Fact Check

Did Sarah Palin Claim That Jesus Celebrated Easter?

"When Jesus celebrated Easter with his disciples, there were no Easter bunnies or egg hunts."

Published Oct. 24, 2013

 (Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com)
Image Via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com
Claim:
Sarah Palin claimed in an interview that Jesus Christ celebrated Easter during His time on Earth.

On 23 October 2013, the Daily Currant web site published an article positing that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin had claimed in a television news interview that Jesus Christ celebrated Easter during His time on Earth:

In an interview with Fox and Friends this morning, the former Alaska governor promoted her new book about the left's "war on Christmas" and argued that all Christian holidays should return to the traditional versions practiced by Jesus.

"It makes me so gosh darn angry," Palin explained. "The liberal left in this country has targeted Christian holidays and is trying to secularize them right out of existence.

"When Jesus celebrated Easter with his disciples there were no Easter bunnies or egg hunts. There were no Easter sales at department stores or parades in the street. Easter was a special time of prayer and Christian activism.

"Jesus would gather all the townspeople around and would listen to their stories about the meaning of Easter in their lives. Then he would teach them how to love one another, how to protest Roman abortion clinics and how to properly convert homosexuals.

By the end of the day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news item. However, the article was just a bit of political humor from the Daily Currant fake news site, a spoof of the debate over secularization of religious-based holidays and the stereotype of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as ill-informed about historical matters.

As noted in the Daily Currant's "About" page, that web site does not publish factual material:

The Daily Currant is an English language online satirical newspaper that covers global politics, business, technology, entertainment, science, health and media.

Q. Are your news stories real?

A. No. Our stories are purely fictional. However they are meant to address real-world issues through satire and often refer and link to real events happening in the world.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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