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Easter — What Are You Really Celebrating?
On Sunday many Christian families around the globe will attend a service at a church they only visit on holidays to participate in the Easter celebration. Beyond the remembrance of the resurrection of Christ, Easter is additionally associated with happy children on a decorative egg hunt and their pillaging their pastel baskets of goodies delivered by the Easter bunny.
However, very few know about the true origins of Easter. And let me tell you, it isn’t at all about Jesus.
Let’s start with the name. The identification of the celebration as “Easter” dates back to the name of a Germanic pre-Christian goddess in England, Ēostre, or Ostara, who was celebrated at the dawn of spring. The singular reference to this goddess is derived from the texts of the Anglo-Saxon priest, Venerable Bede, who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century. Alternatively, some historians link the derivation of “Easter” to Astarte, the Phoenician fertility goddess who had the Babylonian equivalent, Ishtar.
