[Knitting A Conundrum]

Easter was always a Christian thing. It doesn't have to do with any pagan rite. It has to do with the Passover, and Christ's death at Passover time.

In most European languages, the word is something like Pasch, for passover.

Not to say some of the symbols come from local folk traditions which might have their roots in regional pagan belief. But at the heart of Easter, from the beginning, was a commemoration of the anniversary of Jesus' death and ressurection.

[AnAmericanMother]

Actually, for the name "Easter" we are indebted to a pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre. This on the authority of the Venerable Bede's History of the English Church and People, which is just about all the authority there IS for that period.

She was also apparently responsible for the eggs and the bunnies. Wonder if she was also responsible for the dispute over the DATE of Easter in the English church.

But not, of course, for the Easter celebration itself.