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Why don't Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate Easter?

Jack Ryan

By Jack Ryan
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JW Insider

In a sense, YES. Originally the Watchtower tied it more strictly to the Jewish calendar, and under Russell and Rutherford, it only landed near Easter Sunday on those particular times when the Jewish c

Samuel Livingsotone

Here is the Origins if it is from German Ostara http://bellejar.ca/2013/03/28/easter-is-not-named-after-ishtar-and-other-truths-i-have-to-tell-you/ Actually, according to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche M

Evacuated

Think so. But what makes legislated matters right or wrong is how we feel about them isn't it That's how I understand part of the excercise of conscience and my freedom to do so?   My cons

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Queen Esther Newbie

Queen Esther

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2 hours ago, Jay Witness said:

Could it be said that our "Memorial" is our "Easter"?

I  don't  understand  this  question.  All  JW  knowing,  it  doesn't  give  any  kind  of  "Easter"  for  us !  The  Memorial  came  first  and  alot  later  the  wrong,  worldly,  weird  Easter...

The  Memorial  is  the  highest  answer  from  Jehovah  in  our  Bible.

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Samuel Livingsotone Newbie

Samuel Livingsotone

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here are the story of a Ishtar origins
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-pagan-origins-easter-001571

According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.

After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.

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Samuel Livingsotone Newbie

Samuel Livingsotone

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Here is the Origins if it is from German Ostara
http://bellejar.ca/2013/03/28/easter-is-not-named-after-ishtar-and-other-truths-i-have-to-tell-you/

Actually, according to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, which he wrote after journeying across Germany and recording its oral mythological traditions, the idea of resurrection was part and parcel of celebrating the goddess Ostara:

“Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the christian’s God. Bonfires were lighted at Easter and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps, he dances for joy … Water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing … here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.”

Spring is a sort of resurrection after all, with the land coming back to life after lying dead and bare during the winter months. To say that ancient peoples thought otherwise is foolish, naïve and downright uninformed. Many, many pagan celebrations centre around the return of light and the rebirth of the land; these ideas are not new themes in the slightest.

And yes, rabbits and eggs are fertility symbols, and they are, in fact, associated with Eostre.

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Ann O'Maly Newbie

Ann O'Maly

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20 hours ago, Samuel Livingsotone said:

According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar)

Dr. Nugent's reference to "the Easter story" is the story about Jesus' death and resurrection and he's paralleling it with the story about the death and resurrection of Tammuz. Tammuz, however, was ritually mourned in the month named after him which fell around the time of the summer solstice, not the spring equinox. Cp. Ezekiel 8:14-15.

There are lots of death-resurrection stories about deities in religions and folklore. They are often tied to the changing seasons and agriculture, etc.

Easter is not etymologically or religiously connected with Ishtar and Mesopotamian religion. It has a different history.

The 'Easter' that Christians celebrate originates from Jewish Passover and the superlative 'Passover Lamb' that was Jesus.

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Evacuated Rookie

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On 3/26/2016 at 02:30, Jay Witness said:

Could it be said that our "Memorial" is our "Easter"?

Categorically No.

Jehovah's Witnesses do not participate in the religious hybrid festival known today as Easter in English. At best, Easter, or Pascha, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This differs from The Memorial, or Lord's Evening Meal, which is a commemoration of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the only Scriptural event Christians are commanded to memorialize.

As for the plethora of urban myths surrounding the pagan origin of many Easter traditions, there is indeed a basis for @Ann O'Maly's comment:

On 3/28/2016 at 19:30, Ann O'Maly said:

(Not this old bunkum again.)

However, the basic notion of a connection between ancient paganism and Easter and it's customs is not so easily dismissed.

For example, the points made in the lengthy article on the KoSH website would need a thorough refutation to accomplish that.

 http://www.koshabq.org/2012/03/09/celebrating-eostre/

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Ann O'Maly Newbie

Ann O'Maly

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On 3/30/2016 at 0:53 PM, Eoin Joyce said:

However, the basic notion of a connection between ancient paganism and Easter and it's customs is not so easily dismissed.

For example, the points made in the lengthy article on the KoSH website would need a thorough refutation to accomplish that.

 http://www.koshabq.org/2012/03/09/celebrating-eostre/

"While the idea of the Easter Bunny does appear to have originated in Germany, and while, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Karl Simrock argued that 'the rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility' in his Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, there does not seem to be any evidence specifically linking the goddess to most modern customs". -   http://www.koshabq.org/2012/03/09/celebrating-eostre/

Humans find symbolisms, analogies and patterns in everything. It's part of our psychological make-up. (Typological interpretations of the Bible, anyone?) Jesus is the 'light of the world' shining in the darkness, hence perhaps one of the factors why his coming into the world is celebrated and finds meaning in the Northern Hemisphere winter. Jesus' resurrection in spring can be likened, on some levels, to new life and the hopes we see in the cycles of nature. 

Because 'pagans' and Christians find symbolic meanings in similar objects, it doesn't necessarily mean using those same objects as symbols is wrong.

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