[roamer_1]

The linguistic derivation of Easter is from the Germanic languages. In non-Germanic languagues, the word pascha is preserved. In most of those languages, ‘east’ or a close homonym means the direction of the rising sun. (German ‘oesten”, English ‘east’, Dutch ‘oosten’, Danish ‘osten’, etc.)

Riiiiight. it had *nothing* to do with Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos, the various derivations of the Teutonic/Celtic dawn goddess or mother goddess, whose rites only look like they resemble the rites of Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Astarte, etc...

ANY similarity is purely coincidental... Really. [/sarc]

[xzins]

Some people have real difficulty when they see it before them in black and white.

The word east, dawn, the rising sun, son is a basic human observation that has nothing to do with a pantheon of gods answer put together by a religion that has an ax to grind with another religion.