Greetings!

The most interesting part of May history seems already to have passed. May 1st was once celebrated by many cultures in the northern hemisphere as a midpoint between spring and summer. Walpurgisnacht is the anniversary of Hitler's death. It also happens to be the night when roaming spirits return to the undersworld. I can imagine some hellish shades carrying Hiltler's ghost kicking and screaming. Walpurgis was reburied on that day. The old Catholic penchant for changing pagan holidays to Christian turned May Day into Saint Walpurgis' and Mother Mary's day.

As a child I was always curious about what Easter meant and how the Resurrection tied in with rabbits who lay eggs. As I grew up I tended to forget about it and kept forgetting to look it up. But as a Roman Catholic I was used to Christian traditions getting tied in to pagan folkways. Oddly enough, not matter how you feel about the fact that many Christian traditions are mixed with pagan folklore to facilitate the conversion of thousands of people at some time or other, you're considered blasphemous.

Are chocolate bunnies demonically dragging children to Hell? I doubt it. But just maybe they might be a reason for people to think that egg laying rabbits are part of the resurrection fairy tale. People have been hacking at it for years. They say Jesus isn't the first of His type in religion and list many similar stories. As I examine these stories various things begin to unravel though. They say that Jesus shares a birthday with other gods and heroes. We don't even know when His birthday is, but to facilitate conversion... They say He died on the equinox. We don't know that, but it's interesting that the early church used a lunar calendar because all they knew about the date of His crucifixion was from another lunar calendar the Jews were using. They say Pan was crucified a few centuries before. They even use a Pan on the cross artifact. The artifact is fake. Greeks didn't use crosses. They simply tied your hands over your head and left you to dangle when you got tired. Another claim is that Jesus is the new Horus. A lot of modern word play comes along with that one. There was a repectable archaeologist who claimed that whatever happened, there was no stone rolled away from the tomb because Jesus was too poor. Remember Joseph of Arimathea? Well people aren't named like that and things don't happen that way, he says.

So, after all this, why would I believe in the Resurrection? Because too many people died based on eyewitness testimony. Even today, I've seen movements come and go while they claim they know somebody who saw the impossible.

Something happened. It changed the world.

It's a matter of debate, but some people think April come from a Latin word, aprus, which means to open. Many spring flowers open in April.

A woman was bragging about how much she gives to her church, So I asked her if anyone mentioned the part about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. "Oh no!" she replied, "I know everything they do! I'm on the board!"

It doesn't take a Christian to see the flaw in her statement. Sadly, Christians have been singing in her choir for decades! For those of you who wonder why I might have a problem with that, it's because Christians are being taught the very sort of thing Jesus preached against. He said DON'T do your good deeds for the world to see. When you give alms don't let your left hand is doing. He also speaks about prayer and fasting in the same manner. He says, "Don't do as the hypocrites do to be seen by men... They have their reward. What you do, do it in secret and your Hevenly Father who see you in secret will reward you."

Does your church teach you to be a hypocrite?

He was born in England and kidnapped by marauders at an early age. He was sold to an Irish chieftain and escaped as a teenager. He went home only to find that his parents were gone. So he became a missionary and went back near the are that he had been enslaved in. He was a good missionary and did something unheard of. He fed his enemies during a famine. He became a bishop, converting much of Ireland in his day.

According to science, there have never been snakes native to Ireland. My guess is that the story of his driving the snakes out of Ireland is a later embellishment of some historical metaphor.

The three leaf clover story is probably true. Not many people can understand the Trinity so well without help.

Some people drink green beer as an affinity for Ireland, but green beer meant using spring time ingredients that hadn't ripened. This ties in with St. Patrick because his feast day comes about the same time this type of brewing was done, and people like to drink alcohol. It's fairly normal in old world societies.

Leprechauns, four leaf clover, etc. are simply embellishment of the religions that St. Patrick was competing with. They became folk tales once people became Christian.