happy baisakhi, puthandu, vishu & ea

[Guest guest]

Happy festivities to all!!!<br><br>Love and light <br><br>UMA

[Guest guest]

Festivities are in the air. Mid April brings us

the Hindu New Year (The Bengali New Year is on the

14th of April this year). Along with the Hindu

celebrations comes the Christian Celebrations of Good Friday

and Easter. Wish I had a holiday for Good Friday -

alas, have to work.<br>Yesterday I was talking to my

neighbour and we were discussing Easter and Good Friday. He

(my neighbor) told me about Easter being a Pagan

festivity, a festival to honor Goddess Ishtar, the ancient

Goddess of fertility.<br>The name "Easter" originated

with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. A

Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione

Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a.

Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon

people in Northern Europe. Similar "Teutonic dawn

goddess of fertility [were] known variously as Ostare,

Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur,

Austron and Ausos." Her name was derived from the ancient

word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were

known by other names in ancient cultures around the

Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were:

<br><br> Aphrodite from Cyprus <br> Astarte, from

Phoenicia <br> Demeter, from Mycenae <br> Hathor from Egypt

<br> Ishtar from Assyria <br> Kali, from India <br>

Ostara, a Norse Goddess of fertility. <br><br>An

alternate explanation has been suggested. The name given by

the Frankish church to Jesus' resurrection festival

included the Latin word "alba" which means "white." (This

was a reference to the white robes that were worn

during the festival.) "Alba" also has a second meaning:

"sunrise." When the name of the festival was translated into

German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in error. This

became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been proposed as

the origin of the word "Easter". <br>Many, perhaps

most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a

major seasonal day of religious celebration at or

following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian

fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed

to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis,

who was believed to have died and been resurrected

each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25.

<br>Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of

Attis were active in the same geographical area in

ancient times, Christians used to celebrate the death and

resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and

Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their

gods was the true prototype and which the imitation.