Pascha

Happy Pascha. It was originally a variant of Passover used by the Jewish people but early Christians claimed it for what we know as “Easter.” Passover is now Pesach in Hebrew, which ends at nightfall today.

Why Easter? The was a goddess named Eostre (or Ostara), who had celebrations named for her. She is either (or both) the goddess of fertility or the goddess of light (Springtime, when there was more daylight). The period of time when she was celebrated was called the month of Eostre, so Happy Easter.

And how did that come to pass? Well, as Catholicism spread across the continent of Europe, Bishops were told to find ways to get people into Catholicism, and one sent to England decided that the way to convert these heathens was to say that the Catholic holidays (Jesus’ birth and his resurrection) fell around the exact same times as certain pagan rituals. Apparently, it worked and ended up getting adopted by Catholicism (and then its offshoots), for the most part. So the English adopted Easter as the day Christ is risen, while most of the rest of Christendom says Pascha. Also explains the eggs (fertility). Still unsure of the bunnies, also an English thing, and not worldwide (bells deliver Easter eggs in France).

On today’s podcast, we have a lot of music both old and new, with Lana Del Ray, Florence + the Machine, Tribe, Valerie June, Lake Street Dive, Khurangbin & Leon Bridges, Jon Cleary, Johnny Adams, Albert Collins with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland, Miracle Legion, the Connells, and Syd Straw.

You can go to brennick.net to stream or download, or download the podcast brennick.net. Thank you for tuning in.