Celebrating Spring(a sermon delivered at the Hamburg Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, March 6, 2005) In many parts of the world, Spring is springing; or at least getting ready to spring. Not here, of course. Our forecast for the foreseeable future includes blankets of snow on our lawns and blankets for warmth on our beds. But if we use our imaginations we might just be able to see grass poking through the snow and shrubs and trees on the verge of pushing out their first buds of green. If we listen closely (in our minds, of course, this is, after all, Buffalo), we might hear the lilting melodies of returning birds or the gentle murmur of water rushing down swollen creeks. Or Perhaps Not. It has become painfully obvious to me, as I look out on our snow-covered world, that the earliest spring rituals were celebrated in warmer climes than these. Greek and Roman celebrations were celebrated outdoors – and in varying and often diminishing amounts of clothing. But even the Germanic tribes could see the returning light as the vernal equinox neared, signifying that the days would finally become longer than the nights once again. The Norsemen celebrated the Summer Finding Festival several days after the equinox. The name says it all. Their search in the dark and the cold and the snow had uncovered a sliver of hope, a ray of light that would lead to the inevitable warmth of summer once again. And that is probably the most common element of all the spring celebrations I read about this past week – the return of light. And even though I am about two weeks early with this sermon, I too have noticed the light in the evenings (on those days when the snow clouds whipping off Lake Erie have disappeared by evening). The light is returning. We just have to have faith that it will – soon we hope – bring with it the warmth and the green of a true spring. Perhaps then we can frolic in the fields at dawn or attend a play at the amphitheatre. Until then, we can play with dolls or give gifts of cash in red envelopes. We can, perhaps, douse one another with fragrant dyes, or just drink some green beer. Now, I’m sure most of you recognize the origins of that last ritual. St. Patrick’s Day is one of the last pseudo-religious rituals in western culture to still encourage a certain reckless revelry. Of course, the only religious piece remaining in this celebration is its sainted namesake (and probably a large increase in confessions in New England Catholic churches the following week). But let me tell you a little bit about some of the other celebrations I alluded to. The red envelopes are a large part of the Chinese Spring Festival, which is one of the oldest I found. It began during the Shang Dynasty some 3,500 years ago! Red is the Chinese color of joy, happiness and good fortune – hence the gifts of money wrapped in red paper. This is, of course, also their New Year celebration. And let me tell you, the ancient Chinese really knew how to ring in the New Year. Their festival lasted nearly a full month, with preparations beginning during the final weeks of the twelfth month, and full celebrations lasting well into the middle of the first month. Fireworks were a large part of the festival, helping ring in the New Year (and, of course, ward off evil spirits). Spring cleaning, as a way of brushing out the ills of the previous year and starting over cleanly, was also part of the ritual. Today, the Chinese government gives its citizens a paltry seven days for New Year! Seven Days of holiday. We should have it so good. A lavish dinner with the entire extended family is the center-piece of Spring Festival eve. In fact, this is the busiest travel time of the year in China, much like our December Holiday season, as family members travel home from schools or far-off cities to come together for the festival. Another fun celebration is India’s Holi Festival. Also called the Festival of Color, Holi commemorates the coming of Spring and the death of the Demoness Holika. But it is an odd little party. In addition to lighting bonfires to ward off the cold and the dark and usher in the Spring, the various rituals include women chasing mock-invading men through the town with sticks (dressing any they catch in Saris and making them dance) followed a day later by a parade wherein perfume and colored powders are sprayed on the returning invaders. I can’t even pretend to understand this festival, but it would be fun to watch (from a comfortable distance, of course). In Japan, March brings the Doll Festival. Celebrated since the Edo period of the 17th and 18th Centuries, this festival surrounds the decorating of a set of dolls that represent the Emperor and Empress and their court of ministers, ladies, and musicians. The dolls are displayed on a tiered stand along with all the accoutrements of the court. The Doll Festival is celebrated to help ensure a daughter’s future happiness. Peach