The Secret Truth About Easter!

A student recently asked me a question about Easter.  She had encountered a friend who said Easter was of pagan origins.  Most of it was drawn from this website.

The site presents a lot of … ummm … “facts”.  It says the word “Easter” comes from the Mesopotamian goddess "Ishtar".  And the Catholic Church – those dastardly fiends - tricked everyone into worshiping the ancient pagan fertility goddess by popularizing Easter.  Zounds!!

Well, much can be said about crank webpages with no footnotes or citations.  But a couple thoughts come to mind.



What’s in a Name?

The site makes the classic mistake of assuming English is the only language ever spoken by human beings.  So it thinks the phonetic similarity between “Ishtar” and “Easter” reveals the truth about the original constitution of the holiday.

However, this connection falls apart you step outside the Anglo-English bubble.  The Greek Orthodox call the celebration “Pascha”.  In Italian it is called “Pasque”, the Spanish call it “Pascua”, in French it is “Paques”, and in Swedish it’s “Pask”.

All of these names derive from the Hebrew word “pesach” for “Passover”.  That's because the feast  has always been about the events outside Jerusalem during the Passover in 33AD.

You can see this name used in a chronicle of one of the earliest controversies in the Church.  In the year 190AD, a giant argument broke out regarding when Resurrection ought to be celebrated.  Eusebius of Caesarea recorded the following about it:

“A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Savior's Passover. It was therefore necessary to end their fast on that day, whatever day of the week it should happen to be. 

But it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this time, as they observed the practice which, from apostolic tradition, has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the resurrection of our Savior.  

Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this account, and all, with one consent, through mutual correspondence drew up an ecclesiastical decree, that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be celebrated on no other but the Lord's day, and that we should observe the close of the paschal fast on this day only.” – Church History; Book 5, Chapter 23, Sections 1-2

So from the beginning it was called the “Savior’s Passover” and it was all the solemn feast of the resurrection of Jesus.


English and Easter Eggs:

Now someone might ask, “The why did people start calling it ‘Easter’ in English?”  And that… is a good question.  One might also ask why we refer to “football” as “soccer.”

One thing we can know is it likely had nothing to do with “Ishtar”.  Because if you want to know the origins of bizarre English words, the best place to look are the places where the language was formed.

 Many think the word “Easter” comes from the German goddess “Eoster”.  Others think it comes from the Germanic word “eostarum” which meant “dawn”.  But even if the former is the case … does anyone actually really think people are packing churches to celebrate a Germanic goddess?

NO.  Just as a Starfish isn't a fish and a Horny Toad isn't a toad, sometimes names can be misleading.  And doing etymology on the name of a thing isn't a reliable way to study the subject.  So the question is not:

“Where does this holiday derive its name?”

But rather:

 “What is the substance of what people are celebrating?”  

With that in mind, ask any Christian what Easter is about and he/she will say, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.

As for the business of bunnies and eggs.  Some people claim these come from pagan spring festivals.  Again, so what if they do?  Every human culture has found ways to celebrate Spring.  Christianity does not have to destroy everything about every culture it touches.

The Secret Truth!!

The attraction of conspiracy theories is the way you get to look at yourself.  You are the lone bearer of the torch of truth, you know the hidden story behind the ages, and you’ve been sent to informed the deceived masses!

But all the stuff about Easter REALLY being about Ishtar or Eoster fades away with a modicum of common sense.  People are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.  There are some spring festival  things which have attached themselves to that celebration.  And the English language is inexplicably weird sometimes.

End of story.