Alexander Hislop, in his classic work,The Two Babylons, in the section entitled,Easter, explains the origin of the Lenten fast:The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days,in the spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, forthus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: Three days after the vernal equinox...began a solemn fast offorty daysin honour of the sun. Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting WilkinsonsEgyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in hisSabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god.Thus,the testimony of many historians is that Lent was a borrowed festival from Babylon. It is a part of the ancient sun god worship which has found its way into nearly every culture of the world throughout time. Since the early church had no such custom (asCassianus told us), the Council ofLaodiceamust have affirmed for the church a celebration which was observed in antiquity by the pagan sun god worshippers.But there is more. Hislop finds more evidence of the pagan roots of Easter and Lent:At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informsus that, for forty nights thewailing for Proserpine continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed,called Castus or the sacred fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her excess of sorrow, that is, on account of the loss of herdaughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was oneof the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days fast of Lent was made in later timesto have reference to both.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 09:47:58 +0000
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