Easter seems like a nice enough holiday, but I always grind my teeth as the day approaches because it means I'm going to have to put up with another round of "Easter is a pagan holiday. It's based on the celebration of Eostre, whose symbols were rabbits and eggs."
No, it's not.
The historical record of Eostre is incredibly small: a single reference written by a Christian monk named Bede, writing after the supposed worship of Eostre has already vanished from England. he comments that the word Easter, in English, comes from Eostre, or perhaps from Eostremounth, the mouth in which Easter occurs.
That's it.
Bede doesn't know anyone who worships Eostre, and no worshiper of Eostre has left any records of her at all. There is no mention of a specific holiday for Eostre, and no mention of rabbits or eggs. Most of the claims equating Eostre and Easter, therefore, are entirely made up. The only potential connection is the word Easter and the name Eostre, an issue that only exists in English. In Romantic languages, the word for Easter is based on Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover, which Jesus was celebrating at the time of his execution. And the Romantic language speakers have been celebrating Easter far longer than the English.
Stop repeating the fallacy. Please. And stop presuming world practices revolve around what went on in England.
Here is a link from Religioustolerance.org you might enjoy,
I found it interesting.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm
Good article by the way!
What about Ostara?
There were two Jewish kalanders so some Jews celebrated passover at a different time. This was discovered in the Qumram documents. The last supper was a passover, the official passover took place later. This should have been mentioned.
How about you do a little more research before writing an “article”?
Comment 1, by Robb, includes an informative link.
There is more evidence that Easter, Oester, and Ostara are, in fact, linked, than what you refute here.
This is presented as a factual article, so it would behoove you to set your religious preference aside when composing.
Hello Catherine, I really do enjoy your unbiased views of other belief systems, but this time you blew it about Easter! You need to do a little more research. Pagans celebrated the changing of the seasons ever since the seasons changed! My family celebrated Oster (German for Easter) 65 years ago with bunnies, eggs and rituals to honor Ostara.
That’s how far my memory goes back when I was a kid.
If you want to belief that Easter is a Christian (actually Jewish holiday, since there were no Christians at that time) that is fine with me, but don’t say that others are a Myth…
So stop grinding your teeth, it is not good for your health!
But keep up the good work!
It is the Spring Equinox nothing more. It has been recognized by virtually every religion since man figured out that solstices and equinoxes exist. They all attribute it to some saint, god, demon or something. But it has been recognized by atheists as well with names like May Day.
Maybe you folks actually should read what Catherine is really saying.
She pointed out, correctly, that a goddess by the name Eostre is only mentioned by St. Bede in his work “Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum” which was completed around 730AD. Nowhere else has this goddess been found in any group, work, or culture. Bede certainly said that by the time of his writing, no Eostre worshippers were left.
As for Ostara, it is the celebration of the spring equinox, it’s *not* Easter. Easter comes close to the equinox because, following the old Jewish calender, it happens on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring (however, the Orthodox stipulate that it must happen *after* Passover, which is why Eastern and Western Christians often have different days for Easter.)
While certainly people of every religious stripe have observed the spring equinox, saying that Ostara and Easter, bunnies, eggs and the celebration of the ressurection of Christ have anything to do with each other is patently absurd. Saying that Easter is the masked celebration of the goddess Eostre is just as absurd. In fact, even saying that Ostara is a celebration of that goddess is false — very few neopagans worship Eostre at all, the few that do mostly being involved in German neopaganism.
Catherine is right, and she’s forgotten more about religious history than many posters have known. I’d suggest further reading before mouths open in criticism.
by the time i was able to realized how easter was celebrated, i have only one thing to say, it is celebrated because we knew then that we are commemorating the Christ’s resurrection..
catherine is right, no pagan elements involved in this issue, she just make things clear out so that we all can understand the reason why easter is named.
keep up the good work!
Christine: Exactly what religious preference do you think I’m favoring? Are you implying I’m a Christian defending my own holiday? I’m not. I’m very openly not.
John: I’m honestly unsure what point you are trying to make when you point out you included eggs and bunnies in Easter celebrations 65 years ago. It’s been a folk tradition associated with Easter for quite some time. I never denied that. I’m just saying it has never been something adopted by the church, and I’m saying there’s no obvious pagan source for it…neither of which you seem to be refuting.
Cynthia: What about Ostara? There’s no record of such a holiday in antiquity. The concept of it was invented in the 19th century. Some modern neopagans celebrate Ostara, but the ones worth their salt know its not recreating a specific ancient holiday.
Robb: The Religious Tolerance article has a lot of problems. (And I’ve academically disagreed with that site many times before) It starts with the claim that Eostre “was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people.” What source are they getting that from? As mentioned in my article, we only have one record of Eostre, and that was from a Christian.
I write this as fact because it is fact. Among historians these are well accepted facts. And I did cite a source: Bede. The guy who gives us the name Eostre. I can’t quote all the sources that *don’t* mention Eostre, which is really the issue here.
Easter is a Pagan Holiday. Deal with it. So is Christmas. Facts are facts, no matter how you may try to dress them up and misrepresent them. These celebrations were borrowed from the Pagans and were not even celebrated by Christians until hundreds of years after the supposed life and death of Jesus. When was the Birthday of Dec. 25th finally assigned to Jesus?
Here is an interesting presentation
http://youtu.be/FNhGQYo4yZs
Oh…..and the Earth is far far older than 6,000 years.
Many religious historians have studied this, and they believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, pre-dating the birth of Jesus by several centuries. The trappings of Easter (or Ostare, Ostern, Eastra, Austron, Ausos or whichever pagan goddess you’d care to single out) were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus’ life (http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa.htm) in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans.
Ms. Beyer may have a point about the ONE goddess (Oestre) she has chosen to focus on….but that cannot and does not dismiss all of the numerous other religions and goddesses that were associated with the spring equinox hundreds of years PRIOR TO the invention of the Christian god.
In Sweden they have fires and burned witches.Normal women who been banned by the church.They was in mascopi whith the devils.The men of the church was afraid of to loose the acthority over the people.A bit afraid of the heathendom.Oestre can be such a women.They can burndt her at a big fire when the Irish missioneres flooded in over England.Easter is probably an old ceremony much longer than the Chistians coming up to North Europe.The easter we have is coming from the fullmoon.Have nothing to do whith jewish easter.The same is it whith Christms”Youle”(meens wheel )(weel of the sun)Christmas is the darkest day of the year A new year.
Catherine, however we want to slice this, however narrow minded we view history, the bigger picture always reveals the truth, “Easter” is an ancient celebration that we can’t get away from, you are only harping on one source – there are many others.
“Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You’re able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.”
– Ralph Marston
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost ~ Dalai Lama
here’s one viewpoint to consider, there are many more.
atheism.about.com/od/easterholidayseason/p/PaganChristian.htm
Eostre and Ostara are well documented in German texts.