“On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that
they had prepared.” – Luke 24:1
Long before it was imported into the Christian tradition, the Spring festival honored the
goddess Eostre or Eastre. The name is pronounced Easter. She was the ancient Anglo Saxon
goddess of the dawn and the Vernal Equinox. Her name venerates the sun rising in the east.
Easter Sunday sunrise services continue the sun-worship aspect of the holiday.
– Center for Story and Symbol
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
As you were growing up, was part of your church experience wearing new clothes on Easter morning?
Did the ladies in the church wear new hats? Did you get a new shirt or maybe even a new dress or new
suit to wear to Easter morning services?
According to the Center for Story and Symbol, this tradition of wearing new clothes on Eostre predates
even our earliest Christian celebrations of Easter.
The Easter Bunny is a continuation of the reverence shown during the spring rites to the rabbit as a
symbol of abundance. The honoring of such emblems of fertility extended to eggs. The egg serves as a
representation of new life. It stands for the renewing power of nature and, by extension, agriculture.
The egg can also symbolize regeneration in a spiritual or psychological sense. The ritual of coloring
Easter eggs stems from the tradition of painting eggs in bright colors to represent the sunlight of
spring.
Like our celebration of Christmas, many of our Easter symbols and traditions can be traced back to
more ancient beliefs and practices rooted in mythic figures and symbolism found in the natural world.
The Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs are clear descendants of pre-Christian practices; and were co-opted
by early Christian communities in order to assimilate with the broader community, and to claim for
themselves the symbolism as part of our story of rebirth and regeneration beyond the empty tomb.
Our story begins “on the first day of the week, very early in the morning…” and those first words let us know
that this will be a story of a fresh start, new possibilities, and all of the promise of a new day. It is right that
we look to all of the ancient symbolism that nature provides as we celebrate and try to understand the new
thing that God did in and through the resurrected Jesus. The sweet-smelling spices that the women brought
to the tomb were meant to mask the smell of decay and death, but they can also be seen to represent the
sweetness of the smell of spring flowers that are also a shared part of both Eoster and Easter.
We will once again decorate a cross on the front steps of the church with fresh flowers on Easter morning,
please consider bringing some from your yard or picking up a bouquet from the store to share. The vibrant
and abundant flower-covered cross on our front steps is a way of commemorating, celebrating, and proclaiming what God did once and will continue to do, bring about new life in the face of death.
(And we’ll try to take notice if you are wearing some spiffy new clothes as part of your Easter celebration
too!)
Peace,
Pastor Layne