word “buns” is derived from the Saxon would
“bound” which means sacred ox. The
symbol of the symmetrical cross used to decorate the buns represented the moon.
The heavenly body associated with the goddess, and its four quarters. There we
have Easter’s hot cross buns.
The hare and the egg, representative of fertility, were both symbols of the
Norse Goddess Ostara. Hence,
we have the Easter egg and Easter rabbit. Dyed eggs also formed part of the
rituals of the ancient, pre-Christian Babylonian mystery religions. The egg as a
symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and
Persians, who had also the custom of coloring and eating eggs during their
spring festival.
The Easter bunny has other links to antiquity. The hare is associated with
the moon in the legends of ancient Egypt and other peoples. The Egyptian word
for hare, “um,” means "open" and "period," so the rabbit
became associated with the idea of periodicity—lunar and human, and thus a
symbol of fertility and of the renewal of life. Not so surprising the rabbit
became linked with the Easter egg.
Pagans in a multitude of locals have long
recognized the flower known as the Easter lily as a holy symbol associated with
the reproductive organs so its link to fertility is also a natural one.
The Easter sunrise service may be a custom that can also be traced back to
the ancient pagan welcoming the sun God at the vernal equinox - when daytime is
about to exceed the length of the nighttime. It was a time to celebrate
the return of life and reproduction to animal and plant life alike. Worship
of the sun God at sunrise may be the religious ritual condemned by Jehovah as
recorded in the book of Ezekial.
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 fictional consort believed to have been born of a
virgin. His name was Attis and he was said to die and resurrect each year
between March 22-25.
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and pagan worship of Attis took place in
the same locale, the Christians and pagans would argue bitterly over which was
the true god and which the imitation.
Death and resurrection as a mythic motif predates Christianity for hundreds
of years. The mythic biographies of Buddha, Krishna, Osiris and Mithras all
share the same basic story. Not surprisingly, they all share a birthday around
the time of the winter solstice. Debates continue over whether or not these
aspects of Jesus’ gospel stories were included in his biography in order to
make Christian theology more acceptable to pagans in the Roman empire. Were they
deliberately grafted to entice pagan converts or were these mythic elements
adapted to Jesus’ life because they appealed to a collective unconscious and
make sense to us at a fundamental level?
My favorite part of the mythic parallels is the fact that Ostara, the
Germanic goddess associated with human and crop fertility was said to mate with
the solar god and conceive a child at the spring equinox. Guess when that child
was born…December 21. Sound familiar?
It’s no surprise to find festivals around the ancient world celebrating
spring. Whether you are a hunter gather society or an agricultural one, the end
of winter and coming of summer was welcome indeed. Near the Mediterranean, this
portion of the calendar accompanied the first sprouting of the summer’s crop
and further north it was the time for seeding. Not a big stretch to associate
fertility ritual with this time of year.
In the northern hemisphere, the earth exhibits abundant evidence of life
renewed. What better reason to celebrate the gift of life than the bounty that
brings such beauty and sustenance to human existence?
Not only did the ancient Britons and Germans celebrate a Spring festival, the
ancient Mayans celebrated a spring festival for a thousand years. Zoroastrianism
celebrates the new year at the spring equinox so not surprisingly, the Bahai
world faith, also of Iranian origin celebrates New Year’s Day at the spring
equinox as well. Passover, was originally a spring fertility festival with the
unleavened bread associated with the agricultural and the paschal lamb with the
pastoral traditions of the ancient Hebrews.
In China, a day on or near April 5
was originally a day set aside for people to offer sacrifices to their
ancestors. By the time of the
festival, the weather has turned warmer and the earth is covered in green.
Friends like to go together to the outskirts of the city to walk in the green
grass, fly kites and appreciate the beauty of spring. That is why Pure
Brightness Day is sometimes also called the 'Stepping on Greenery Festival.
There is no reason to enter into a
discussion of whether or not Christ was crucified on the 15th of
Nisan as the synoptic gospels claim or the 14th per the gospel of
John. It’s beside the point. Jesus’ death and resurrection is a theological
representation of the universal mythic theme of life overcoming death. A mythic
theme that honors, celebrates and glorifies the majesty of nature—the awesome
power of time as cyclical rather than linear. Just as the circle can
begin anew at any point, so any one of us can pick any point to renew ourselves.
This is why I have no qualms about
unabashedly celebrating Easter as a UU even though I do not maintain a belief in
the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as requisite for salvation. I am
personally uncomfortable with the notion there is something from which we need
to be saved.
When I was a little girl I would wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning—at
least according to my mother it was that early, I think she may be
exaggerating a bit—to find out what the Easter bunny had left. My family had a
light breakfast, mustn’t compete with all the chocolate to come, then had an
outdoor Easter egg hunt. We would get dressed in new clothing and attend church.
Perhaps my grandparent’s Baptist church or the base chapel, in which case we
were whatever the protestant chaplain’s denomination was at the time. After
church we went to the zoo—I’m not sure why the zoo was so integral to my
childhood Easter’s but it was—and then a ham dinner in the afternoon.
Well, this morning my children woke up to find out what the Easter bunny had
left. We had a light breakfast and had an outdoor Easter egg hunt at my
sister’s house. We put on new clothes and came to church. This afternoon
we’ll have a ham dinner. No trip to the zoo, but perhaps we’ll incorporate
that as a tradition next year.
At any rate, this is a wonderful day to share with friends and family, pass
on traditions to my children so they too can have fond memories and celebrate
the joy of life. Life can sometimes seem a bit bleak and we may find ourselves
overwhelmed and helpless in the face of our personal problems, national
tragedies and global threats. But life is a gift and a beautiful and joyous one
at that. Often all we need is a single gesture from one individual to remind us
that we deserve this gift. To whom will you bring joy and make feel worthy of
the gift today?
Ann
Copyright © 2007
Ann Fuller, April 2007
Resources
This sermon draws upon the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell, essays on Easter at beliefnet.com, various encyclopedia entries on Easter, and The Teaching Company's course Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World taught by Dr. Glenn S. Holland.