Easter is NOT a Christian Holiday. In fact, the term "Easter" is used only once in the Bible and is used to describe the Passover. But everything we "traditionally" use to celebrate Easter here in the States comes completely from Pagan origins. Eostre, Eoster, or Ostara, is the Norse Goddess of Spring and fertility who is awakened after her long sleep (Winter). There are MANY similar legends in many other geographic regions, but since I know this is where a majority of my ancestry is from, this is the one I pay most attention to. The Greeks of course have Dionysos and Persephone, and I'm pretty sure we were all taught that story. Then there's Cybele and Attis, from the Mediterranean. Attis is the God of ever-reviving vegetation who was born of a virgin, who dies and is reborn every year. Sounds slightly familiar, hmm? Dates back about 200 years before that other guy. Anyway, Attis gets it on with Cybele, a fertility Goddess associated with Spring, who some folks called the Phrygians worshipped.
Here's some info about the origin of the Easter egg hunt...
"At the spring Equinox, the balance of the day shifts from dark to light; the hen senses this and begin to lay her eggs. In the forest, wild birds lay their colorful eggs, and in ancient times our ancestors went out to hunt for them, and perhaps brought them back in their nests, or in baskets imitating them. Therefore nestlike baskets of decorated eggs and the Eoster Egg Hunt remind us of the revitalization of nature. Colored eggs were also offered to Eoster.
Raw colored eggs are used as amulets, kept raw to promote fertility, and hard-boiled colored eggs are eaten at sunrise on Eoster's Day. They are often dyed red all over to represent the Sun, and their red shells are thrown in the river so that they might float down to the "Kindly Ones" (the daughters of Hades and Persephone ). Thus they go to the Underworld as symbols of renewal." http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/JO-Eo.html
You can find more info here,
and here.
Happy Eostre!
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