Blossoms, which symbolize a happy marriage in Japan, are also an important part of this highly symbolic Japanese ritual. Speaking of symbolism, I’m sure most of us know what Dionysus, the Greek God of Wine and Harvest symbolized. He usually holds a cup in one hand and a wand in the other (and you know what that symbolized). Dionysus is also normally shown surrounded by women in diaphanous robes as well as satyrs (half men, half goats). His Roman name is Bacchus, giving us the term bacchanalia, which means a riotous and drunken festivity. This is a God who knew how to party. But did you know that the Dionysus festival, first celebrated in Athens during the 6th century B.C.E., culminated in a theatrical orgy, and not the other kind that we might have expected? In fact, the great Greek tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were written for these Dionysus festivals, which were competitions, with awards going to best play, best author, and even best actor (some 2,500 years before the first Academy Awards celebration, no less). This festival gave us Oedipus the King and Prometheus Bound. In fact, the word Tragedy literally means ode to the goat; the Greek word for goat being Tragos. Of course, there was more to this festival than just the theatrical competition. In true Dionysian form, the celebration began with a dancing parade through the streets of Athens. Young maidens carried baskets of fruits while men carried bread and wine. Bulls, another of the many symbols of fertility, were also included in the parade, only to be slaughtered and roasted as part of the night-long party that followed. So, basically, what you had in Athens each spring (at the start of the summer sailing season, no less) was a state-sponsored dinner theatre held to celebrate and venerate the God Dionysus. In fact, one way to get out of paying your taxes was to sponsor one of the plays. Although you might just end up paying more that way, at least you had the chance of winning an award for it. It seems to me, we could learn a thing or two from the ancient Greeks. While I found other interesting spring festivals and celebrations, I’d like to turn now to the one we are probably most familiar with – Easter. But how familiar are we with the true history of this holiest of Christian holidays? We all know the story of how Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead after three days and three nights. But if the Bible tells us that this all happened exactly 40 days after the Passover, why then does Easter move around from year to year? Better yet, if Christ died on the cross on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday, what happened to the third night between those two events? And what do colored eggs, bunnies, and green, plastic grass have to do with the crucifixion, anyway? The answers to all of these questions lie in the pagan spring celebrations that the early Christian church dressed up with its own religious trappings to help ease the transition of Roman citizens from their polytheistic religions to the “One True Word.” As I mentioned earlier, most Spring rituals celebrate the return of the sun; the shucking off of winter’s cold embrace, and the return of life to mother earth. Most ancient polytheistic religions, from the near, middle, and far east, and all the way up to colder climates of the northern tribes, revered a goddess of fertility and held a festival in her honor during early spring. In Phoenicia (now Syria and Lebanon), this was Astarte. In Babylonia and Sumeria (now Iraq), they prayed to Ishtar. The Egyptians had their Isis. In Greece, the mother goddess was Demeter, while the goddess of fertility was Aphrodite. These two were later combined into Venus for the Romans. Far to the north, the norsemen had Freya, while the anglo-saxons revered Eostre, the goddess of the dawn. These goddesses had many things in common. They were all mothers and thus associated with fertility. In fact, Ishtar was the Goddess of both mothers and prostitutes. Most were associated with the resurrection of either their lovers or their children (and often both). Isis and Osiris. Ishtar and Tammuz. Astarte and Adonis. Demeter and Persephone. These rebirths were celebrated every year during a festival that occurred often at dawn on the day of the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Ishtar, Isis, Eostre, Astarte. Easter. It now seems obvious that the festival of Ishtar in the south and Ostara in the north were co-opted by the Christian church. Easter, a term that is never mentioned in the Bible, is the Sunday after that first full moon, and not, as the Bible says, 40 days after Passover. But there’s more. For you see, the high day of the festival of Ishtar was Friday. This was Ishtar’s own day (not coincidentally named in Anglo-Saxon for Freya and in the romance languages far to the south for Venus). This may help explain the counting