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No, Easter Is Not Derived From an Ancient Pagan Holiday
Townhall.com ^ | April 10, 2020 | Ashley Herzog

Posted on 04/10/2020 3:01:19 PM PDT by Kaslin

Maybe you’ve seen the eyebrow-raising claims on the Internet or elsewhere in the media: rather than celebrating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and triumph over crucifixion, Easter is really derived from a pagan holiday. Proponents of this theory point to symbols of rebirth and fertility, like eggs and bunnies, that we see at Easter as proof. But the foundation of the claim that Easter is a pagan tradition is the similarity in names: Easter, they say, is the English translation of Eostre, a Germanic goddess of fertility. (Others claim Easter got its name from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, or the Ethiopian god Ashtar. That they have trouble keeping their story straight should be your first clue the Easter skeptics don’t have much in the way of actual evidence)! Others take the theory even further, arguing that the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection was lifted from ancient mythology—and therefore can’t possibly be true.

It’s intriguing stuff for people who wish to deny the divinity of Christ. But, much like the fertility myths surrounding Eostre, these claims are more fiction than fact. For starters, the word for Easter in many languages—including Spanish (Pascua), French (Pâques), and Romanian (Pa?ti)—is derived from the Hebrew word pesach, or “Passover.” Christians indeed borrowed many of their Easter traditions from another faith, but it was the monotheistic religion of Judaism, not paganism. Moreover, Ronald Nash, a philosophy professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, spent years thoroughly researching ancient mythology and found no evidence for resurrection stories similar to Christ’s. He did find a few examples of gods who died and then came back to life, but the circumstances bore no resemblance to Jesus’ execution and resurrection: “None of the so-called savior-gods died for someone else...Only Jesus died for sin. The other ‘dying gods’ tend to die because of accidents or quarrels. Jesus died once and for all, according to the teachings of the New Testament. Other stories involve the ‘god’ dying every year, corresponding to changing seasons."

As for Easter eggs and bunnies, there is little evidence that modern Christians lifted these symbols from pagans. In the early years of the Church, eating eggs was forbidden during Lent. Therefore, Christians celebrated the end of Lent and the arrival of Easter Sunday by cracking open beautifully painted eggs. And the Easter Bunny didn’t appear until sometime in the 1700s, when German immigrants in Pennsylvania introduced him into their Easter celebrations as a special surprise for children.

In sum, Christians borrowed their Pascal celebrations from the Jewish Passover. Easter traditions—whether it’s Orthodox Christians in Russia painting elaborate eggs or German Catholics delivering gifts to children from the “Easter bunny”—have varied according to regional and cultural traditions, and have changed greatly since the early days of the Church. But none of these traditions seem to have roots in paganism. Those who seek to undermine Christianity might tout this theory to make it seem as if believing in Christ’s resurrection has as much validity as worshipping animals or fertility goddesses. But the next time you hear these dubious claims about Easter and pagan mythology, remember it is just that: a myth.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bunnies; christ; easter; easterbunny; eggs; paschal; passover; religionforum; savior; tradition
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To: R_Kangel
Just curious as to where the name “Easter” came from. I was hoping he was going to explain it in this article.

Your question is then not where the celebration came from but the name, yet the two are often linked. Let me thus say that it is true that even John Henry Newman states that many things in Catholicism, including holy days "are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church." For "the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace." (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Chapter 8. Application of the Third Note of a True Development—Assimilative Power; http://www.newmanreader.org/works/development/chapter8.html)

However, not only is what we call Easter a celebration of the fulfillment of Passover, from death to life, and thus we call it Resurrection Day, but even if the name is from paganism, that does not mean it is a celebration of paganism, any more than the use of the name Sunday is.

As for your specific question, a very good article on this is by Roger Patterson at https://answersingenesis.org/holidays/easter/is-the-name-easter-of-pagan-origin/

According to various sources, the name Easter has its origin with a goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre (also Estre, Estara, Eastre, Ostara, and similar spellings in various sources). It is believed that she is the goddess of the dawn and was worshipped in the spring by pagans in Northern Europe and the British Isles. In The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop claimed Eostre is actually a name derived from the Babylonian goddess Astarte.

Hislop’s logic becomes incomprehensible in places, and he made fundamental errors demonstrating his thinking to be false. For instance, he argued on a phonetic basis that Eostre from Saxony must be the same as Astarte, Ishtar, and Ashtoreth. This is a leap to consider their relationships based on the sound of the names alone. We might find many examples of words that sound the same in various languages but share no common root or meaning. Hislop attempted to make other connections, but they are unconvincing and do not take into consideration the time these goddesses were worshipped or the importance of the confusion of languages at Babel. He also neglected to consider the relationship between the English and German words used today.

