You would think I would be used to it, but the entire concept of easter still blows my mind.
Lots of people in the world take easter sunday holiday very seriously and truly believe there needs to be a special day celebrated each year that marks the resurrection of "Jesus."
We all, (even lots of people won't admit this,) already know there is zero real world evidence of such an event, beyond the VERY! flimsy/worthless spoken/written word evidence.
The concept of celebrating an event roughly in line with where the earth orbit around the sun is already a rather silly one, beyond a rough mark of passage of time and a reason to party. (Hey I still like celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and other excuses to get together with family and friends to celebrate/party) But these events that "supposedly" happened 1000's of years ago, you can guarantee they very likely got the exact day wrong. Heck they do not even base it on the gregorian/julian calendars but instead roughly the lunisolar calendar, but there is actually a fair amount of disagreement on what day "easter" is. The only thing we can know for sure is the day itself does not even follow any sort of solar/lunar time keeping event, the day is actually about as vague as "some time in the spring." Which of course makes perfect sense as back then that was about as much accuracy most people could hope for unless they were near a large city. They put it on sunday simply because that was the day people already did worship/penance and it already had "holy day" status.
Now religious scholars and anyone else that studies this already know this. But most people that celebrate easter seriously will say "this is the day jesus rose from the dead based on the solar calendar. They are wrong, it's more of a vague random day in mid-spring. It's really just an excuse to get religious followers to spend more time being religious.
To me the best part of easter is the silliest/fun part of easter even if it has the usual negative connotations:
Kids going around finding candy (sugar reward yay!) to help loop these more impressionable kids into religion holiday = yummy candy! Also: a intelligent bunny hopping around hiding treats for kids to find? Really? At least most people put this part of the silliness firmly in the "santa claus" category of "for kids."
Kids have a right to be upset when they are eventually told what the easter bunny and santa claus really is, they been bold faced, directly lied to, repeatedly!
Of course a small percentage of people do observe the lent part, and easter ends up being a feast breaking fast/penance. Key word: small. Are we at the point yet we can call this small and rapidly shrinking % wise group crazy yet?
It just blows my mind as we approach 2020 so many people still take easter seriously, when just an idle outside glance by anyone that does not take easter seriously realize its all such obvious bull shit from 2000 years ago. Anyone with access to the internet, and that is now a majority of the world, can easily find all this out for themselves if they just looked. Ignorance and brainwashing from childhood is no longer an excuse.
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▮Please include @LogicFTW for responses to me
▮Tips on forum use. ▮ A.R. Member since 2016.
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Hey @LogicFTW Look at the bright side. You don't have to work! Happy ESTAR.
@Cognostic
I don't have to work this Easter, pending any last second emergencies (and boy those are lucrative for me!) But that is purely due to the nature of of my job. I have had to work other Easters, but I will admit any work I take on at all is by choice, most of my work these days is disaster management which does not recognize any holiday. I work for myself, I have no boss except the client if I choose to take the job.
As I work for myself I get no holiday/overtime pay, but I will admit clients will often times pay extra to have me work if it lands on any major holidays. (Thanks to the fact many of my professional peers do actually demand holiday pay or simply won't take jobs that land during holidays.)
Although I fully admit this does definitely make holidays of even less value to me. I only really like holidays because often times my family/friends are freed up as well from their jobs. And like I said in my long OP I due appreciate any chance to get together with friends and family and party, even if the base holiday is something I do not agree with.
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▮I am an atheist that always likes a good debate
▮Please include @LogicFTW for responses to me
▮Tips on forum use. ▮ A.R. Member since 2016.
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In Christianity the Easter and Christmas celebrations (holidays) replace the Jewish holdays specified in the Ten Commandments. Since it would be illogical for Christians to celebrate the Jewish holidays mandated in the Ten Commandments = the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread (the Third Commandment), and the Feast of Weeks & the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end (the Sixth Commandment) they had to come up with some new festivals. And no one really does the new moon festivals any more.
If you don't like religious festivals just remember what the Paul character said in Colossians 2:16 (CEV) = "Don’t let anyone tell you what you must eat or drink. Don’t let them say that you must celebrate the New Moon festival, the Sabbath, or any other festival."
Just whip that out whenever the subject comes up.
For some reason, the History Channel is screening a biography of Jesus.
@Sapporo
Don't Hallmark already have a channel for that sort of thing?
I apologize. I started another Easter thread before I saw this one. Oh well, fuck Jesus. He’s an asshole.
What's Easter? And why should I care?
rmfr
arakish,
"What's Easter? And why should I care?"
For people who might care about such things = https://i.pinimg.com/736x/18/92/3d/18923d37f6df4973ff0c971597729cf6.jpg
Without the resurrection it's just another story and there's no reason for Christianity = 1 Corinthians 15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+corinthians+15&version=CEB
No zombie Jesus = no Christianity. Whenever you watch a zombie movie think of it as a religious movie that is based on 1 Corninthians chapter 15.
