PASCHALE GAUDIUM.
Now, the Church uses three names to designate the Easter day and season; one an English name, one a Latin name, and one a Hebrew name—Easter, Resurrectio, Phase. Some have never thought it worth while to inquire why this season is called Easter-tide.
Just add the letter “N” to the word, make it “Eastern ,” and we have the solution. Some, indeed, derive from “Eastre” the Goddess of Dawn; this season being dedicated to that goddess in pagan, Anglo-Saxon days. But these have only pursued the inquiry half-way. Why was the Goddess of Dawn called Eastre? Because the dawn of day is in the East—Morgenland—as the musical, mystical Germans call it—morningland.
The Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season.
Sunday and Easter day are, if we consider their derivation, much the same. In truth, all Sundays are Sundays only because they are a weekly, partial recurrence of Easter day. The pagan Sunday was, in a manner, an unconscious preparation for Easter day. The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom. Balder the Beautiful, the White God, the old Scandinavians called him. The Sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands. ... There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the Sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence, the Church, in these countries, would seem to have said, “Keep that old pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.” And thus, the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus. The Sun is a fitting emblem of Jesus. The Fathers often compared Jesus to the Sun; as they compared Mary to the Moon, the beautiful Moon, the beautiful Mary, shedding her mild, beneficent light on the darkness and night of this world—not light of her own; no Catholic says this; but—light reflected from the Sun, Jesus.
Source: The Rev. William L. Gildea, D. D., THE CATHOLIC WORLD, Vol. LVIII (58), Oct., 1893 to Mar., 1894, pgs. 808-813.
You must not have gotten the memo from your own church. Nearly everything they stand for comes directly from Paganism. Most of the writers, priests, popes, etc... from your church wore it as a badge of honor and openly admitted it. But you deny it.
btw, Rev. William L. Gildea, D. D. has no real historical ability and he gets his first sentence wrong.
The proper name for Paschal is Pasqua etc. - only in the modern language called English is it called easter.
You do realize that there are other languages beside English, right?
oh and just a point - the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek - not in KJV English. That may shatter your world, but that’s just the first...