Easter (The Meaning Of)

It seems that it is almost Easter time again.

Now Easter is the most important time for Christianity. A lot happens at this time of year. There is Lent. There is Ash Wednesday. Good Friday. Easter Sunday. And in Canada there is even Easter Monday. And how can I forget Palm Sunday? Shame on me.

Jewish holidays often last over several days. Christianity has its roots deep Judisiam. Somewhere along the way, the idea of a holiday lasting several days got lost. Except for Easter.

Of course there is a reason why Easter takes up so many days. It is the most important holiday in Christianity. Without the whole "he died for the sins of man" Christianity would not be here.

So what does all this mean to me? Not a whole lot to be honest. I am not going to any sunrise service, I do not smear ash on my forehead, and I will probably eat red meat on Friday. I have to go to work on Easter Sunday, just as I have to go to work every Sunday.

QUESTION TIME! I do not get all the pagentry surrounding Easter. Of course I was not raised Catholic. So I never had to do the whole "40 days of lent" thing, and I was in my 20s when I first saw someone with ash smeared on their forehead. I could also eat meat on Friday if I wanted to.

My queston is does the bible actually say "smear ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday", "only eat fish on Friday", and "give stuff up for 40 days before Easter" - or was this stuff made up at some point by a long dead Pope?

Back to my main point. The meaning of Easter. And here it is!

The Cadbury Creme Egg candy. You can only get this item one time per year, so stock up! Once they are gone you have to wait another year to get more. I do not really like Peeps anymore, but when I was a kid I thought they were great.

And of course, on Fox they are at it again. Remember the "War on Christmas" by pagens like myself who are all Santa this and Christmas Tree that. Now the main bitch is that the evil forces of secularism is all Easter Bunny this and candy egg that. Yes, there is a "war on Easter".

To this I respond with a question. Who first associated these pagen symbols with a Christian Holiday? Why, the early church did! There is tons of evidence that the early church simply replaced pagen holidays with Christian ones. Christmas replaced the winter solstice festivals. The practice of worshiping evergreen trees turned into the "tradition" of a Christmas Tree. Pagen symbols of fertility became the "secular" Easter symbols we know today. Therefore one must conclude that the "war" was started by the church itself - on itself. Pagens did not decide to replace their festivals with some other religion, it was the church that had that idea. It was a great marketing strategy, it made spreading the new religion fairly easy. Keep all the same symbols and simply tweak the message a little bit.

Now for the million dollar question that you have all been waiting for!!!!

IF Easter is so important to Christianity, and Easter always falls the same time as Passover (the Last Supper WAS a Sader after all) - why is it that I do not get any paid holiday time? Flag Day is a paid holiday. Colombus Day is a paid holiday.

But for Easter / Passover time - no holiday time is granted. Does this make any sense to anyone? I think that I should be granted holiday time for at least one of these important days. I will give Flag Day back to my employer.