pagan origins of easter...

many, perhaps most, pagan religions in the mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the spring equinox. cybele, the phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. he was attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. he was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. the festival began as a day of blood on black friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.

wherever christian worship of jesus and pagan worship of attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of jesus on the same date; and pagans and christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."

many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with attis, many centuries before the birth of jesus. they were simply grafted onto stories of jesus' life in order to make christian theology more acceptable to pagans. others suggest that many of the events in jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of krishna, the second person of the hindu trinity. ancient christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of christ in order to confuse humanity. // b.a. robinson, 04.11.07, religious tolerance

...on a lighter note: