EASTER CUSTOMS SWEETENED WITH EASTER BUNNY EGGS AND CHOCOLATE Yesterday on this PVAF web site there was a posting about "religion" and its meaning....Christianity as  a "religion" is followed by about a billion peoples on this planet earth whose current population is estimated at about 5 billion.... Easter celebration in Christianity came about because a portion of humanity killed a man called Jesus who spoke the TRUTH OF LIFE AND LIVING and was trying to teach his fellow human beings the TRUTH about ethics, morality, social and state governance, inter-human relationship, human-god relationship....Jesus's basic teachings got adopted, converted and extended into what is called the religion of Christianity and the Christian Church organization.... But then again as per some news sources the origin of Easter is researched as follows: Easter may be a Christian holiday, but its origins lie in multiple bodies of belief -- pagan, Hebrew and Christian. Pagan tradition suggests that the name Easter is derived from Ostara or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Eggs were sacred to her as the symbol of rebirth. The Easter Bunny is descended from the hare that the devotees of Eostre regarded as representing fertility and the spring regeneration of life. Please click on the red hilite to read some excerpts on EASTER CELEBRATIONS from around the world in Canadian Globe and Mail:.......or click on the next line to read it on YOUR PVAF web site.....

EASTER, EASTER EGGS AND CHOCOLATES AROUND THE WORLD.... By MICHAEL KESTERTON Canadian Globe and Mail: Monday, April 12, 2004 - Page A14 Easter eggs This tradition, says Anthony Aveni, a Colgate University astronomer and author of The Book of the Year, "traces back to a Teutonic goddess of the dawn, Eostre or Eastre, who changed a bird into a four-footed creature known for its prolific fertility. In parts of nineteenth-century Germany and Hungary an effigy of the hare was often placed in baskets of eggs given as gifts during the season. People were prohibited from eating them during Lent so that the luxury of devouring eggs on Easter Sunday might better be appreciated. In more wasteful late nineteenth-century times, they took to rolling them on the ground in a race -- a vague reminder of the rolling away of the stone from Christ's tomb." Hares and bunnies "Although many people," says The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, "would be hard-pressed to answer a question about the differences between a hare and a rabbit in a pop quiz, they do have some. The hare is larger than a rabbit and, unlike the rabbit, it does not burrow. The hare bears furry, active young. Rabbits are born naked." Easter customs In 19th-century England, some counties such as Lancashire and Cheshire practised "lifting" or "heaving." On Easter Monday, the men lifted the women, and on Easter Tuesday the women lifted or heaved the men, says Chambers's Book of Days (1891), which opines that the custom is ridiculous. "The process is performed by two lusty men or women joining their hands across each other's wrists; then, making the person to be heaved sit down on their arms, they lift him up aloft two or three times, and often carry him several yards along a street." Also, says The Binghamton (N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin: In medieval Britain, a festival of egg throwing was held in the church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choirboys. It was then tossed from one choirboy to the next; whoever held it when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg. Picking pussy willows is a custom in some European countries, including Russia. It was once viewed as a sign of good luck to be tapped on the shoulder by a loved one with a branch of these soft blooms. Early on Easter morning, some people in Finland gather at a lookout spot to see the sun appear from the morning mist. According to an old belief, the sun dances when it rises on Easter morning because it rejoices at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (In Ireland, some people watch the sun's reflection shimmer in a bowl of water.) In Sweden and Finland, tradition has it that witches are out and about between Good Friday and Easter Sunday -- the time when Jesus was in the tomb. During the past century, a witch with her broomstick and cat became part of children's Easter games. Pictures of witches were featured on Easter cards. In Norway, reading detective novels and crime thrillers has become a popular pastime. Paaskekrim (Easter crime) refers to the new crime novels available at Easter. Other sources: Globe files Regenerate Easter may be a Christian holiday, but its origins lie in multiple bodies of belief -- pagan, Hebrew and Christian. Pagan tradition suggests that the name Easter is derived from Ostara or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Eggs were sacred to her as the symbol of rebirth. The Easter Bunny is descended from the hare that the devotees of Eostre regarded as representing fertility and the spring regeneration of life. Sources: news services Eating a bunny The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany in the 19th century. Some notes: In 2000, the U.S. candy industry surveyed children ages 6 to 11 about their preferences; 74 per cent said they chose to eat their bunnies ears-first, 13 per cent tackled the feet first and 10 per cent began with the tail. In 1998, a survey by the American Boxed Chocolate Manufacturers found that adults were buying their Easter supplies twice. Almost 75 per cent of those polled admitted they ate some or all of their Easter chocolate before the holiday. Half of those said they nibbled all or part of a chocolate bunny. The wrong way to eat a chocolate bunny, says Florida food journalist Dan McDonald, is to start by biting off the ears of your sister's bunny first. MKesterton@globeandmail.ca

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