discrepancy between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In addition, both Ostara and the festival of Ishtar involved the sacrifice of various symbols of fertility, including eggs and rabbits. Some variations of the ritual also included garlands or wreaths of flowers and new-grown grass placed in baskets. As Kevin Stone put it in his treatise of the Ishtar festival: “Easter is not a corruption of a biblical holiday. It is an utterly pagan holiday with a little bit of Christian window dressing.” There may be nothing more to this, as I said, than an attempt by the early Christian church to ease the transition for Roman citizens in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. from their polytheistic past to a more Christian future. But I found other, more disturbing parallels between the Bible stories I had been told in Sunday school and these earlier so-called pagan accounts. Being the goddess of prostitutes as well as mothers, Ishtar’s festivals were pretty decadent, involving many things the young Christian church was trying very hard to wipe out, including ritualized prostitution. However, Ishtar, with all her licentious behaviors, is an almost direct parallel with Mary, the mother of God. In addition to having a son who rose from the dead, Ishtar was referred to with the same appellations we often use for Mary. Here is what Will Durant, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Story of Civilization, had to say about Ishtar: “…her worshipers repeatedly addressed her as ‘The Virgin,’ ‘The Holy Virgin,’ and ‘The Virgin Mother,’ [however] this merely meant that her amours were free from all taint of wedlock.” Durant later goes on to say: “Essentially it [he is here speaking of the myth of Demeter and Persephone] was the same myth as that of Isis and Osiris, in Egypt; Tammuz and Ishtar, in Babylonia: Astarte and Adonis, in Syria: Cybele and Attis, in Phrygia. The cult of motherhood survived through classical times to take new life in the worship of Mary, the mother of God.” Even the story of Dionysus bears a striking resemblance to the stories in the New Testament. Dionysus’s mother was a human named Semele. His father was the god Zeus. While this type of union was common in many of the Greek and Roman myths (as well as the Norse), Zeus came to Semele as only a spirit in the night – felt only as a divine presence. Not only that, but Dionysus himself was killed – torn apart by the titans – only to be resurrected by his grandmother Rhea. And, when he reached manhood, he traveled far and wide, preaching the culture of the vine. There are also huge similarities between the rebirth of Adonis and the story of Easter. Adonis, it is said, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven in front of his worshippers. Will Durant’s discussion of the orgiastic ritual celebrating this event includes a passage with remarkable similarities to stories we’ve all been told:
He died for our sins so that we might live forever at his side in heaven. Now, I’m not saying that Christianity plagiarized these earlier myths. Far from it. The fact that all of these disparate cultures shared so many common themes in their most basic stories just goes to show how much alike we all are. We all crave the same things – a loving mother, a caring wife, the return of the sun after a long winter, an intimate connection to the divine, and the promise of a better life after this one – perhaps with a little wine thrown in for good measure. But I do sometimes find myself longing for a more carefree time before the early Christian church as well as our puritanical forefathers scrubbed all the revelry out of our religious celebrations. Bread and wine are now sacrament, instead of a feast. Fertility symbols are now gifts for children instead of the prelude to a life-giving celebration meant coax the land into blooming again. And nature is something to conquer and quell instead of a sacred piece of the divine. Festivals were once a time to enjoy transcendent religious experience with others. Now, most of the experiences enjoyed during those pagan celebrations are considered sinful or even illegal. As Will Durant once said: “Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in time of war.” Now, I’m not recommending we host a UU bacchanalia. But if hatred is respectable in times of war, why shouldn’t singing and dancing and free-flowing wine be respectable in a church service? Perhaps the Southern Baptists have the right idea. Or maybe we all need to spend a day spraying each other with scented waters and colored powders to relieve the stresses of life for a time. I don’t know. It might make an interesting addition to our next dinner theatre here in the sanctuary. But perhaps we should wait until the snow is finally off the ground and spring is really in the air – perhaps sometime around June or July. |
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