and spread through whatsapp statuses.
Like selling pesicha for neilah? Or geshem? Selling segulos is older than most segulos.
The easter bread to shlissel connection is nonsense, no similarity other than the coincidental timing. I also decorate my shul on shavuos with plants and flowers. We carry lit candles down the aisle to the chuppa. Boys grow out their hair until they turn 3.
Come on. Huge swaths of klal yisroel have minhagim that they don't knw the reason for. Cynics go and find a connection to paganism in order to mock the minhag. Nonsense on both sides- let's not pretend that we know the source of every minhag, but let the cynics not convince you that THEY know the source either