Is Easter Pagan?

[Mo MHuintir]

Here’s some stats [I didn’t post any url addresses per forum rules]:

From the (US) National Confectioners Association, and the US National Retail Federation.
These are real life organizations that deal with the make believe Easter bunny. Quote:

Last year, the 79.6% of Americans who celebrated Easter spent an average of $118.60 on the holiday. The overwhelming majority of that spending went right into the Easter baskets as food ($37.45), gifts ($18.16), and candy ($17.29). For such companies as Tootsie Roll (TR), Hershey's (HSY), and Kraft (KFT) -- which is on its second year of making Cadbury Creme Eggs -- Easter is a $1.9 billion basket of goodies with candy sales second only to Halloween's $2 billion, according to the National Confectioners Association.
"Easter is obviously a religious holiday, but many retailers have discovered that Americans consider Easter the official kickoff to spring," says Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. -end.

Notice that 79.6% of Americans celebrate Easter. That number fits with the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) Poll that says 76.5% (Or 159 million) Americans identify themselves as Christians.
Isn’t that coincidental? About 4 out of every 5 Americans call themselves Christians, and about 4 out of every 5 American celebrate Easter. So the total number of Christians just about equals the total number of people who celbrate Easter. I would say that is empirical evidence that Christians create the demand for the Easter Bunny, colored eggs, and jelly bean market. Vestiges of this worlds pagan past.

I checked other sources and found similar results:

ABC News Money 4/2/11
"Whether the economy goes up or down, people are going to get that picture of their child with Santa or the Easter Bunny every year," says Mark Allen, president of Instant Photo Corporation of America, that partners with malls to run holiday promotions

Retail Industry. About.com
Americans continue to cling to tradition as a source of normalcy amidst the uncertainty of recession. While the Easter bunny basket might have been a little lighter this year, the mascot of candy and hard boiled eggs definitely didn’t sit this holiday out.

CAMP HILL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rite Aid makes last-minute Easter shopping easy with holiday hours right through Easter Sunday and a wide selection of candy, baskets, stuffed plush animals, toys and novelties.
Easter is the nation's second top-selling candy holiday, according to the National Confectioners Association, which estimates that 16 billion jelly beans and 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year. Four in five Americans celebrate Easter and are expected to spend about $14.6 billion at all retailers nationwide this year, according to the National Retail Federation.

There was one thing that stood out to me in all of the secular news sources that commented about the Easter Holiday and its traditions (like the ones listed above). Not one of them mentioned Jesus. I thought you said that Easter was all about witnessing for Jesus and his resurrection?

Vic, if the Easter Bunny was real and could talk, he’d probably say thank you Christians for that $1.9 Billion dollars!