Is Easter Pagan?

[sari83]

(04-13-2011 01:14 PM)Rose of Shushan Wrote:  It would be nice to see some of the sources for the above so we can see what you mean otherwise it's all a bit vague and confusing. When you say some observed the Lord's Supper and others observed Pascha what exactly do you mean by Pascha there.It certainly wasn't the Paschal lamb that they were eating.And what eactly were Polycarp and others doing that deemed them to be heretics.If we had some quotes from where you got that it would be very helpful.
Thanks

At the Passover meal (the Last Supper), Christ gave the command, "do this in remembrance of me." Hence the early Christians in Asia followed a tradition of keeping Passover/Pascha/Lord's Supper on the original date, Nisan 14. These Christians became known as quartodecimans. According to Iranaeus, Polycarp of Smyrna, disciple of the apostle John, kept the Nisan 14 date. In late second century, Bishop Victor of Rome, sought to excommunicate all who followed practice of Pascha on Nisan 14. Polycrates c.190 wrote to Bishop Victor defending the tradition:

"As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest who will rise again on the day of the coming of the Lord . These all kept the 14th day of the month as the beginning of the Paschal feast, in accordance with the Gospel . Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven."