Resurrection of an Ancient Dawn

(Image: Wix media)

Spring has been celebrated as a time of renewal and the resurrection of life by tribal peoples around the world for millennia. Here in the Americas, the running of the maple sap marks the beginning of the new year for the Anishinaabeg of the northern Great Lakes area. For the Wampanoag of the East Coast, the return of the herring to the rivers heralds the arrival of spring and is greatly celebrated. The Oneida, another Northwoods nation, hold ceremonies after the spring's first thunder - this wakens the trees and the sugarbush begins. Many ancient observatories in the Americas are aligned to greet the rays of the spring sun precisely on the equinox.

Europeans, too, were once connected to the land in such a way. Although the mists of time and the active efforts of colonization/Christianization have clouded our ability to clearly understand our ancestors' tribal traditions in Europe, there is ample evidence to point us in the right direction.

There are numerous stone monuments, such as those found at the Celtic Loughcrew Cairns, aligned with the angle of the sun on the equinoxes.

Many European tribes marked spring as a time when the Green Man and Mother Earth regain their full power. The Green Man, in fact, goes on to live out the rest of the year, dying at Samhain…or Halloween…only to be resurrected from Mother Earth later in the winter, reaching full strength in the spring.

Easter itself appears to derive from the ancient traditions of tribal Europe marking the resurrection of life in the spring after winter's hard cold.

As has been well documented, Christianity deliberately set out to convert tribal peoples through the co-option or appropriation of tribal holidays and religious observances. The Winter Solstice (celebrating the Birth of the Sun) became a celebration of the birth of the Son (Jesus). Samhain became All Hallow's Eve. And Easter appears to come from the tribal celebration of the goddess Eostre.

In English-speaking countries, the Christian holiday is known as Easter. In Germany, it’s known as Ostern. And in France and many other European countries it’s known as Pâques.

According to religious historian Dr. Carole Cusack and others, Pâques derives from the Jewish celebration of Passover. But Ostern and Easter derive from the name of “pagan” holidays celebrating a goddess of renewal. Ostern is the name of a Germanic deity, Ostara, who is the goddess of the dawn. Eostre is an Anglo-Saxon goddess of rebirth in the spring and is described in a book by Bede, an eight-century Christian monk.

This quintessential Christian holiday was named after a tribal goddess (perhaps "spirit" might be a better word) of renewal and the resurrection of life. According to some, this was done because the "heathen" commitment to the celebration of Eostre/Ostara was so strong it was essential to keep her name attached to this all-important Christian holiday (Easter/Ostern) in order to facilitate the transition of tribal peoples from their traditional religions to that of the Christian religion.

Interestingly the tribal influence is also found in the date set for the Christian celebration of Easter. Easter is a moveable feast in Christianity precisely because it follows natural rhythms very similar to tribal religions. In Christianity, it was decided by the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD that the celebration of Easter (or the Resurrection) was to occur on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

This is not pure coincidence. For example, in 595 AD Pope Gregory sent a group of monks to England to convert the "pagans." He instructed the monks to permit the outward forms of "paganism" such as festivals to remain while changing their ceremonies and underlying cultural philosophies. Centuries later, social engineers employed by colonizing governments would employ similar methods to force the cultural assimilation of tribal peoples around the world.

According to one source, the monks were greatly daunted by the challenge as they well knew "pagan Britons believed every plant, tree, spring, stream, rock, hill or animal had its own soul and its own guardian deity. Before a tree could be cut down, a stream dammed, a mountain crossed, a spring drunk from or an animal disturbed, the individual guardian spirit had first to be placated. Every aspect of the wind and the weather also had its own god or goddess."

It took centuries of persistent missionary zeal, including several centuries of violent persecution, before the tribal ways of Europe succumbed almost entirely to Christianity and the Christian governments that followed.

Herein lies a lesson for Indigenous peoples in settler nations today -- assimilation creeps up on us. How do we hold on to the values and philosophies that connect us to the Earth, ways we know are so essential for this time?

There is also hope in this history of tribal Europe despite the systemic oppression of its traditional philosophies and practices.

While tribal ways were almost entirely eradicated through Christianization, Christianity itself contains the seeds of Europe's tribal traditions. Like a garden bed sown with the seed of wildflowers, tribal ways lie dormant within Christianity, waiting as nature does for the right amount of sunlight and adequate rainfall to re-emerge, renewing these age-old ways of life.

As we face multiple environmental crises from species extinction to pollution to climate change, as part of healing our relationship to the land, it's important to remember our ancestors. They connect us to an age-old way of living that honors all life as sacred. No matter our ancestry, we once knew how to live well with the Earth and all beings.

We did it once -- we can do it again.

Perhaps when these old ways are renewed, we and all creation can then truly celebrate the Resurrection...the resurrection of an ancient dawn.

Photo: Aimee Cree Dunn

Note: The use of the word "pagan" and "heathen" is used in quotation marks as they are words loaded with cultural perceptions yet lacking in historical perspective. Both terms were originally used to refer to people who lived in the countryside or in the wilds and kept to the ancient tribal ways rather than converting to the urban-based religion of Christianity.