Spring Solstice (Easter) Spanking

Our benign Easter holiday of soft, furry bunnies, candy, and colored eggs has an interesting history as the pagan spring solstice celebration replete with the flagellation of women as a tradition of celebrating fertility, sexuality, rebirth, and renewed health.

Easter and the Christian myth of Christ's resurrection was concocted by the Council of Nicea in 325 A. D. as it composed the "modern" Christian scripture combining some of the strands of the neo-Christian cult that had grown since the time of Christ to put Rome in crisis, and the Sun God worshipping, poly-deist, pagan Roman state religion into one dogma to save the republic and the empire from breaking asunder under the religious schism that was occurring between the Christians and the pagans. The Council of Nicea, over two years, took both sets of beliefs and turned them into the first "Christian" (although highly bastardized from the original Jewish culturally contexted Christianity which early Christians had practiced for 325 years at that point) state religion and the creation of the first politically ordained clergy..........the founding of the original Roman Catholic Church. Some of the most notable innovations of the Council of Nicea's creativity were changing the sabbath from Friday night through Saturday to the Roman Sunday sabbath (the day of the Sun god); and the creation of the myth of Christ's resurrection (which had no roots in Christianity prior to this time) to incorporate the traditional belief in resurrection of life after death which was s central theme of Rome's pagan faith. Many of the pagan holidays were incorporated into the new Church dogma including the spring solstice celebration of the earth's resurrection from winter. (Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, All Saints Day/Halloween are all other examples of the absorption of previously pagan holidays into the calendar of the newly constituted church.) Of course it was not enough just to add holidays to the calendar but it was necessary to incorporate holiday traditions from the former pagan faith into the new "Christianity." There were two holidays in the Roman tradition that included a tradition of whipping women to enhance their fertility, sexuality, and the robustness of their health. In February women were whipped in the streets by young men ordained by Priests and armed with whips made from the skins of ritually sacrificed goats to create fertility. It was believed that such a whipping could actually cure infertility. The whip was called "februs"-- thus the month February was the month of the februs. This is the root of today's Valentines Day. This holiday, The Feast of Lupercal, is referenced as the context of the very opening scene of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

The other "flogging holiday" was what is today celebrated as Easter. Women were to be whipped by men with freshly cut switches woven into rods. Switches would have just begun to bud and to have regained their flexibility to restore them to being stingy. It was believed that women would incorporate the switch's renewed vitality, and fertility as it was reborn by the renewed flowing of sap to make it green once again. The women were of course grateful for the gift of such an important flogging so necessary to their health, beauty, fertility, sexuality, and good fortune in the year ahead. There were Roman myths of terrible consequences that befell women about whom no one cared enough to provide them a spring solstice flogging. Of course the more a woman was loved, and the greater benefit she and her lover wanted for her, the greater the severity of her flogging needed to be. Women were enlisted in the process to cut the switches and weave them into rods to be used on their bottoms so they could have a wonderful year ahead.

This tradition lives on today in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Sweden. In those three countries on the Monday after Easter women are whipped with woven or bound switch rods. They are not only submit to whippings from men whom they love, or know, but in some cases roaming bands of young men who they may not know. They reward the men who flog them by tying ribbons on their rods to help them keep track and advertise how many whippings they've administered, and gifts of candy and alcohol. In the Czech Republic and Poland the woven switch rods are made of willow rods (called Pomlazka in Czech). In Sweden, they use birch rods to provide women their Easter whippings.

What a shame that Christianity has eschewed this aspect of its rich historical background as it has come to believe the myth that somehow the resurrection of Christ was actually a part of Christ's and the apostles' teachings (a complete historical inaccuracy) and to divorce themselves from any sort of sensual or erotic aspects of their worship or holiday traditions. The Neo-Pagans appear not to be much better in this regard.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...........Easter whippings seem to me to be a very appropriate way to celebrate Easter. Alleluia!!!!!!!!! Christ is Risen!!!! Now where's those fresh cut spring switches?

All the best,

Tom

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