No no. People have already gone over this before. Jesus was a lich, not a zombie. :P
@ LostLocke
It was me.
rmfr
LostLocke,
"No no. People have already gone over this before. Jesus was a lich, not a zombie."
Get the screenwriter to do a rewrite =
http://egmr.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/3oo1e1.jpg
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2012/04/jesus-lich.jpg
An opportunity to buy discounted chocolate after the event.
Oooh. Is that what that is? I thought that was Valentine's?
rmfr
Imagine living in a country without Easter! My next holiday is Monday, May5. The students get the Monday off but have to make it up on the following Saturday. Sucks to be a Korean Student.
This just in from the Daily Jerusalem Gazette...
Date: Good Friday (Late March or early April, depending on the moon phases), in the year of our Lord 33… Uh, no, 30…. Wait… 36?... Aw, hell, somewhere between 30 and 40…
Jesus of Nazareth, age 33, died on a cross today in a tragic crucifixion accident in a little town called Calvary, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Jesus was the son of Mother Mary (a reported “virgin”) and Father God (esteemed creator of the universe), and was the stepson of some guy named Joseph (a moderately successful carpenter). Jesus was born in the little town of Bethlehem, away in a manger with no crib for a bed. The event of his birth was attended and celebrated by three scouts (one from Arabia, one from Persia, and one from India) seeking the next Dali Lama. Many expensive gifts were offered by the scouts in an attempt to win the favor of his parents. Music for the festivities was provided by a poor kid with a drum.
Although Jesus was very poor and never known to have a steady job, he was said to have been a very generous volunteer who was always willing to help his fellow man. There were supposedly many witnesses who claimed to have seen him renovate local temples, heal all manner of physical ailments within the regional populace, and feed multitudes of people with a buffet of fish and bread. As a result, Jesus was loved so dearly by those who met him they often claimed he could “walk on water”. Jesus was also a favorite guest at parties, as one of his many talents included changing water into wine. He always spoke strongly against wealth and the love of material possessions, yet he never turned down a free meal at the house of a poor person. Jesus had a posse of twelve faithful homeboys and one smoking hot prostitute who followed him on his journeys throughout the region, helping him spread his words of love, hope, peace, and gruesome eternal torture to all who did not love his Father.
On the day of the accident, authorities reported that Jesus was somehow impaled by three separate spikes that managed to keep him suspended to a cross type structure high upon the hill overlooking the small town. Roman guards rushed to the scene to investigate the incident and render aid. Unfortunately, while attempting to remove Jesus from the cross structure, one of the guards had an accidental spear thrusting, causing the tip of the guard’s spear to puncture Jesus on or about the front-left torso region. The incident is still being investigated by authorities, even though Jesus was reported to already be dead prior to being speared by the guard. An anonymous citizen who was on scene stated the last words he heard spoken by Jesus before the guards were able to remove him from the cross structure were, “Please! Somebody tell the rabbit to hide all the eggs!” Resurrection services are to be held Easter Sunday at the empty tomb. (You know…THE empty tomb.)
I think you nailed it TM.
We could be at cross purposes but I reckon we can hang around together and arise best mates.
He died for you sins.
And to bring you colorful eggs, marshmallow chicks, and chocolate bunnies.
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Easter is just one of the wide range of celebrations of the rebirth of life after the winter. Probably something in our shared human psychology, because it is so cross cultural. In the west, it just happens to be mostly associated with the Jesus mythology.
I see the church across the street starting in the early hours of the morning. They're having fun. I see no reason to bitch about it.
@ NeverHappened
"I see no reason to bitch about it."
Whose bitchin? We're havin fun. Party pooper.
No one let NeverHappened have any of the candy...
rmfr
@Arakish Re: "No one let NeverHappened have any of the candy..."
No problem. I've already eaten all the jelly beans and marshmallow peeps. They're my favorites... *burrrrrrrp*....
It's like our species is doomed to stupidity.
Another aspect of the insanity ... chocolate that would ordinarily cost you about 50p, instead costs £5 or more because it's been shaped into a distorted prolate spheroid and wrapped in shiny foil.
Easter is a spring festival hijacked by the Christian church to sell their rank religion, and by Cadbury to sell low-grade, overpriced chocolate. It makes even less sense in Australia/New Zealand because it falls in autumn.
What really annoys me is that Good Friday, a purely religious holiday, is protected by secular governments. In New Zealand inspectors prowl around looking for businesses that dare to open their doors on this holiest of days. The whole Easter nonsense is an even bigger nuisance because the church keeps moving it around, making it difficult for businesses to plan around it.
And by the way, Easter is named after the goddess Eostre, who also gave her name to estrogen.