The word "pagan" was used derisively by colonial powers to refer to non-Christian faiths, especially polytheistic ones that celebrated divinity through nature-plants, animals, rivers, mountains, stars. Yet, paganism contributed greatly to what we call Christian rituals and festivals today.

Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, but his mythology (virgin birth, miracles, resurrection) emerged in the century thereafter. It was the miracle man that attracted the masses, hence the earliest images of Jesus show him as a young man with a staff (or wand) in his hand, or as a good shepherd, reminding pagans of the Adonis, the Greek god, who comes back to life each year during spring for his lover Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of life, giving us the festival of Easter.