as the 'holy week' approaches for christians and jews alike, i wanted to look into the holidays a bit more. i am most familiar with christian easter customs, as i am a recovering baptist. so, what is easter and what are it's origins? easter- oversimplified, of course- is the time period that jesus travelled to jerusalem for passover (fyi- he was jewish not evangelical) and ended up crucified at the end of it all and allegedly rose from the dead after 3 days to become the savior of america.
so, where do bunnies and eggs fit in? well, as with christmas, those crazy christians wanted to convert all of the heathen pagans to well, christians. understandably, the pagans liked the religion that they had been practicing for centuries better- so the christians decided to align their beliefs to the pagans and celebrate at the same time to be all-inclusive, so to speak. this made the transition easier for the pagans- who either joined christianity or were put out of their heathenistic misery.
as to passover, well, it has definitely been around for a long time. and although filled with traditions, it, too, has gone through a few changes- as it originally started out as a spring celebration and is now- oversimplified again- a commemoration of the escape of the jewish slaves from the hands of their egyptian slave masters.
i watched a program called 'bible battles' on the history channel the other night(april 6) that was based on scholars accounts of the exodus on up- it was a 2 hour program and i only watched an hour- up to joshua and the battle of jericho. anyhoo- i ramble. the main guy talking was richard gabriel, military history expert, professor, etc., etc. so, the book is 'military history of ancient israel' and gabriel posits that the israelites weren't slaves but paid workers.
there is biblical evidence to back that up and the program went on to show that. he went on to say that they left egypt and while pharoah wasn't necessarily happy- they left. on the way out, they left armed(another indication that they weren't slaves) and needed supplies. so, they took them from the hapless villages along the way. that is why pharoah got his knickers in a knot and went after them. the smoke and fire that was supposedly god was a military invention of a covered torch to communicate with large bodies of people and troops. the red sea- was the sea of reeds, an alluvial swamp that was dry land when the tide went out. the israelites simply tricked pharoah with their torches and crossed the sea of reeds at night when the tide was out. pharoah basically got stuck in the mud with his chariots and decided it wasn't worth it.
as for 40 years wandering, etc. well, gabriel goes on to say that the israelites trained in the sinai region until they had developed an army suitable enough to take over the land of canaan. makes sense.
i think that we should look at religion for what it is- and embrace information that gives us a different perspective. i know that i am not going to change the minds of any hard core true belivers. obviously, if you are a person of faith, there is a reason for that. you are clearly not questioning anything and have made up your mind. just giving a different perspective. i think that there should be religious tolerance and an end to the zealous attempts to convert others. you found your faith- good for you. leave the rest of us alone. i think that everyone should know something about other faiths so as to build tolerance and apparently i am not alone. unfortunately, there will always be those who do not agree or don't care- jerry falwell, pat robertson, various mullahs in iraq, iran, pakistan, afghanistan, and the jewish guy on the other show that i watched- mysteries of the bible: the hunt for the lost ark ( national geographic channel)- who said that when the jewish messiah comes, the muslims and the dome of the rock can "go back to mecca where they came from." nice.
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