Happy Easter TFSers!

What on earth does the story behind Easter have to do with chocolate eggs and rabbits though?

I have two answers...one joke - one serious.

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it's a little known fact that Jesus had high cholesterol. So after the resurrection, Peter saw him approaching and said to the other disciples, "Here comes Jesus, hide the eggs!"

And the serious one is...Easter is actually a Christian take over of a pagan holiday celebrating the vernal equinox (Spring). The pagan festival celebrated fertility, symbols of which include eggs, chicks (the baby chicken kind ), bunnies and flowers. My understanding is that it was the churches way of forcing pagans to chose between serving God or serving gods.

Here's a link with some more random information. Easter and stuff

A lot of Christian holidays are actually pagan festivals. I was taught that it was done on purpose to help the 'pagans' become Christian.

Yep that's what I heard, too.

That's why I celebrate a lot of Jewish holidays.

Yeah, I read somewhere that it was part of a transitory phase between the old religion and the new. Obviously the Church didn't want an uprising on their hands so you can see why they stuck to what the people knew best and just developed it a bit instead.

My history teacher told us that in one of the South American countries they have a festival around this time, and through the streets they have a Jesus carrying a cross AND one of the original gods from before the Spanish settled.

Basically, when the Spanish invaded they said, you have to be Christian, so the indigenous people sort of mixed it in with their religion

So...would that be a MISSIONARY FAIL! ?