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No, Easter Was Not Stolen From Pagans
I love the truth. I am a philosopher and a theologian at heart, which means I love to ask questions, I love to learn about the history of things, and I love to know why we do the things we do. What that often means is that I have to reshape my way of thinking in order to accommodate the truth. In other words, what I want to be true; what I am most comfortable believing, is not often the whole, true story.
So the truth is what I write about here, in my blog. Not “my” truth (whatever that is), but the actual, factual, historical truth about things – and usually those are things related to the Christian faith. Because, unfortunately, there are a lot of myths and falsehoods concerning Christianity – and many of them are repeated by and even originated with Christians themselves. So I like to shed light on the darkness of myth, especially if it dispels fear – because we have freedom in Jesus Christ, and “ God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7).”
With that in mind, as I have done previously with Halloween and Christmas, I want to dispel some of the mythology around Easter – yet another Christian holy day that is thought by many to have been co-opted from paganism.
But before we begin, it cannot be overstated that that much of what the modern world believes about paganism is based entirely on Neopagan fakelore. Fakelore is an actual term coined in the 1950’s for stories that are 100% made up in order to justify a new tradition, which then became accepted as real. Neopagans are people who claim to embrace ancient Celtic and druid beliefs and practices. However, there is actually zero historical evidence to back up their claims.
But here is the truth: Easter, more even than Christmas, stands at the heart of Christianity: that God loved the world enough to send His Son to become human in order to save humans; to live among them and die for them as an all-atoning sacrifice for their sins of rebellion against Him; and finally to rise again from the dead to promise life everlasting to all who believe in Him. And because Easter stands at the very center of Christianity, it comes under attack from all those seeking to discredit the Christian faith. And at the heart of their attacks are lies falling into three basic categories:
- The date of Easter
- The name of Easter
- The symbolism of Easter
First, let’s look at the date:
Those who claim Easter was chosen because of pagan festivals of Spring are, as always, hoping you will accept their claims without thought, let alone investigation. The historical truth is that the three high holy days of Christianity: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, were all established in the early church on the basis of the biblical dating of Passover, which goes back to Moses at Mt. Sinai, some 1500 years B.C. This is a historically demonstrable fact based on writings of the church fathers in the 2nd century (100’s A.D.).
Clement, Hippolytes and Julius Africanus all wrote that the most widely accepted belief (as explained in my post about Christmas, linked above) was that March 25th stood as the date of the creation of the world, as well as Christ’s conception (the reason Christ’s birth is celebrated 12/25, nine months later) and His death. March 25th was also the date of the equinox, which made it easy to calculate. Whether the date of March 25th is actually the date of all those things is irrelevant – the historical truth is that it was widely accepted and established from the earliest days of Christianity – and it corresponds to the date of Passover.
The only so-called “controversy” in selecting the date for Easter came in the argument of whether Easter should be celebrated on the Passover, or on the Sunday following. Since the Passover is celebrated on a lunar cycle (which is shorter than our solar calendar), it moves. This is why Easter moves today, as it continues to be celebrated on the Sunday following the Passover. This is all based on the biblical account of Christ’s passion and resurrection, as the Bible clearly states that Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples prior to His crucifixion, and also that He was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, being of course a Sunday. This is a primary reason why Christians were gathering in worship on Sundays as early as the time of the Apostles, as seen in Acts 20:7.
Second, the name “Easter”:
Much extensive work has been done to debunk claims about the name “Easter,” and to try and repeat their work here would be tedious and uninteresting. I say that because I have read it – and it is tedious and uninteresting… I have, as always, linked to sources below which you can visit for yourself if you would like more information.
At any rate, the commonly accepted claim is that the name “Easter” is based on a pagan goddess named “Eostre” or “Ostara.”
But first, consider that the name “Easter” is only the English/Germanic name for the festival of Christ’s resurrection, and the only language in which it sounds like Eostre or Ostara. Second, consider that the Christian church used almost exclusively Latin for most of its 2000 years, and even today English is not the universal Christian language. Easter is the English translation of the Latin Pascha, related to the Hebrew Pesach, from which we get our word Passover. And Pascha was celebrated even before the word “Easter” was in use. So, to claim that the holy day of Easter is somehow stolen from paganism because of its title in one language is absolutely ludicrous, and should be enough to end this ridiculous argument. But I’ll play along: from where does that English word Easter come?
Well, of significant importance is that there is no mention of any goddess named Eostre or Ostara in any pagan records (of which there are many), anywhere. That name first appears in the writings of an 8th century Christian author (The Venerable Bede), who speculates that the word Easter may have come from the name of the month in which the festival of Pascha falls, and that that name may have been derived from a similarly named pagan deity – without asserting that there was such a deity, because he was only speculating. But then nothing more about Eostre or Ostara appears in any writing until 1,000 years later (!) in the writings of Jacob Grimm in 1835, who (again) speculates that Easter may have derived its name from the month in which it falls, which may have derived its name from a pagan goddess with a similar name. This is critically important: literally everything we “know” about Eostre/Ostara has been made up in the last 150 years!
In truth, the English word Easter comes either from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “to shine” or “to baptize.” And either of these makes more sense in relation to the resurrection of the Son of God than does a made up connection to a fictional deity.
Third, the Symbolism:
This post is already far too long, so let me try and keep this brief. Eggs have been associated with Jewish temple sacrifices and the Passover meal since ancient times. Easter follows Lent, which involves fasting, traditionally from meat. Eggs were then held and decorated for Easter to symbolize the beauty of Christ’s resurrection. They were cracked and opened on Easter morning to symbolize the rending of the tomb. In fact, the decorating of eggs has been so widely and for so long associated with the celebration of the resurrection, there can be little doubt that it is a uniquely Christian tradition, in spite of myths and lies that say otherwise.
Claims that Easter is now or ever was about fertility, reproduction or the worship of nature are misguided, at best. One can, however, easily see how these claims are retroactively tied to Easter. After all, the resurrection of Jesus symbolizes new life for all who believe. It is God’s perfect timing then, that the resurrection be celebrated in the Spring, as new life breaks forth from the dead of winter.
Just remember this: nature, new life and reproduction are all parts of God’s creation. We celebrate them because they are wonderful blessings of a good and gracious God, and signs which point to His great love for us. Celebrate the resurrection, and celebrate the beauty of Spring – not for Spring’s sake, but because it symbolizes God’s promise of new life to all who cast off the darkness of fear and lies to believe in His Truth. Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Hallelujah! Amen.
As always, I owe much of what I write to people who have done far more research than I, and I seek to take no credit for their work. Please visit their sites and examine the origins of what you believe for yourself. Start here, then here, then more here.
Was Easter Borrowed from a Pagan Holiday?
Anyone encountering anti-Christian polemics will quickly come up against the accusation that a major festival practiced by Christians across the globe—namely, Easter—was actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration. I often encounter this idea among Muslims who claim that later Christians compromised with paganism to dilute the original faith of Jesus.
The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan associations of the English and German names for the celebration (Easter in English and Ostern in German). It is important to note, however, that in most other European languages, the name for the Christian celebration is derived from the Greek word Pascha, which comes from pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover festival.
Of course, even if Christians did engage in contextualization—expressing their message and worship in the language or forms of the local people—that in no way implies doctrinal compromise. Christians around the world have sought to redeem the local culture for Christ while purging it of practices antithetical to biblical norms. After all, Christians speak of "Good Friday," but they are in no way honoring the worship of the Norse/Germanic queen of the gods Freya by doing so.
But, in fact, in the case of Easter the evidence suggests otherwise: that neither the commemoration of Christ's death and resurrection nor its name are derived from paganism.
A celebration with ancient roots
The usual argument for the pagan origins of Easter is based on a comment made by the Venerable Bede (673-735), an English monk who wrote the first history of Christianity in England, and who is one of our main sources of knowledge about early Anglo-Saxon culture. In De temporum ratione (On the Reckoning of Time, c. 730), Bede wrote this:
In olden times the English people—for it did not seem fitting that I should speak of other nations' observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation's—calculated their months according to the course of the Moon. Hence, after the manner of the Greeks and the Romans, [the months] take their name from the Moon, for the Moon is called mona and the month monath. The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath … Eosturmonath 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.
The first question, therefore, is whether the actual Christian celebration of Easter is derived from a pagan festival. This is easily answered. The Nordic/Germanic peoples (including the Anglo-Saxons) were comparative latecomers to Christianity. Pope Gregory I sent a missionary enterprise led by Augustine of Canterbury to the Anglo-Saxons in 596/7. The forcible conversion of the Saxons in Europe began under Charlemagne in 772. Hence, if "Easter" (i.e. the Christian Passover festival) was celebrated prior to those dates, any supposed pagan Anglo-Saxon festival of "Eostre" can have no significance. And there is, in fact, clear evidence that Christians celebrated an Easter/Passover festival by the second century, if not earlier. It follows that the Christian Easter/Passover celebration, which originated in the Mediterranean basin, was not influenced by any Germanic pagan festival.
What's in a name?
The second question is whether the name of the holiday "Easter" comes from the blurring of the Christian celebration with the worship of a purported pagan fertility goddess named "Eostre" in English and Germanic cultures. There are several problems with the passage in Bede. In his book, The Stations of the Sun, Professor Ronald Hutton (a well-known historian of British paganism and occultism) critiques Bede's sketchy knowledge of other pagan festivals, and argues that the same is true for the statement about Eostre: "It falls into a category of interpretations which Bede admitted to be his own, rather than generally agreed or proven fact."
This leads us to the next problem: there is no evidence outside of Bede for the existence of this Anglo-Saxon goddess. There is no equivalent goddess in the Norse Eddas or in ancient Germanic paganism from continental Europe. Hutton suggests, therefore, that "the Anglo-Saxon Estor-monath simply meant 'the month of opening' or 'the month of beginnings,'" and concludes that there is no evidence for a pre-Christian festival in the British Isles in March or April.
There is another objection to the claim that Eosturmonath has anything to do with a pagan goddess. Whereas Anglo-Saxon days were usually named after gods, such as Wednesday ("Woden's day"), the names of their months were either calendrical, such as Giuli, meaning "wheel," referring to the turn of the year; metereological-environmental, such as Solmónath (roughly February), meaning "Mud-Month"; or referred to actions taken in that period, such as Blótmónath (roughly November), meaning "Blood Month," when animals were slaughtered. No other month was dedicated to a deity, with the exception (according to Bede) of Hrethmonath (roughly March), which he claims was named after the goddess Hrethe. But like Eostre, there is no other evidence for Hrethe, nor any equivalent in Germanic/Norse mythology.
Another problem with Bede's explanation concerns the Saxons in continental Europe. Einhard (c. 775-840), the courtier and biographer of Charlemagne, tells us that among Charlemagne's reforms was the renaming of the months. April was renamed Ostarmanoth. Charlemagne spoke a Germanic dialect, as did the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, although their vernacular was distinct. But why would Charlemagne change the old Roman title for the spring month to Ostarmanoth? Charlemagne was the scourge of Germanic paganism. He attacked the pagan Saxons and felled their great pillar Irminsul (after their god Irmin) in 772. He forcibly converted them to Christianity and savagely repressed them when they revolted because of this. It seems very unlikely, therefore, that Charlemagne would name a month after a Germanic goddess.
Spring holiday
So why, then, do English-speaking Christians call their holiday "Easter"?
One theory for the origin of the name is that the Latin phrase in albis ("in white"), which Christians used in reference to Easter week, found its way into Old High German as eostarum, or "dawn." There is some evidence of early Germanic borrowing of Latin despite that fact that the Germanic peoples lived outside the Roman Empire—though the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were far very removed from it. This theory presumes that the word only became current after the introduction of either Roman influence or the Christian faith, which is uncertain. But if accurate, it would demonstrate that the festival is not named after a pagan goddess.
Alternatively, as Hutton suggests, Eosturmonath simply meant "the month of opening," which is comparable to the meaning of "April" in Latin. The names of both the Saxon and Latin months (which are calendrically similar) were related to spring, the season when the buds open.
So Christians in ancient Anglo-Saxon and Germanic areas called their Passover holiday what they did—doubtless colloquially at first—simply because it occurred around the time of Eosturmonath/Ostarmanoth. A contemporary analogy can be found in the way Americans sometimes refer to the December period as "the holidays" in connection with Christmas and Hanukkah, or the way people sometimes speak about something happening "around Christmas," usually referring to the time at the turn of the year. The Christian title "Easter," then, essentially reflects its general date in the calendar, rather than the Paschal festival having been re-named in honor of a supposed pagan deity.
Of course, the Christian commemoration of the Paschal festival rests not on the title of the celebration but on its content—namely, the remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection. It is Christ's conquest of sin, death, and Satan that gives us the right to wish everyone "Happy Easter!"
Anthony McRoy is a Fellow of the British Society for Middle East Studies and lecturer in Islamic studies at Wales Evangelical School of Theology, U.K.
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The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter
Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days after his crucifixion at Calvary. It is also the day that children excitedly wait for the Easter bunny to arrive and deliver their treats of chocolate eggs.
The date upon which Easter is held varies from year to year, and corresponds with the first Sunday following the full moon after the March equinox. It occurs on different dates around the world since western churches use the Gregorian calendar, while eastern churches use the Julian calendar.
While Easter, as we know it today, was never a pagan festival, its roots and many of its traditions have associations with ancient pagan customs and beliefs.
According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives.
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- Curious Reverence of the Chicken and the Hare by Iron Age Brits
- Why are so few people born on Christmas Day?
Christian’s today celebrate Easter Sunday as the resurrection of Jesus. Credit: James Steidl / Adobe Stock
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Resurrection as a Symbol of Rebirth
One theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.
According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.
After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.
The Descent of Inanna. Credit: intueri / Adobe Stock
Dr. Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”
The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and so the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian world.
Dr. Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.
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