These foods work on three levels: (1) Those items specifically related to Christ (lamb, the "Lamb of God") (2) Those items traceable to pagan rites of spring (eggs=rebirth, ham=luck, lamb=sacrifice, cake/bread=fertility) If you're a carnivore, whatever is on your table probably once roamed around on hooves or feet, or it swam in the water or flew through the skies. Eggs were also generally banned during the period of Lent, so people sometimes would decorate them as they waited on their Easter feast and the return to eating eggs.No matter how pagan certain beliefs are at Easter, it’s a very difficult holiday to ignore.
Before important holidays it was common for the poor to “trick or treat” for food, and at Easter children begged for eggs. At Easter, Jesus has more in common with Dionysus, Tammuz, and Adonis than he does with Moses or the various apostles. “Easter” stirs up a lot of emotions on both sides of the religious divide, and deservedly so, but I’ve never understood why I can’t have my Marshmallow Peeps and eat them too.The word “Easter” is problematic for many reasons. There aren’t any tales of Eostre throwing eggs to all of the good little Germanic pagans**, or of her riding a giant rabbit, so it’s hard to say with certainty that she existed and is the source for the word “Easter.” The only thing really pointing towards her existence in Ancient History is that her name shares a linguistic origin with that of various Indo-European goddesses of the dawn (like the Greek Eos for example).
Theories connecting Ēostre with records of Germanic Easter customs, including hares and eggs, have been proposed. The fact that “Eos” is in there makes me a feel a lot better about the Pagan Goddess origin of the word theory, but I’m not going to accept that as the only interpretation.In the Greek Orphic tradition the god Phanes was said to have hatched from a “world egg,” illustrating that the Ancient Greeks believed in the egg as a symbol of rebirth and new life.
If you and your family or friends would like to do this, you can use one of our many Pagan meal blessings as a way of beginning a celebratory feast. (I remember lots of Easter Baskets as a kid piled with candy and a toy or two, and my family certainly didn’t associate it with Jesus.) The most pagan element of Easter is probably Jesus himself as the dying and resurrecting god. I’ve been conditioned to always think of them as ancient pagan practices, but researching this article has brought up more questions than answers in that regard. Cakes are usually just cookies prepared in the shape of crescent moons, and the ale can be alcoholic or it can be apple cider, juice, or even water. In Russia it was common for priests (and later members of the nobility) to give out eggs as gift, especially around Easter. Breakfast is at ten, the Easter Egg hunt is at eleven, and hockey will probably be on the TV all morning.For the last ten years* or so my wife and I have hosted what we fondly call “Pagan Easter Breakfast.” Pagan Easter Breakfast (or PEB) is exactly what it sounds like, it’s breakfast on Easter by and for Pagans. Eggs were also begged for by children in Great Britain during the Seventeenth Century. A direct link to Easter Eggs and Pagan Rome can be found in a legend surrounding the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. I can say with certainty that eggs as a symbol of fertility and rebirth have a long pedigree (or is that eggigree? As my Easter Breakfast Invitations say “Why Easter Breakfast? Because dying and resurrecting gods belonged to us first.”The problem with all of this is that the only source for the goddess Eostre is Bede. In Greece for example, “Easter” is called “Lambros” which translates as “shining” or “bright.” This is problematic because many Pagans like to make the argument that Easter is a specifically pagan holiday, because of the alleged origins of the word Easter. Instead of being bitter about the whole situation I prefer to celebrate it with food and egg hunts.