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June is a lovely time to hold weddings, so itвЂ™s no coincidence that June was named for Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage. The custom of giving out cigars at a babyвЂ™s birth may hail from the times when ancient Mayan fathers would blow tobacco smoke toward the sun god as an offering of thanks for a newborn child. Our culture is filled with the vestiges of ancient paganism. Cadbury might give us bunnies that lay treasures of gooey chocolate wonder, but that strange idea that we take for granted - an Easter bunny hiding eggs - hearkens back to these ancient practices. If we understand the rabbit as a symbol of fertility, we can understand how both eggs and rabbits became associated with Easter. The original cult practices were anything but child-friendly. We think of Easter egg hunts as fun activities for children. The egg was a fertility symbol that originated in debauched fertility cults. Easter is the season we commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ, but all that business of chicks, baby rabbits, and eggs ties back to the Babylonian fertility religions and the goddess Astarte or Ishtar, from which вЂњEasterвЂќ gets its name. The term вЂњdruidвЂќ originally referred to a priest of the oak cult, by the way. The custom of kissing someone under the mistletoe can be traced back to druid beliefs about the connection of that plant to sexual potency. I think most of us are sensitive to the fact that we are immersed in a pagan culture, and itвЂ™s become fascinating, and disconcerting, to watch as the world grows increasingly more open to the dark side.ДЄncient pagan traditions have leaked through the centuries into the present day. We even find aspects of those old days at Christmas вЂ“ the time of year weвЂ™ve dedicated to honoring the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our days of the week and the months of the year are largely named after pagan gods from Roman and Teutonic traditions. We might not see witchesвЂ™ cauldrons bubbling in local caves or Druids marching circles in the park, but itвЂ™s still easy to find remnants of our pagan past in the day-to-day walk through our world.

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Every year, Christians are left wondering exactly how to handle this holiday that focuses so much on death. It also offers opportunities for involvements that are genuinely dangerous as people willingly meddle with the occult when they would otherwise never do so. Together, they carve crazy faces on pumpkins, cover apples with caramel, and work to win contests for the scariest or most creative costumes.Д«ut why? How did this holiday originate? This night of orange and black offers opportunities for spooky fun, parties with Chex mix and candy corn, and faces wet from apple bobbing. Their parents join them, visiting parties and high school haunted houses. Latest Articles HALLOWEEN: Invitation to the Occult?Д® very year on the last day of October, American children paint their faces, color their hair, don gowns, capes and fuzzy suits, and traipse about from door-to-door collecting bags of candy.