Usually we think of delighted children scampering around searching for brightly-coloured eggs and symbolic rabbits hopping with baskets. However though these seem to be modern, they actually originate before the birth of Christianity. The pagan spring festival includes Ester, or Eostre, and it is a slightly different celebration of the holiday than most of us would think. Johnny Scott investigates this ancient spring festival.
Broc_Liath 0 points 3 years ago
Is it? Farmers slaughter animals all the time, either in times of plenty because the herd has exceeded what the land can support, or in times of drought or famine when there's less resources than expected. Sometimes the decision of which animals to slaughter and when can mean the difference between prosperity and penury. In such circumstances it makes perfect sense to involve the gods, pray for success and invite them to the resulting feast.
There's also the consideration that a certain amount of sin applies to killing an animal. In jewish religions animals are seen as soulless playthings for humans to dispose of as they please. In european religions they're often seen as occupying a lower order in the karmic cycle, but still comparable to humans, so their death has to be brought about with the blessing of the gods.
There were some ceremonies which involved a holocaust (burned offering) but those were on the scale of an entire nation and celebrated only once a year, or every few years. A goat being sacrificed by hundreds of thousands of people is not an enormous amount of waste and doesn't entail any more suffering than a goat being slaughtered for food.