There remains only one written record of a goddess who might be connected to Eostre of the Saxons. The church scholar Bede,2 who lived in modern-day England from AD 673–735, recorded the names of several of the goddesses worshipped by early Saxons. He identified Eostre as one whose festivals were celebrated in the month given her name.

Eosturmanath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month,” and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.3

Bede’s description was tentatively confirmed in the nineteenth century by Jacob Grimm. Grimm was a linguist of the highest caliber who studied and preserved the histories, languages, and traditions of the Germanic peoples, also called Teutonic in older literature. This would include the Franks, Saxons, Angles, Slavs, Vandals, Goths, and others. These groups would have shared a common language family, and Grimm traced the connections among many of their gods and goddesses in his writings. Bede is discussed in the work Teutonic Mythology, first published in 1835.

The two goddesses, whom Beda (De temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly, without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and Eâstre, March taking its Saxon name from the first, and April from the second. We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ostarmânoth is found as early as Eginhart [c. 800] ([contemporary of Charlemagne]). The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of [Old High German] remains the name ôstarâ; it is mostly found in the plural, because two days (ôstartagâ, aostortagâ, Diut. 1, 266) were kept at Easter. This Ostrâ, like the [Anglo Saxon] Eâstre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries.

All the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical “pascha;” even Ulphilas writes paska, not austro, though he must have known the word; the Norse tongue also has imported its paskir, Swed[ish] pask, Dan[ish] paaske. The [Old High German] adv. ôstar expresses movement toward the rising sun (Gramm. 3, 205), likewise the [Old Norse] austr, and probably an [Anglo Saxon] eástor and Goth[ic] áustr.4

Some scholars have called Eostre an invention of Bede and discount the connections, but the confirmation of Grimm cannot be easily discredited; nor does the quality of Bede’s other works lead us to disbelieve him. Grimm established a clear connection between the Anglo-Saxon Eâstre and the German Ostrâ. Similar connections are found in etymologies that describe the origin of Easter from many sources. Ester and oster, the early English and German words, both have their root in aus, which means east, shine, and dawn in various forms.5 These names may have developed independent of the name of the goddess as a reference to the Easter festivals, or they may have been related to her name in some way.

Could There Be Another Origin of the Name Easter? Contrary to suggesting a connection to a Saxon goddess, some have suggested Easter finds its root in the German word for resurrection—auferstehung. In a footnote to his translation of the work of Eusebius, Christian F. Cruse defended the usage of the word Easter:

Our English word Passover, happily, in sound and sense, almost corresponds to the Hebrew [pesach], of which is a translation. Exod. Xii. 27. The Greek pascha, formed from the Hebrew, is the name of the Jewish festival, applied invariably in the primitive church to designate the festival of the Lord’s resurrection, which took place at the time of the passover. Our word Easter is of Saxon origin, and of precisely the same import with its German cognate Ostern. The latter is derived from the old Teutonic form of auferstehn, Auferstehung, i. e. resurrection. The name Easter is undoubtedly preferable to pascha or passover, but the latter was the primitive name.6

Nick Sayers argued along these lines to suggest that the origin of Easter in English comes from the German:

...The English word Easter is of German/Saxon origin and not Babylonian as Alexander Hislop falsely claimed. The German equivalent is Oster...

n the Hebrew, Passover is Pesach. The Greek form is simply a transliteration8 and takes the form Pascha.

We should also consider the early translations by German and English scholars in this examination. John Wycliffe was the earliest translator to publish a complete New Testament in English (1382), though he did his translation from the Latin Vulgate. Wycliffe transliterated the word pascha to pask, rather than translating it. When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German (New Testament in 1522), he chose the word Oster to refer to the Passover references before and after the Resurrection.

William Tyndale translated the Bible into English from the Greek and Hebrew. His New Testament (1525) uses the word ester to refer to the Passover. In fact, we owe our English word Passover to Tyndale...

It would seem from the translations of Luther and Tyndale that by 1500, the word oster/ester simply referred to the time of the Passover feast and had no association with the pagan goddess Eostre...

Could the Meaning of Easter Have Changed over the Centuries?...

Read on if you want. https://answersingenesis.org/holidays/easter/is-the-name-easter-of-pagan-origin/

61 posted on 04/11/2020 5:18:52 PM PDT by daniel1212 ( Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: Kaslin
Counterpoint :

This is only about 1/4th of the PROOF the EASTER IS PAGAN, and the article is CONTINUED HERE...
62 posted on 04/11/2020 5:37:27 PM PDT by Yosemitest (It's SIMPLE ! ... Fight, ... or Die !)
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To: lasereye

Your manner of answering pegs you, as someone who knows all this stuff.

