easter cruelty

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Kat
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easter cruelty

Post by Kat »

I'm very offended by the christian tradition of easter. in case u don't know, it's about sticking a huge silver stick all the way through a dead lamb at its whole body while turning it over fire. later they dye eggs red to symbolize jesus blood on the cross, they bring the dyed eggs together with force contesting whose egg will break. blood and death celebrated. they go to church where jesus is supposed to be resurrected etc. is it just me or are all those customs insulting? especially what they do to the lamb insults not as a wiccan but as a greek too.
u see, long ago, turks where enemies of my coutry; they even made us slaves to them for 400 years. Anyway they did exactly that with the silver stick through whole body to torture a greek man turks where opposed to. And now christians do that same thing to poor lambs. how u see these customs? maybe I'm insulted coz of our history with the turks? or is it insulting to every pagan?
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Xiao Rong
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Re: easter cruelty

Post by Xiao Rong »

Ahh, hmm, I've never heard of the Easter tradition of roasting a lamb on a silver spit, nor the breaking of dyed eggs. I don't celebrate Easter, but growing up in a heavily Christian area, I know many of the Easter traditions in America (mostly the Easter Egg Hunt, the Easter Bunny, consuming Peeps or microwaving them until they explode ... Okay, the last one isn't REALLY a tradition) ... So I can't say for certain what Greece's traditions mean, but I do want to point out that roasting animals on a spit doesn't sound to me like a particular Christian or an anti-Pagan thing. It's a method of cooking (probably one of the earliest methods), which I'm sure many ancient Pagans did, both ritually and non-ritually.
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Heartsong
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Re: easter cruelty

Post by Heartsong »

I don't necessarily find it insulting. Ironic, maybe, but Easter itself doesn't offend me, nor do the traditions many Christians celebrate for Easter. I was raised in the Christian faith, and it was my understanding that it wasn't exactly death that was celebrated, but rather overcoming death. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, Christians believe that they've been granted eternal life in heaven after death. Easter then, again to my understanding, is thus focused not so much on the blood and body as it is on what happened after Christ sacrificed those parts of himself in order to save humanity. They are important components in the tradition, certainly, no argument there, but Christianity, in its essence, is supposed to be about unconditional love and life.

Does it get twisted around through interpretations, plain old human error, and ignorance? Sure it does, but not all Christians are the same, just as not all pagans are the same. And I'm sure some customs that we part of an entirely different tradition may have been incorporated into the modern holiday (pretty much all holidays, really), so its possible that the silver stick you mentioned was historically used in another manner and then adopted into Easter. I couldn't say for sure, we don't even eat lamb where I live (which is unusual since we'll eat almost anything that walks, swims, flies, or slithers around here). And our Easter traditions are basically what Xiao mentioned above, though many people attend a sunrise service at their local church.
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Kat
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Re: easter cruelty

Post by Kat »

ok I guess I'm oversensitive then. I find it cruel while it's just a method of cooking. I probably tend to be vegan? I don't know just eating a dead animal seems disgusting. and torturing it? eerr cooking it this way? yuk
that custom with the eggs that seems like they re celebrating death, it's supposed to be about overcoming death sure, about love and light. I guess I don't find the way it's done effective. e.g. a child cares only that there's no school the easter days and sees death by cross all over TV. I don't feel comfortable with this.
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Seraphin
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Re: easter cruelty

Post by Seraphin »

Maybe what you're talking here is the sacrificing of Pesach (Passover) Lamb that Jewish and some Judeo Christian Religions commemorate during Passover.

The roasting and eating of lamb was commanded by YHVH (Yahweh -- Jewish God) in Exodus Chapter 12. He Instructed the Israelities that on Nisan (April) 10 each head of the household should set aside a young male unblemished and perfect lamb. On the afternoon of the Nisan 14, the lambs were to be publicly sacrificed by the whole assembly. That night, the meat of the sacrifice was to be roasted and should be consumed with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is known as the Seder Ceremony.

While breaking of dyed eggs perhaps rooted in the ancient Zoroastrians painted eggs for Nowruz, their New Year celebration, which falls on the same month and season Passover is celebrated.

I'm not really offended by this nor consider this as cruelty because first: that's there tradition and I respect that. Second, Easter is just another pagan spring festival that was adapted by Roman Catholic Church. It's actually a mixture of Pesach of the Jewish and Ostara of the Pagans. It was actually not considered a "Christian" feast until the Fourth Century. It was the Nicaean Council ordered that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday, after the full moon, on or after the vernal equinox.
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YanaKhan
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Re: easter cruelty

Post by YanaKhan »

Kat, from what I observed, Greeks and Bulgarians can be both over-religious or to be hypocritically religious just to show what good people they are - they go to church and maybe even give donations and so on. But when it comes to food, both Greeks and Bulgarians don't really follow the christian tradition. As it's nowhere in the Bible that you have to eat a lamb on Easter. Or any animal for that matter. It's still a post- fasting period and it's not good for you to eat both eggs and lamb after 50 days of fasting. But indulging is somewhat a tradition here - if you have guests, you are supposed to put all the food you have on the table. Like people would come to visit you only to eat. And the more meat on the table, the better host you are. You know that as well as I. When I became a vegetarian, my mother decided I am sick. :lol:
It's not really celebrating death. It's more of "everyone is doing it, I have to do it". Nobody is really going that deeply about it.
As for the eggs, there is a tradition that the strongest egg is buried in the field so the crops can be as strong. And it has nothing to do with Christianity. So maybe this explains the breaking of the eggs.
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