Is Easter based on a pagan tradition?

[A_Nony_Mouse]

Major Christian holidays bear resemblance to pagan traditions in two ways:

A "god" being born around the winter solstice.

A "dying and resurrecting god" being sacrificed in spring/summer.

Even if you take away the festival parts of Christmas and the eggs and rabbits part of Easter, which surely harken back to pagan bits, you still have those two major themes. These are common pagan themes.

The Jews were once polytheistic insofar as way back in the day there were tribes of people who used to worship polytheistic deities and eventually those tribes moved over to monotheism, probably still bearing some of the symbols they originally held for festivals.

Pardon but you need to extend your atheism to the Judean Yahweh cult and learn what they were really all about. There is mention of temple to Ashara next to the Atonine Barris (Barracks of Anthony, the HQ of the Roman garrison) which was described as being on what is now called the temple mount for no good reason. The Judeans were polytheists in Roman times. They were also not Galileans, Samaritans or Idumaens. Those three were forced to adopt the Judean Yahweh cult practices or die if they did not leave all their lands peacefully. Meaning Islam did not invent spreading by conquest.

There is no evidence of monotheism in the ancient world until the 'there is no god but god' thing from Islam. After that both Christians and Jews adopted the idea. Anyone who can find a clear statement of one and only one god prior to Islam is invited to present it. It is incredibly simple to write, there is only one god. No argumentation that something that sort of sounds like it really means that is acceptable. We have only one god it not the same as there is only one god.

But again, while those symbols are there, the holiday itself of Passover, if it once had something to do with a pagan festival, has fuck all to do with it now. The myth may have been invented after a "spring feast" but it certainly took it over to the point that the holiday isn't about the spring, it isn't about fertility, it isn't about anything at all except this false story of escaping Egyptians and wandering around in the desert. So I'm not sure what the fuck you're actually looking for.

I have read no one suggesting Seder is any more related to its original purpose than is present day Christmas to its original form. But the things celebrating it such as having a big ceremonial feast are quite common with vernal equinox celebrations. If I were guessing I would say the special types of food for Passover are also those that can be harvested earliest like radishes. If I remember correctly Spring is when the first lambs are slaughtered for the dinner table. Beginning to sound familiar?

And just so there is no demand for nearly identical parallels almost everything about Christmas celebrations appeared in the last couple centuries.

I'm not trying to make this holiday out as something special because it "isn't" pagan. I'm just stating my opinion based on years of celebration of a holiday in which the only "spring" that was let into the house were the flowers I brought in. The rest was false reminisces on

the end of

sorrows and tribulations. Trust Jews to figure out a way to feel like shit when everything is blooming.

The lachrymose view of history always gets in the way of reality. Consider the whining about persecution by European Christians. I note it is the only religion that survived contact with Christians. One should count ones blessings instead of damning what happened for their own stupidity in not converting.

If you want to find something with more 'pagan' roots, I suggest you find a holiday like Sukkot, which is a harvest feast, and not a holiday based on an event.

For that I would look to the one that starts by a rule similar to Ramadan and note both involved Venus and the moon. I would be similar to the present day Women of the Wall who keep getting arrested for praying at the Wailing Wall at the beginning of every lunar month. That is purely an Ashara/women's thing if anything is.