The Orthodox church in Antakya
By now Christendom is well over its Easter celebration.
Easter is regarded as the main church festival. However, in many aspects it
looks more like a pagan festival.
The name itself seems to indicate this. At a time when the
Church was closer to original Christianity, the festival was called Pascha or
Passover, derived from the Hebrew פסח. But as time went on more and more pagan practices were
introduced, and the name was changed to Easter. The origin of the name itself may
have been pagan. Wikipedia has this to say about it:
"In his 725 AD work, De temporum ratione, the
Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk and Christian scholar, suggested that the
modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from
the Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre. This is generally held to have
originally referred to the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Ēostre, a form of
the widely attested Indo-European dawn goddess. The evidence for the
Anglo-Saxon goddess, however, has not been universally accepted, and some have
proposed that Eostre may have meant "the month of opening" or that
the name Easter may have arisen from the designation of Easter Week in Latin as
in albis." [1]
In his book The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop observes:
"Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter
itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very
forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the
queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was
evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as
found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and
Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, "the
priests of the groves." Some have imagined that the Druidical worship was
first introduced by the Phenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era,
traded to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship
are found in regions of the British islands where the Phenicians never
penetrated, and it has everywhere left indelible marks of the strong hold which
it must have had on the early British mind." [2]
All this may be right or wrong. Whatever the case, Easter
has been mixed up with elements that are foreign to any Christian celebration.
An example are the Easter eggs. This custom naturally has a myth of origin. It
says:
"The coloring of “Easter eggs” originated from the
pious legend that Mary Magdala was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other
women at the tomb of Christ – This remains the tradition among observant Jews
even in our own time – When Mary Magdala saw the Lord, the eggs in her basket
turned brilliant red. Thus, the true meaning of dyeing Easter eggs is to show
forth the miraculous transformation and re-creation of the whole world by the
victorious resurrection of Christ." [3]
Alexander Hislop disagrees. Quoting Fabulae of Gaius
Julius Hyginus (d. AD 17) he writes:
"The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic
egg of the Babylonians ; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian,
the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus,
who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: "An egg of
wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The
fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and
hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess "
— that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or
Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of
Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a grand scale."
[4]
Hislop may have a point. A footnote by John Garstang in the book The Syrian Goddess by Lucian
of Samosata says: "Atargatis, [Astarte] according to the form of the
legend given by the scholiast on Germanicus' "Aratus" was born of an
egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and pushed ashore." [5]
Now, all this is very strange. In the Middle East, Antioch
(or Antakya) included, there was a tradition of weeping for the god Tammuz. The
story goes that the young Tammuz (who, among other things, represented vegetation)
died and was bewailed by his consort Ishtar (or Astarte), the goddess of love
and sex. Eventually he returned to life again. With the egg as a symbol of life
or resurrection – and at the same time connected to Venus or Astarte – it is
puzzling to read the story of Mary Magdala at Jesus' tomb, where she takes upon
herself the role of the wailing the death of Jesus with eggs turning red at his
resurrection.
Besides all this, it should be remembered that the Nusairy
Alewites (a group of Muslims regarded as renegade by the mainstream) in Antakya
and western Syria celebrates a "Festival of Eggs" roughly at the same
time as the Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate Easter. And evidently, this
festival has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. The Nusairys are
not afraid of admitting that they, besides Muslim holidays, also celebrate
those of their Christian neighbours, such as "Epiphany, Pentecost, and
Palm Sunday." [6] However, they do not claim that their
Festival of Eggs has any connection with anything Christian.
Nevertheless, a similarity exists between the Festival of
Eggs and the Melkite story about Mary Magdala. The Nusayri Alewites, like the
Hindus, believe in reincarnation in the literal sense of the word. According to
a source of mine, a Protestant with an Alewite background, the eggs represent
reincarnation. Obviously the Nusayri Alewites and the churches have the
tradition of celebrating a festival by using eggs from the same source although
the connotations of the eggs are different, but not at all dissimilar.
Is it not strange that Mary Magdala, who by some is believed
to be a former prostitute, is waiting at Jesus' tomb for his resurrection with
eggs in her hands? It is as if the egg-born Astarte is waiting for the resurrection
of her Tammuz, just in a new disguise.
People are naturally free to mix whatever they like into
their popular beliefs. However, the uncontrollable connotations of their new
discourse may take them to places they did not anticipate.
For further information about the Nusayri Alewites in Antakya, please see my book Antioch on the Orontes - A History and a Guide
__________
1. "Easter,"
Wikipedia, accessed April 2, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter.
2. Alexander
Hislop, The Two Babylons (London: S. W. Patridge &Co., 1858) 103.
3.
"Great Lent and the Holy Week," Eparchy of Newton –Melkite Greek
Catholic Church, accessed April 2, 2013, https://melkite.org/faith/faith-worship/holy-week-traditions.
4. Hislop, The
Two Babylons, 109. See also Hyginus, trans. Mary Grant, Fabulae
150-199, accessed April 2, 2013, http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae4.html:
CXCVII.
VENUS
Into the
Euphrates River an egg of wonderful size is said to have fallen, which the fish
rolled to the bank. Doves sat on it, and when it was heated, it hatched out
Venus, who was later called the Syrian goddess. Since she excelled the rest in
justice and uprightness, by a favour granted by Jove, the fish were put among
the number of the stars, and because of this the Syrians do not eat fish or
doves, considering them as gods."
5. Lucian, The
Syrian Goddess, (London: Constable and Company LTD, 1913) 81n56
6. Matti
Moosa, Extremist Shiites – The Ghulat Sects, (Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 1988) 393.
