History of Easter Symbols

History of Easter Symbols

By: Destry Jackson

That most famous symbol of Easter, the Easter bunny, originated in the German province of Alsace during the time when the Holy Roman Empire still controlled the area.  In German, the Easter bunny is called the Osterhase, and is the Easter counterpart of Santa Claus at Christmas.  The Easter bunny arrives at the houses of little children on the night before Easter, and leaves little baskets of candy and colored eggs for the little ones.  The baskets are always hidden in certain areas of the house, ranging from the kitchen to the parlor.  It was considered a great treat for the children to go and find the Easter baskets first thing in the morning on Easter.  The first edible Easter eggs were made in Germany in the 19th century, usually made of sugar and pastry.  Also, one of the reasons that the bunny was chosen the symbol of Easter is that Easter is in the early spring.  In the early spring, rabbits are known to go a little ‘mad’ as they start their main mating season. This is the origin for the old saying “mad as a March hare.” There are a few reasons for the Easter eggs dyed with bright colors.  In the earlier Catholic Church, people were not allowed to eat eggs during the Lent season, so Easter was the first day that they were allowed to eat eggs again.  Many of the people would dye the eggs in order to remind themselves of the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection on Easter morning.  Especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the colors of bright red and green were the most popular.   Red stands for the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross, and green stands for the new life in Christ and the new life in the earth at the beginning of spring.  Eggs also are ancient symbols of fertility and the new life of the earth at the beginning of spring. When celebrating Easter with your families this year, just give a thought or two to the reasons why we have the symbols connected with Easter.  Many people have asked why we have the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.  Well, now you know why.  Have a great Easter and God bless!!!

History of Christmas

The History of Christmas

By: Destry Jackson

Several of the Christmas traditions celebrated throughout the world have been
around long before Jesus was born. Jesus was the reason for the Christian celebrations,
but many of the original traditions were around much longer.
Some of the original traditions, such as the twelve days of Christmas, actually
started with the ancient Mesopotamian celebration of Zagmuk, celebrating the New Year,
when their head god Marduk would do battle against evil monsters for twelve days.
Their customs also included that their king should be slain with Marduk in the battle and
come back to help him with the battle the next year, but instead of using their real king,
they would have a criminal dressed as the king and call him the king. Then, at the end of
the twelve days, the criminal would have the royal clothes taken off him and be killed.
The Mesopotamians did this in order to save their real king from having to be killed. The
Persians and Babylonians had a similar celebration called the Sacaea, which included a
ritual where slaves would be the masters, and the masters had to obey orders.
In Scandinavia, the sun often disappears for days at a time during the winter, and
so after thirty-five days, there would be a scouting group sent out to climb up the tallest
hill and see if they could spot the return of the sun. As soon as the sun was spotted, the
scouting group would return and the festival of Yuletide would begin, when the people
celebrated the return of the sun. Burning yule logs was part of this celebration. They
would choose out really large logs of wood and see how long each one took to burn. Big
celebrations took place around the fires burning the yule logs, and many more bonfires
would be lit to celebrate the return of the sun.
The Romans had a celebration from mid-December to January 1st, celebrating the
god Saturn. This celebration was called Saturnalia, and included huge feasts, visiting
friends, masquerades, and giving gifts. The main greeting of their celebration was “Jo
Saturnalia!” In their halls for this celebration, they decked up pine trees with candles, in
one of the first uses of what we know as Christmas trees.
When the early Christian church came along, they wanted to ban the merry
celebrations of the Roman pagans, and have the celebration of Jesus’s birthday as being
solemn and religious, not cheerful and merry. However, many of the early Christians
chose instead to keep the celebration as merry, but to turn it into a celebration for Jesus,
not for any pagan god. When the Puritans came to North America, they proclaimed that
Christmas should be a solemn and religious holiday instead of giving gifts and focusing
on celebrations and feasts.
Santa Claus came around as part of the legend of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas
really existed, as he was a cardinal in the early church, about 400 years or so after Jesus.
Cardinals, even in the early church, wore red robes on formal occasions, hence the red
suit on Santa Claus. St. Nicholas was also very rich, but very generous with his money.
As a wealthy man, he would’ve had plenty of things to eat if he so desired, so wealthy
people were usually pictured as fat, hence why Santa is pictured as being so chubby. St.
Nicholas was known to give gold pieces in small bags to people whose daughters desired
to get married, but didn’t have a dowry. How he gave the bags of gold away was the
most memorable. He would toss the bags in through the window, but if the window was

locked, he tossed the bags down the chimney to where the daughters would dry their
stockings. This led to the tradition of stockings by the fireplace and Santa coming down
the chimney. St. Nicholas also lived a very long life before he passed away, and that’s
probably the reason that Santa is pictured as being very old.
Almost all of the traditions we celebrate at Christmas have their beginnings in
other cultures or simple stories of regular people who really lived, but the most important
of all is the birth of Jesus Christ. He is the true reason for the season. We should
remember that above everything else. Jesus loved us so much that he chose to give up
his Heavenly throne and become one of us. He was born to die for our sins and rose from
the dead to give us eternal life. That is the true reason why we celebrate Christmas, and
we should always remember to give Him the thanks and praise for this wonderful time of
year. Merry Christmas and God bless!!!

