Quote Originally Posted by Hermod View Post
Well, when the Christian church was trying to convert northern Europe, they had trouble dealing with the pagans and their ingrained folkways. To get around it, missionaries co-opted the pagan holidays into the Christian calendar.

Easter was placed on the spring equinox festival of the pagan goddess Ostara/Eostre whose sacred animal was the rabbit and colored eggs were laid on her altar as a spring fertility symbol.

Halloween was the evening before All Saints Day and replaced a pagan harvest festival called Samhain. During Samhain, the wall between the living world and the spirit world was stretched thin allowing the spirits of the dead to visit the living world.

Yule was the Germanic celebration of the winter solstice and the return of the sun ending the darkness of dark winter. The evergreen tree was the symbol of the continuation of life. To be sure the sun was returning, the festival went on through twelve days. Every family placed a "sun wheel" [[wreath) on their door which was burned on the last of the twelve days of Yule.
Thank you Hermod, very cool knowledge.