Shaun De Waal

Shaun de Waal has worked at the Mail & Guardian since 1989. He was literary editor from 1991 to 2006 and chief film critic for 15 years. He is now editor-at-large. Recent publications include Exposure: Queer Fiction, 25 Years of the Mail & Guardian and Not the Movie of the Week.

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/ 10 April 2007

Have faith in the cosmos

While Christians prepare to celebrate Easter as the commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection, they are unlikely to dwell on the pagan roots of such festivals, which were overlaid by Christian rites as Christianity spread across Europe in the first millennium AD. Easter replaced spring festivals, which focused often on the death and rebirth of a fertility deity.