So, I ask all the questions.


63 posted on 04/11/2020 6:00:48 PM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: Terry L Smith

I’m only asking you to explain what you mean.


64 posted on 04/11/2020 6:39:07 PM PDT by lasereye
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To: Yosemitest

“Lent” originally just meant “spring” and “lente” is still the Dutch word for “spring.” (Next to Frisian, Dutch is the Germanic language most closely related to English.) “Lent” is related to “lengthen”—it is the time of year when the days are lengthening.


65 posted on 04/11/2020 8:17:37 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Redwood71

If wicca is taking obscure hindu gods, it isn’t a continuation of European paganism.

Wiccan is a modern, made up religion like Scientology


66 posted on 04/11/2020 8:20:39 PM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Yosemitest

Ok, that’s a long article of nonsense.

Christians observe Pasqua, the Pascal sacrifice, Passover.

The English speaking world calls it Easter, but formally it is passover.

Christianity since Apostolic times celebrates Passover/ Pasqua


67 posted on 04/11/2020 8:23:20 PM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: minnesota_bound

I recall being around four years-old hunting for eggs in the backyard and my brother told me the white dog turds were candy.


68 posted on 04/11/2020 8:24:31 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Verginius Rufus

The reference to Eostre, if you dig is solely based on Bede’s off handed guess.

There is no evidence for such a goddess existence.

Think of it, thousands of written dedication to Tew, Woden etc but not a single one to any Eostre. And no contemporary source mentions her.onoy bede, 300 years after paganism has died out in England


69 posted on 04/11/2020 8:26:13 PM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Cronos
Look it up yourself.
Do not heed the CUSTOMS OF MEN .

As the article states;
70 posted on 04/12/2020 2:38:52 AM PDT by Yosemitest (It's SIMPLE ! ... Fight, ... or Die !)
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Bump


71 posted on 04/12/2020 3:46:50 AM PDT by foreverfree
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To: Cronos

You are right, but in name only. The oldest religion is the study of nature that the people of the time found overwhelming that could include water, soil, the sun and moon, fire, lightening....things that were beyond their capacity to understand the basics of, but they understood the pieces of. Fire burned, water drowned but tasted good, the more impressive things. So they considered this akin to magic and before the establishment of a God theory we use today in other religions.

But even today’s efforts to define things of this nature are not within the concept. The Oxford dictionary defines witchcraft as “the practice of magic, especially black magic; the use of spells.” They’ve been watching too many movies as this definition puts black magic in and makes it associated with evil that way. The only correct part of that was the last part about the spells as they have spells for about everything. So they have magic, Hollywood has black magic.

Witchcraft is over a thousand years old: Old English formed the compound wiccecræft from “wicce” (”witch”) and “cræft” (”craft”). The word witch was also spelled “wicca” or “wycca” in Old English, and was originally masculine. I somehow can’t see too many men on brooms.

So it is very easy to relate Wicca to witchcraft as it looks so similar and many people understand it that way. Wiccans worship “the mother goddess” and her companion “the horned god.” They say both of these deities manifest themselves in nature, which is the same as that original religion that is untitled.

rwood


72 posted on 04/12/2020 5:57:11 AM PDT by Redwood71
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To: Yosemitest

Again, it references Bede only.

Bede was a Christian monk writing a guess 300 years after paganism died.

There is no other reference to any deity called Eostre


73 posted on 04/12/2020 7:41:54 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Yosemitest

Furthermore, until the reformation, the feast was called the Pasval, passover feast


74 posted on 04/12/2020 7:42:41 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Kaslin

hmmm


75 posted on 04/13/2020 4:25:58 AM PDT by rwa265
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To: Redwood71

I said “If wicca is taking obscure hindu gods, it isn’t a continuation of European paganism.

Wiccan is a modern, made up religion like Scientology”

you write “but in name only”

Huh?

And your point of “the oldest religion” is unprovable - we don’t know the “oldest religion” — Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism,etc. claim to be the “oldest religion” or the “original religion”

Full disclosure - I’m Christian so I’m going to be biased for Judaeo-Christianity.

“witchcraft is over a 1000 years old” — err.. no. Witchcraft was a catch-all phrase used for stuff that was local gods, herbology etc. it was never a united set of beliefs until the 20th century.

