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Ask the Experts: Easter Edition
posted on March 30, 2013Daniel Burke of Religion News Service prints religious scholars’ responses to reader submitted questions on Easter. The questions address the origins and evolution of the holiday. Responding to a question regarding the involvement of pre-Christian pagan practices in Easter traditions, Mary Elizabeth Sperry, a Bible expert at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, writes, “ As the church spread throughout the world, it has taken the customs of the culture, purified them of superstition, and given them new Christian meanings. Two Easter customs that likely derive from pagan practices are the Easter egg and the Easter fire.”