Oh No, Not Again!

The opening salvo appears to have been fired in the "War On Easter"! Here we go again.

WorldNetDaily, a right wing website, has started it. If you read the article, though, you realize that they're grasping at straws. As they themselves state, bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with Easter:

Ironically, while millions of Christians celebrate Easter Sunday each year to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the origins of Easter have much more to do with the season of spring, itself, rather than anything to do with biblical Christianity.

In fact, the term "Easter" is actually the name of a pagan – that is to say, non-Christian – fertility goddess.

In ancient Babylon, the goddess was known as Ishtar (pronounced the same as Easter is today with a silent "h"), and became known as Astarte to the Phoenicians, Ashtoreth to the ancient Israelites, Eostre to the Greeks, Ostera or Eostre to the Anglo-Saxons, and eventually Easter in modern times.

Historians believe because rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility, they naturally became associated with the goddess.

But this won't stop the zealots, I suppose, from feeling persecuted. Even though, as with Christmas, the symbols they revere actually take away from the true meaning of their holiday, and point instead to ancient pagan rituals.