Easter

In 325 CE, the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.

From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.

Easter is a Pagan festival, it really is as simple as that.

While Pagans are celebrating the Spring Equinox, religious culture celebrates the resurrection. 

However, early Christianity accepted ancient pagan practices, most of which most people practice today at Easter. 

The death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a well worn story in the ancient world. 

There were a lot of other resurrected saviours too.

The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. 

One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. 

Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. 

Even as late as the 4th century AD, the sol invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church had to overcome. Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother. 

Dionysus also brought his mum, Semele, back to life.

It’s all about the resurrection.

Although we see no celebration of Easter in the New Testament, early church fathers celebrated it, and today many churches are offering "sunrise services" at Easter – an obvious pagan solar celebration. 

The date of Easter is not fixed, but instead is governed by the phases of the moon – that’s pretty much Pagan.

And there are all the familiar things about Easter are certainly Pagan. 

Bunnies are from the Pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. 

Exchange of eggs is an ancient custom, celebrated by many cultures. 

Hot cross buns are very ancient too. In the Old Testament we see the Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders trying to put a stop to it. 

The early church clergy also tried to put a stop to sacred cakes being baked at Easter. 

In the end, in the face of defiant cake-baking Pagan women, they gave up and blessed the cake instead.

Easter is essentially a pagan festival which is celebrated in churches for totally different reasons than they were originally were honored.

Beltane, the Gaelic May Day Festival

Beltane the May-Eve Sabbat is coming.

It marks the end of the dark half of year and the beginning of the light half of the year.

Beltane was traditionally the time to seek protection from both natural and supernatural threats. Protection for the home, the family, the crops, the livestock.

The original meaning of the name may be Bel-fire, after the Celtic God Bel or Balor - another name for Cernunnos.

In some traditions, Beltane (along with Lughnasadh) is a good time for handfasting (marriage).

Beltane is considered to be the second greatest of the four Greater Sabbats.

Beltane is traditionally celebrated on April 30th. 

The Beltane celebration actually begins on sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always figured their days from sundown to sundown. 

And sundown was the proper time for Druids to kindle the great Bel-fires.

Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires then they would be taken to their summer pastures the next day.


Other May Day activities included walking one's property ('beating the bounds'), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and girls bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty. 


But many popular customs associated with Beltane didn't exist in the Celtic pagan celebrations.

About the only thing that can be said about ancient Beltane is that it was a fire festival, and most likely not as adventitious as it is today. 

Cattle were routinely run between fires (and in the 9th Century that practice was said to involve Druids) to protect them as they moved from their winter quarters to their summer grazing-land. 

When you are dependent on cattle as a source of food, you want to do everything possible to ensure their survival, so instead of Beltaning in the woods it was more important to bless the livestock.

Fire as a source of control and good fortune wasn’t just limited to cattle, human beings jumped over fires for good luck as well. 

Up until the 1300’s history doesn't mention the Maypole, and when it eventually does get mentioned, it's not referred to as “phallic” or “ancient pagan.” 

The earliest function of the Maypole was to simply dance around it. 

There were no ribbons tied to the top of it, though it was sometimes decorated with flags. 

As time passed the May Pole was given a special dance with the ribbons going around it. 

And actually this is all kind of new, dating back to just the last few hundred years.

Also relatively recent is the notion that the Maypole is “phallic.” 

Early Maypoles were not designed or said to look that way.

But let's be honest, Beltane, for last 700 years May Day has been associated with sensuality.

Anyway, today's Beltane traditions may not necessarily be the purest form of paganism, and just because ancient Pagans probably didn’t dance around the Maypole, it doesn’t make Beltane any less fun. 

This festival officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve, and marks the beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient Celtic year. 

Honoring Beltane

April Fools Day

April Fools’ Day—celebrated on April 1 each year—has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, though its exact origins remain unclear.

While its exact history is a bit of a mystery, some historians believe that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (illustrated below), as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. 

In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. 

People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” 

These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Historians have also connected April Fools’ Day to festivals such as Hilaria (Latin for joyful), which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March by followers of the cult of Cybele. 

It involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and even magistrates and was said to be inspired by the Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris and Seth.