Why do people get Easter baskets for Easter?

It has nothing to do “Christian” tradition. It has commercial origins. Easter eggs are relatively new. Chocolate hasn’t been around for that long – early Easter eggs were real eggs decorated. People on farms, collecting eggs would often use a basket. Stores selling eggs mimicked that.

To gather eggs with. And the bunny and eggs bit is a carry over from pagan days. They represent the fertility of Spring. And the candy represents Jesus’s renowned wicked sweet tooth.

Because candy is fucking awesome…..?

(and something about jesus…blah, blah, blah….)

What @cheebdragon said.

Can I add another question to those viewing this question @ludy

I hope you don’t mind.

But why do some companies give off a day for Christmas as holiday pay, but not Easter? They are celebrating the same person and ideals!!!

@mrrich724 why do some companies give off a day for Christmas as holiday pay, but not Easter?

We always get a day for Easter – I wasn’t aware that it was not universal.

@mrrich724 Because the US congress said Christmas is a national holiday. They haven’t said anything about Easter.

Because getting easter baskets for halloween would just be weird.

Because Jesus loves everyone. Even the rotten eggs.

@Dr_C- Excellent point. When else would you be getting an Easter basket.

It is a Christian symbol of the empty promises of Paganism.
Why else would the Chocolate Bunnys be hollow?

@filmfann Why else would the Chocolate Bunnys be hollow?

What makes you think that they started out that way?

The Christian Easter is a misnomer. There is really no such thing. The Christians are really celebrating the resurrection of Christ. It was popular Christian tactics to replace pagan celebrations with newly appointed Christian ones. Nobody really knows the exact date that Christ supposedly rose from the grave, so one popular solution was to compete that celebration against the Pagan celebration of the Spring Equinox. This was a time for planting and fertility. The goddess of worship was Ostern or Estora, or Estre. The eggs represent her fertility. The Christians shanghai’d the goddess name and transmutated Estre into our contemporary version of Easter.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I beg to differ. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection were directly related to the Jewish Passover. It is one of the easiest dates in the Bible to track down. The rest of your statement is accurate.

Dec 25 as Christ’s birthday was selected to directly compete with the pagan Winter Solstice celebrations.

Key term was “exact date”. It was blind luck that the Passover came relatively at the same time as the Spring Equinox.

@mrrich724 ”But why do some companies give off a day for Christmas as holiday pay, but not Easter?”

Probably because Easter invariably falls on a Sunday. Most of us are already off anyway.

The hollow bunny began as the “hallowed bunny,” the confusion arose because the bunny was also hollow, symbolizing the empty tomb.

We all know that a rabbit’s foot means good luck, and the rest just sort of grew out of that.

LOL….@Wow Coopted this one too!

The name ‘Easter’ comes from the pagan god ‘Ester’.. she was the goddess of fertility. That’s how rabbits and eggs got involved and it really is as ancient as that. When the Romans took on the idea of Christianity, they transferred many of the same traditions and even the exact days from the pagan calendar. The masses expected festivals on certain days celebrating certain gods, so the Roman powers-that-be who always wrote the calender (and this tradition lives on as well) simply changed some of the meanings to suit the new religion they invented to control the masses.
It makes sense to have a ‘rebirth’ and ‘fertility’ celebration in spring, when we see the baby lambs born and the flowers and plants start to come back.. the Christians took this over to celebrate their belief in the rebirth of Jesus.
I’m not sure about the baskets of goodies, as that isn’t universally Christian. Here, the kids get paper mache eggs filled with candy, especially chocolate covered marzipan. In New Zealand, it was a giant hollow chocolate egg.

Wow @cazzie That was really kewl. Makes sense, too!

@benmrrich724imew True that Christmas is a Federal holiday as others have mentioned. Easter falls on Sunday and the government work week is M-F. People have tried to argue that Christmas should not be a federal holiday because that could be considered treading on separation of church and state. Many companies give the day off, or extra pay, for work on a federally recognized holiday, but I don’t believe they have to. It is up to the discretion of the company most likely.

The teutonic dawn goddess of fertility was known as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos. Eggs represent fertility. Rabbits and hares give birth to large litters. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket though.

I’d never heard Austron and Ausos before. But it’s plain to see the tautology of these names leading up to Estrogen.