Dec 1st, recruiting people for the war on Christmas.

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I have read a ton of mythology book in my day and none of them mentioned rabbits being used as fertility symbols by pagan cultures. Not saying it isn't possible, just saying I've never seen it. And if "Easter" is indeed a corruption of "Ishtar", who you may remember as the ancient mesopotamian "goddess" who was powerless to prevent a lonely shepherd boy from raping her, then please connect Ishtar with rabbits, eggs, and a spring festival.

I always assumed that eggs are associated with Easter because they are a symbol for new life. Pagan cultures have used eggs as a symbol for new life, but that in of itself doesn't make them a pagan symbol. Using the olive branch as a symbol for peace doesn't make sense without the Greek myth of the naming of Athens. This makes olive branch = peace a pagan symbol. The cross as a symbol of salvation makes absolutely zero sense without the Christian account of Jesus's resurrection. Thus cross = salvation is a Christian symbol. Eggs as a symbol for new life makes sense without any pagan myths, thus eggs = new life is not a pagan symbol. It is just a symbol.

but Vexcalibur's wikipedia article gives another, purely Christian reason of how they could have been associated with the holiday.

Vexcalibur: I read the wikipedia article you linked to. It had a lot of information about how rabbits and eggs could have become associated with Easter via purely Christian symbolism, but the only mention of them as pagan fertility symbols cited no references.

The evidence that it is a Christian holiday is that, last time I checked, it is always celebrated on the closest sunday to when Jesus rose from the dead, and there isn't any evidence of a holiday like it celebrated at that time before Christianity.

at least, last time I checked. If you have evidence to the contrary please present it.

search for yule,

ostara,

ishtar

and about 50 other names, it isnt excactly hard to find and it took me 5 seconds using google and the sentence "easter tradition paegan."

I'm not seeing any links...

Catholic link:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm

Scroll down to Easter Eggs for example.

You agree that the eggs symbolize "new life". If you did use to read mythology books (as you claim), well, that's pagan. Remember one of the versions of the account of the creation of the universe in Greek Mythology?

As for bunnies, if they're not Christian in origin, then they must come from what's not Christian. Correct?

Also, where is the Christian basis for Easter Eggs, Easter Bunny, and all that in the earliest Christian sources?

"New Life" isn't an inherently pagan concept. I am familiar with the greek account of creation.

as for how bunnies got into it, check out vexcalibur's link.

The link you provided seems informative, but I don't have time to read it right now. (It's pretty long) but I do intend to get back to it another time. I wasn't trying to be a denialist, simply saying I had never seen any real evidence. The link you provided, at first glance, does look like it may provide some evidence.

To be honest, there isn't any hardcore evidence if that's what you're after.

It's just a matter of parsimony.

Then why tell me I'm in "complete denial"?

Because the only reason I see why you would reject its pagan elements to this point is that you don't want to accept it for whatever religious reason it may be.

Just because there isn't any hardcore evidence doesn't mean that it doesn't make much sense to be true.

On the contrary, it makes a lot more sense for Easter Eggs and Easter Bunny and Easter this and that to be pagan in origin than it is for them to be Christian in origin because all the evidence (even if not strong enough) point to the pagan roots rather than Christian.

Nowhere in the Bible or in any Christian source that matters do you see a Christian explanation for why they exist as Easter traditions.

But Vexcalibur's link did provide how they could be explained purely via Christian traditions.

If you mean the Easter Bunny link, it only describes how the Easter Bunny could be explained by Christian terms. But even then, spotting the sources for these claims in the footnotes, it looks like contemporary sources not primary ones.

Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom by Caitlin and John Matthews

"The hare brings the sun back out of the ground by his leaping in March-the time of Easter or the spring equinox.Hare-coursing with greyhounds may have ancient divinatory antecedents.The hare was sacred to the goddess Andraste of the Iceni of whom Boudicca sought an augury by loosing a hare from her garment and distinguishing the outcome of the battle by it's manner of flight."

It also mentions that chicken eggs may have been used in Druidic divination.

^^^^^The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazier and the Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James MacKillop (Oxford University Press) are good sources for info on the ancient Celts.