According to that tradition, he is the korban pesach.
yes, the Pascal Lamb is the english for the Agnus Dei-- or the Lamb of God-- the offering to god, that was first asked of Abraham (the sacrafice of a son)--in jesus, the son and lamb become one...
in keeping with the jewish tradition of the offering of the lamb-- in roman catholic households, easter dinner was lamb-- served with fresh green herbs and vegetable (peas and mint)-- not the bitter herb of passover- but sweet herbs, since it was held that redemption had been reached...
much of this has passed, and now ham and turkey are more popluar for easter dinner than lamb--In our house we not only had real lamb, but the dessert was a cake baked in the shape of a lamb. (we never had a whole lamb-- we were too poor, only a leg of lamb-- but one year, one set of cousins did have a whole lamb)
We got chocolate, and peeps, and hardboiled, colored eggs, but no "easter bunny" decorations. Easter was very definately a religious holiday-- the candy, a sweet reminder of redemption...
There are a lot of pagan influences in RC beliefs (the closer you get to Ireland, the more there are!) but there are also many traditions that follow directly from judism-- priest vestments include a prayer shawl, and there is a garment, that covers the back and chest, with fringes on the corners(don't know the name of it,) -- in RC, a similar garment is called a scapula-- only the RC version is miniture-- about 2 by 2 square) except in some religious orders habits and in priest garments for services-- I wore one till i was in my teens, and broke with RC. the priest version of it is larger and includes fringes, the versions for not priest did not.-- i don't know if the number of fringes, is the same as in judism--
I was raised in a very RC household-- but since it was also an Irish household-- i got exposed to old fashioned RC traditions, (lamb for easter) and pagan irish beliefs too!
