I hope you had an excellent Resurrection Day, celebrating the fact that our God is a Living God! May we be able to celebrate that fact every day, though...not just once a year!
Did you know that the Puritan leaders of this nation did not celebrate today's version of Easter? The Easter Bunny was adopted more and more, mainly after the Civil War. Today, the widely-known fable of the Easter Bunny permeates society, giving kids a whimsical fantasy through a sobering holy-day. Where did the Easter bunny come from?
Noah had a great-grandson named Nimrod. You can check me on that by
reading the genealogies in Genesis 10 -- his name was actually Nimrod (probably
from the Hebrew verb meaning 'let us revolt')! Even more, the Bible
describes him as a 'mighty one' and a great hunter. He turned from
serving the LORD and became a tyrannical ruler over the cities he founded.
These cities, such as Babel & Nineveh, were marked by pagan worship, sexual
perversion, and human sacrifice.Nimrod had a wife who served as Queen over his famed cities, named Semiramis. After Nimrod died, she 'deified' him as the sun-god or life-giver.
From the beginning of time, people were awaiting the Savior or Messiah (Anointed One of God) for deliverance. Semiramis capitalized on this when she had an illegitimate son, named Tammuz. Apparently she convinced people that Tammuz was really Nimrod (the now 'sun-god'), reborn.
...and since Semiramis had "the reborn Nimrod", she was 'deified' as the goddess of fertility. In other cultures, she was known as Ashtur, Ishtar, and even Easter. But where do the rabbits and eggs come from?
The ritual of Easter also has to do with Tammuz' death. By the legend, when Tammuz was killed, her mother's tears were fertile enough to 'resurrect' Tammuz as a form of vegetation. Weird....
Another Babylonian fable told about an egg dropping from heaven, falling into the Euphrates River, and hatching out Queen Astarte ('Ishtar'). Resurrection Day is celebrated for much different reason from this.
Jesus was Crucified on Good Friday, raised to life on Resurrection Day (today's 'Easter' as celebrated in Christian homes). Death could not hold Jesus since He was not worthy of it, and He died and rose again that we might have Life through Him!
So the decision is to be made: are you going to focus on the Peeps, or the King of Kings? Peeps are tasty, but they're not the reason to celebrate!
So hope you enjoyed this look at the background of Easter. If you see the Easter Bunny, let me know where he is, because I'm hankering for some rabbit soup today! Mmmm MMMM!