Replies

"Lent itself is pagan in origin."

How right you are! And I am happy every time pagan imagery gets cleaned up and reclaimed by Christ and Christians.

I like innocent originally-pagan things like

•Easter eggs; and the very word “Easter”
•Christmas trees and holly wreaths
•parades and pageants and processions
•cakes for birthdays (and candles on cakes)
•brides with wedding rings,
•wearing white, carrying bouquets and
•Wedding ceremonies themselves, which were also a pagan custom, and are not commanded in Scripture

I don’t mind using names of days that originate from pagan gods

•Sun (god)-day
•Moon(god)-day
•Tiwaz’-day
•Wodin's-day
•Thor's-day
•Freya's-day
•Saturn's-day

Or the names of months

•January, from Janus
•February, from Februa
•March, from Mars
•April, from Apru/Aphro, short for Aphrodite
•May, from Maia
•June, from Juno

I boldly approve:

•putting flowers on graves
•making statues and paintings of people we admire
•all theater arts and drama
•children's toys like jacks and dice and dolls
•all ball-sports like soccer
•all athletic competitions
•the Olympics, of course

Had enough? Not me! I love them all, and more.

I love the genius of Catholicism in appreciating, adapting and purifying so much that was harmless and even good in pagan cultures. Read what Tolkien has to say about Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic myths and their significance, sometimes, as a kind of pre-evangelium to Christianity.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0161.html

Outstanding Protestants have also seen the value in pre-Christian cultures. Read some of Milton's poetry --- a Puritan of all Puritans in the very Age of Puritanism--- and see how many extended and positive references there are to the paganism of classical Greek and Roman antiquity.

http://tinyurl.com/John-Milton-paganism

Even better, read C.S. Lewis

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/print2005/morhan_cslewis_nov05.html

Blessed Lent! Happy Easter! In Christ's Name, Amen!

I appreciate your style, but:

The word, “Easter” is not pagan. There is no evidence to support Bede’s presumption that Eostremonath refered to a god named “Eostre.” Besides, “Easter” is called “Pascal Sunday,” formally in the English Catholic world, and some variation on “Paschach” throughout the rest of the world. “Easter” means, simply, the turning towards East, so that the Roman world was facing the Temple of Jerusalem. If, in fact, “East” is related to a goddess, “Eostre,” it’s most likely secondarily.