Wiccans take 20thcentury ideas and earlier century fairy tales and make them into a religion - no different than Scientology or Jedi-ism


76 posted on 04/13/2020 11:56:58 PM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Yosemitest; R_Kangel
The actual tradition of the Easter Bunny originated with the Lutherans in Germany in the 16th century. Not only is the Easter Bunny not a pre-Christian pagan tradition, it is actually newer than the Protestant Reformation.

And No, the Lutherans didn't take a pagan tradition, nor did they make anything non-Christian -- the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of passover

Hares are seen most often in the spring. It's their "rutting season," when the simultaneous hectic activities of gorging themselves to make up for their winter fast, mating happen in a sort time

the Dutch call the Easter Hare "Paashaas," using the name "Pasch," which is the universal name for Easter outside of German- and English-speaking countries.

In short, the Easter Bunny isn't religious, but he was invented by Christians fairly recently - later than the reformation

77 posted on 04/14/2020 12:09:10 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Cronos

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.


78 posted on 04/14/2020 12:09:48 AM PDT by gnarledmaw (Hive minded liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives elect servants.)
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To: Yosemitest; R_Kangel; semaj; theBuckwheat; Eccl 10:2; markomalley; NYer; Salvation; ebb tide
just to reiterate the Pascal celebrations have nothing to do with Ishtar -- Modern English as we know it dates to the 16th century and even Old English (think Beowulf Written in Old English in the 7th century: "Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, " - read that link and tell me if you understand anything) -- even Old English dates to a time when the Ishtar cult was dead

Ishtar’s name is not pronounced anything like the English pronunciation (nor the American nor the Australian etc.) of “Easter.” It is pronounced exactly how it is spelled: /ˈɪʃtɑːr/. The name Ishtar is a transliteration of the name 𒀭𒈹 (iš-tar) in Sumerian cuneiform

Pasha has never been a celebration of Ishtar. The earliest evidence for the celebration of Pascha distinct from the Jewish holiday of Passover comes from Christian texts written in around the middle of the second century AD, which all refer to Pascha as a Christian Holy Day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

Of course, these early Christian sources weren’t written in English -- I'm sure that's a shock to you, but the Bible wasn't written in KJV English, so they don’t call the holiday “Easter”; instead, the holiday was originally known in Greek as Πάσχα (Páscha) and in Latin as Pascha. The name Pascha is derived from the Aramaic word פַּסְחָא (Pasḥā), meaning “Passover.”

The word for “Easter” in every single Romance language, in every single Celtic language, and in most Germanic languages is some form of Pascha. English and German are somewhat aberrations in this regard, since the word for Easter in English is Easter and the word in German is Ostern.

Finally Ishtar is derived from the Sumerian Inanna -- and both are goddesses of sex and fertility and neither had eggs or bunnies as symbols for themselves Ishtar’s primary symbols in ancient Mesopotamia were the eight-pointed star and the rosette and the animals she was most closely associated with were the lion and the dove.



Ishtar with a bow and riding a lion - a relief from southern Iraq dating to 1900 BC

So to conclude - there is nothing connecting Ish-tar with Easter except in the minds of the same folks who believe that the pyramids are spaceships from Uranus

79 posted on 04/14/2020 12:28:41 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Yosemitest; R_Kangel; semaj; theBuckwheat; Eccl 10:2; markomalley; NYer; Salvation; ebb tide
Let me also expound on the "Eostre" false connection.

Ēostre is attested by a single extremely brief mention in the treatise De Temporum Ratione (“On the Reckoning of Time”), written in Latin in around 725 AD by the English monk Bede the Venerable (lived c. 673 – 735 AD).

In chapter fifteen, Bede claims based on nothing more than a guess that the name of the English month Ēosturmōnaþ came from a pagan goddess named Ēostre who had a festival during that month in olden times. In the original Latin, Bede wrote

“Eostur-monath, qui nunc Paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a Dea illorum quæ Eostre vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit: a cuius nomine nunc Paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquæ observationis vocabulo gaudia novæ solemnitatis vocantes.”

“Ēosturmōnaþ is the name which is now used "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name

This is the only surviving mention of the goddess Ēostre in any surviving ancient text. There are no inscriptions with her name, no other texts that mention her, and no known surviving temples to her. This one passage from Bede is the only concrete evidence we have that Ēostre was ever worshipped.

Ēostre’s name appears to be derived from the Proto-Germanic word *Austrǭ, which is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root word *h₂éwsōs, meaning “dawn.” or "east" -- hence the term "Oster-reich" - Eastern land

So buddy boys - feel free to use this to show that Pasqua has nothing to do with Ishtar, nor with a fake deity called Eostre

AND easter bunnies date to post-Reformation German tradition - just like the Easter Fox, Easter Stork.

80 posted on 04/14/2020 12:38:54 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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