Why Don't You Celebrate Easter?

Many people mistakenly assume Easter is an integral part of biblical Christianity. For those who know better, how do you explain it to friends and people you meet?

by Erik Jones

"You don't celebrate Easter?" This is often the incredulous response when people find out that you do not celebrate the "holiest" day on the Christian calendar. Some are surprised, but forget about it and let you do your own thing, while others take offense and never treat you the same again. This latter response is especially hard for young adults when they are put on the spot to stand up for their beliefs and values. Some try to dodge the subject and successfully go through their whole lives without letting their friends know what they believe. Others do their best to explain their nontraditional beliefs.

If you are put on the spot during this upcoming holiday, how will you respond? Will you say that you don't celebrate Easter or try to get around the subject? While skirting the issue does work on occasion, it seems that everyone must eventually explain his or her beliefs. When that situation does come, will you know what to say? Will you have a valid reason why you don't keep Easter?

The apostle Peter encourages us to "always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). When we are called to give a defense for the reason we don't keep Easter, we need to know why we don't and be able to give reasons for our belief. The purpose of this article is to provide answers to common questions you might receive when others learn that you do not celebrate Easter. The more confident and knowledgeable you are, the more people will respect you and most likely will not want to argue because they know you "know your stuff"!

In the following paragraphs we will tackle three common questions thrown our way about Easter and some basic answers to help you know what to say in response.

Question 1: If you are a Christian, why don't you keep Easter?

Answer: In simple terms—Easter is not Christian in any way, shape or form. Easter is mentioned nowhere in the Bible (except for a blatant error in the translation of the King James Bible in Acts 12:4). How can a holiday be called Christian when Christ Himself never celebrated it? Wait, the apostles must have then adopted it after His death, right? No, the apostles did not. To truly understand the origin of Easter we must go to history—not the Bible.

In looking at the origins of Easter, the Holman Bible Dictionary says, "Although the New Testament does not give any account of a special observance of Easter and evidence from before AD 100 is scarce, the celebrations were probably well-established in most churches by AD 100" (1991, art. "Easter," p. 386, emphasis mine throughout).

A 1976 Reader's Digest book, Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, has this to say about Easter: "Christmas and Easter, although the greatest festivals in the Christian calendar, are celebrated with customs that originated in superstition and heathen rites hundreds of years before Christ was born. Even the dates owe more to pagan practices than to the birth and resurrection of Jesus.... Easter...falls according to the phase of the moon that the pagans long ago decided was the appropriate time to venerate their gods" (p. 283). This certainly does not sound very Christian. Let's find out a little more.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "The English word 'Easter,' however, corresponding to the German Oster, reveals Christianity's indebtedness to the Teutonic tribes of central Europe. Christianity, when it reached the Teutons, incorporated in its celebration of the great Christian feast day many of the heathen rites and customs, which accompanied their observance of the spring festival. That the festival of the resurrection occurred in the spring, that it celebrated the triumph of life over death, made it easy for the church to identify with this occasion the most joyous festival of the Teutons, held in honor of the death of winter, the birth of a new year and the return of the Sun" (1960, art. "Easter," vol. 7, p. 859). How plain can it be? Easter is pagan (unchristian) in origin!

There is much more information on the origin of Easter. Of course, when someone is questioning you, you probably will not have an encyclopedia handy to quote. Tactfully tell your challenger the origins in your own words, then encourage them to look it up in their encyclopedia.

Question 2: It may be pagan, but we don't celebrate it as a pagan day anymore. Why can't you just celebrate it as Christ's resurrection instead of dwelling on the past?

Answer: This is a very common statement. Can we just change the meaning of something wrong and make it right? As my pastor says, "If you put whipped cream on manure does that make it good to eat? No! You made it look nice but if you bite into it, it's still manure." What mainstream Christianity does is sugarcoat paganism with pretty meanings and symbols to make them seem acceptable—but when you really understand the origins and God's truth, you know that this is wrong!

In addressing Israel's observance of pagan celebrations (2 Kings 17:11-12), God said, "Turn from your evil ways..." (verse 13). Mixing paganism with the worship of God was a sin.

When people tell you that it's OK to mix paganism with Christianity as long as it honors Christ, you could make a comparison for them. While any number of scenarios might be used to illustrate the incongruity of such worship, consider the following powerful comparison. (This one would be offensive to most people, so you might want to pick a different one to use on your friends.) You might ask them if they would like to have their life symbolized by the Nazi swastika. Ask them if we can honor them by raising our arm in the air and shouting, "Heil Hitler!" After all, we can do it with God, right? Of course, they would not want to be associated with a man and a belief that led to the mass genocide of 6 million people—even if we change the meaning to represent them.

Why then can we take customs that are opposite to everything God stands for, that deliberately take praise away from the Creator and put it on His creation, and transform the meaning back to God? His instruction to ancient Israel and, by extension, us today, is "Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2, King James Version). Maybe it's time the whole world started listening to Him!

Question 3: But what about customs like eggs, bunnies and sunrise services? We just do them for fun—what could be wrong with that?

Answer: If you claim Easter is a Christian holiday that portrays Christ's resurrection—why wouldn't you focus entirely on that great event? Jesus' resurrection was one of the greatest events in history. Yet we see customs such as Easter eggs and bunnies added to it.

Eggs and bunnies are not just innocent symbols! Like Easter, they have origins in ancient paganism. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "the conception of the egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom of coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival" (1960, art. "Easter," vol. 7, p. 859). It seems like nothing involved in Easter has pure background except the resurrection of Jesus. It's a shame that such a marvelous event has been so perverted by association with heathen customs.

Ralph Woodrow in his book, Babylon Mystery Religion, writes that the egg tradition goes all the way back to the ancient Babylonians! Woodrow writes, "They believed an old fable about an egg of wondrous size which was supposed to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates River. From this marvelous egg—according to ancient history—the Goddess Astarte (Easter), was hatched" (1966, pp. 152-153). The Easter bunny that supposedly lays these eggs is equally of pagan origin—it is also a fertility symbol. Obviously, these are not just innocent customs!

In this short article, we considered answers to common questions people receive about not observing Easter. If you would like to know more, request our free booklet, Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days You Observe?.

Remember that the world may disagree with you now and not understand why you don't observe Easter. But rest assured, in the end, God always rewards those who are faithful to Him. YU