History of Thanksgiving

The History of Thanksgiving

By: Destry Jackson

As most people know, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in November of
1621, to celebrate how thankful the Pilgrims were for the Native Americans helping them
through their first year of settlement. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts,
in November of 1620, and set up their settlement. The Pilgrims were a Separatist sect
along the same lines as the Puritans, and fled to North America to escape religious
persecution. That first winter was extremely cold, and many of the settlers froze to death
or died of illnesses due to exposure and improper nutrition. Some of the Pilgrims found
and made friends with Squanto, a native who had been in slavery in the West Indies and
the Atlantic area, and so knew how to speak many languages, including English.
Squanto introduced the Pilgrims to Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag tribe, and
several of the Wampanoag helped the Pilgrims learn how to hunt and fish the same way
as the natives. With the natives’ help, the Pilgrims had a much better year, and an
excellent harvest in the fall of 1621. William Bradford, the governor of the Pilgrim
settlement, declared a festival lasting three days to celebrate and give thanks for the great
harvest and invited the natives. The celebration took place around the 20th thru the 23rd
of November of 1621. As foods at the first Thanksgiving, they ate deer, ducks, and
geese. It is not known if they actually had wild turkey to eat at that celebration.
Thanksgiving wasn’t declared a national holiday in the United States until
1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as
the Thanksgiving holiday. Each president after Lincoln declared that same day as
Thanksgiving, until President Franklin Roosevelt declared that it would be the last
Thursday of November. In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally declared by congress as the
fourth Thursday in November. The earliest day Thanksgiving can be is the 22nd, and the
latest day it can be is the 28th.
So, Thanksgiving exists as a day to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives.
Unfortunately, a lot of people today have decided to think of Thanksgiving as a day to
gorge themselves on turkey and pie. The entire point of Thanksgiving is to be thankful,
not to gain fifteen pounds from rich and fattening foods. So, when you’re eating that
Thanksgiving dinner with your families and watching football, remember to be thankful
for the blessings God has given you. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!!!

History of Halloween

History of Halloween

By: Destry Jackson
Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, originated in the Celtic traditions of Samhain and the Roman festival Pomona.  Samhain was the Celtic celebration of their new year, marking the border between Fall and Winter, or seasons of life and death.  As the ancient Celts of Ireland, England, and northern France were quite superstitious, they also believed that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was very thin on the night of Samhain.  This thinning of the veil allowed the spirits of the dead and evil spirits to pass into the world of the living and cause havoc.  So, the people dressed up as evil spirits and ghouls to ward off the evil spirits.  Samhain was also the time of the harvest and celebrating the bounty of the earth, so there were often bonfires as the Celts went up to the hilltops to burn the carcasses of the cows and sheep they slaughtered for food on that evening.  The Roman festival Pomona that fell on the same evening is a celebration in honor of the goddess of the harvest in Roman mythology, which is the same as Greek but with different names.

When the time of the Christian church came along, Halloween took on a different connotation as the night before All Saints Day, when Christians celebrate the lives of their family, friends, and all the saints that have passed on to Heaven.  Some of the traditions of the Celtic festival endured, such as the dressing up as evil spirits.  New superstitions also appeared, such as the belief that if a young woman sat in a darkened room and stared into a mirror on Halloween, the face of her future husband would appear in the mirror.  However, if she were destined to die before getting married, a skull would appear in the mirror instead.  This became quite a popular bit of folk tales, even appearing on greeting cards in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There are also the traditional games that go along with Halloween, such as the bobbing for apples and throwing apple peels over your shoulder to see the first initial of your future spouse.  All these things are grounded in the ancient superstitions.

Now, the question arises, should we as Christians treat Halloween as just another fun activity, or should we look at it as an evil celebration that we should not take part in?  As a kid, my family dressed up in costumes for Halloween and went around trick-or-treating the people we knew around town.  I myself see Halloween as being a holiday that would be better spent celebrating God’s love for us, rather than seeing evil spirits running rampant on the earth.  There is an episode of Adventures in Odyssey dealing with this same question.  The people of their church in the episode came up with the idea of having a Bible party at their church on Halloween, with each person dressing up as their favorite Bible character and bringing props and food associated with the story of that character.  Perhaps our church could do the same thing?  It is an idea that we could contemplate.  Happy Halloween and God bless!!!