Easter , The Cross And Pagan Connections To Tau (mythology)

Ēostre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Ēostre or Ostara (Old English: Ēastre, Northumbrian dialect Ēostre; Old High German: *Ôstara) is a Germanic divinity who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ; West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; Old High German: Ôstarmânoth), is the namesake of the festival of Easter. Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th-century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Eostre's honor, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

Tau in a non-Christian context

Heraldry is full of profound meaning, once we delve into it. The heraldic term for Tau is Crux Commissa, which transliterated means a 'commissioned cross'; that is, a cross that has been assigned a mission (the Crucifixion) by a higher authority (God).

http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/antau.html

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  Tau pursued by Kerana. Tau is the name of an evil spirit in Guaraní mythology. Although Tau is not quite synonymous with the Devil in Christian beliefs, for example, he was sometimes referred to as The Evil Spirit and as such may have been a personification of evil itself. Tau was created along with his opposite, Angatupyry, by the supreme god of the Guaraní creation myth, Tupã, and was left with humanity on Earth.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_%28mythology%29

Tau Cross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Crucifixion scene with a Tau cross, School of Brugge, late 15th or early 16th century
Tau cross pendants from late medieval (early Tudor era, c. 1485) England

The Cross of Tau used to build patterns in a window at the Convent of Saint Anthony near Castrojeriz, Spain
The Tau Cross at Roughan Hill near Corofin, County Clare, Ireland
Modern "Franciscan" Tau pendant

The Cross of Tau, named after the Greek letter it resembles, is a form of the Christian cross symbol.[1] It is also variously St. Anthony's Cross, Old Testament Cross, Anticipatory Cross, Cross Commissee, Egyptian Cross, Advent Cross, Croce taumata, Saint Francis's Cross, Crux Commissa.[citation needed]

The shape of the letter tau or T was interpreted as representing a crucifix from antiquity. The staurogram, from Greek ΣTAΥPOΣ "cross", was a tau-rho ligature used to abbreviate the Greek word for cross in very early New Testament manuscripts such as P66, P45 and P75.[2] The tau was also considered a symbol of salvation due to the identification of the tau with the sign which in Ezechiel 9:4 was marked on the forehead of the saved ones (וְהִתְוִיתָ תָּו עַל־מִצְחֹות הָאֲנָשִׁים "set a mark (tav; after the Phoenician cross-shape 𐤕) on the forehead of the men"), or due to the tau-shaped outstretched hands of Moses in Exodus 17:11.[2]

St. Anthony of Egypt bore a cross in the form of a tau on his cloak.[1] The Tau Cross is most commonly used in reference to the Franciscan Order and Saint Francis of Assisi, who adopted it as his personal coat of arms after hearing Pope Innocent III talk about the Tau symbol.[3] It is now used as a symbol of the Franciscan Order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Cross

Easter Eggs

The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the start of the season of Eastertide.^[1] The Easter Bunny is sometimes depicted with clothes. In legend, the creature carries colored eggs in his basket, candy, and sometimes also toys to the homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus or theChristkind, as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holidays. The custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus^[2] (About Easter Eggs) in 1682^[3] referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter eggs for the children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny