The origin of the word "Easter"

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Which is more important: The fact that we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, or the fact that it’s called Easter?
 
jmcrae said:
What on God’s green earth is “the pagan celebration of Easter”? :confused:
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I don’t know something like:
  1. Wake up around 10am Sunday morning and put out “Easter Bunny Gifts” out for your kids
  2. Go out for a huge breakfast/lunch with the kids
  3. Go to an easter egg hunt
  4. Have a family dinner
Without going to church, praying, even remembering Jesus on that day - this pattern is getting more and more popular. There are a few kids that I babysit occasionally (the oldest is 9) and though they are Christian and they sing “Jesus loves me” etc. they could not tell me what Easter was when I asked.
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
*“1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” * - Jeremiah 10:1-4
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1
Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2
1 Thus says the LORD: Learn not the customs of the nations, and have no fear of the signs of the heavens, though the nations fear them.
3
For the cult idols of the nations are nothing, wood cut from the forest, Wrought by craftsmen with the adze,
4
adorned with silver and gold. With nails and hammers they are fastened, that they may not totter.
5
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for they cannot walk. Fear them not, they can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good.
6
No one is like you, O LORD, great are you, great and mighty is your name.
7
Who would not fear you, King of the nations, for it is your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in all their domain, there is none like you.
8
One and all they are dumb and senseless, these idols they teach about are wooden:

Nope. Nothing that says Christmas trees are bad.
 
latin_rite said:
.

Really? could you name a couple?
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A couple? We’re talking specifically on the venal equinox celebration and the goddess - Ēostre.
Please explain. Don;t really understand what you’re getting at. Because a lot of people are using Easter eggs/rabbits as evidence that somehow Easter is a pagan rite.
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We can leave the rabbits and eggs out of the equation. My point still stands.

As a matter of fact, there isn’t a whole lot in the Christian mythology which isn’t borrowed from other myths.
 
jmcrae said:
What on God’s green earth is “the pagan celebration of Easter”? :confused:
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That’s what i would like to know. Did pagans go to Church and give thanks to God for Jesus too? Same with Christmas. Every year " pagans celebrated Christmas, before Christians!" posts pop up every five mins. I think really? pagans celebrated Christmas before Jesus was even born??? Well they deserve more credit than i give them, if that’s the case.
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
A couple? We’re talking specifically on the venereal equinox celebration and the goddess - Ēostre.

We can leave the rabbits and eggs out of the equation. My point still stands.

As a matter of fact, there isn’t a whole lot in the Christian mythology which isn’t borrowed from other myths.
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All the pagan elements were not present in the earliest celebrations of Easter. They were merged in later on in the past 2000 years. While you can denounce those elements as bad, unnecessary, or pagan, you can’t make that claim to the entire celebration of Pascha.

As for the similarity between Eostre and Easter, English is actually one of the few european-ish languages that doesn’t use a word similar to Pascha (meaning passover in Greek) for the day

French - paques
Spanish - pascua
Romanian - pasti
Italian - Pascua

In each country, the celebration picks up traditions but we are not celebrating spring, but still the rising of Christ.
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
A couple? We’re talking specifically on the venal equinox celebration and the goddess - Ēostre…
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.

Huh? If Easter was in November, people would find some pagan god celebration going on, and blame Christians for stealing his day. Easter was at Jewish passover was it not? Because there are vernal equinox celebrations going else where in the world means nothing. We don;t celebrate the coming of spring. We don’t celebrate some “goddess” called eostre. I think there are other posts in this thread that states Easter has its origins in old Germanic words that originated from their words for east and resurrection. Apart from eostre sounding little. And i emphasize the word little like Easter. Pagans seem to think that Easter is taken from their own “religion”. Are you suggesting, that there was no celebration of Jesus death and resurrection before we found out about this eostre?
Mr_Skeptic said:
We can leave the rabbits and eggs out of the equation. My point still stands. .
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Well if you leave the rabbits and the eggs out of it. You’ll have nothing. Well you still have nothing.
Mr_Skeptic said:
As a matter of fact, there isn’t a whole lot in the Christian mythology which isn’t borrowed from other myths.
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Well. you could post them. And i could spend all day proving you are wrong. But since we are talking about Easter. Lets stick to that for time being.
 
PeaceSerenity said:
In each country, the celebration picks up traditions but we are not celebrating spring, but still the rising of Christ.
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I never doubted nor questioned what Christians are celebrating at Easter. All I’m saying is the festival of spring got replaced with the festival of the resurrection. At best, its a strange coincidence that 1) they fall in the same time period, and 2) the goddess name “Ēostre”, is strikingly similar to “Easter”.
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
A couple? We’re talking specifically on the venal equinox celebration and the goddess - Ēostre.

We can leave the rabbits and eggs out of the equation. My point still stands.

As a matter of fact, there isn’t a whole lot in the Christian mythology which isn’t borrowed from other myths.
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Alright, so you seem to be saying the equivalent to this:

"Amaterasu is the sun goddess of Shinto mythology, and is pretty much the top Shinto god, the Imperial family believed to be descendants of her, and being created to rule over the land.
Amon-Ra is the sun god of Egyptian mythology, and is pretty much the top Egyptian god, being king of the gods.

These two gods are similar; therefore, one borrowed from the other."

This is false logic to apply; much as Egyptian and Japanese mythologies evolved apart from one another, so did Christianity and paganism, at least during Christianity’s formative years. Some Pagan traditions may have leaked in, but as far as theology goes, not so much. Unless, of course, you want to say that the NT was a hodgepodge of different Pagan beliefs… Just because religions are similar does not mean that one borrowed from the other.
 
Shiranui117 said:
Alright, so you seem to be saying the equivalent to this:

"Amaterasu is the sun goddess of Shinto mythology, and is pretty much the top Shinto god, the Imperial family believed to be descendants of her, and being created to rule over the land.
Amon-Ra is the sun god of Egyptian mythology, and is pretty much the top Egyptian god, being king of the gods.

These two gods are similar; therefore, one borrowed from the other."
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No. I’m not saying that at all. That’s a strawman misrepresentation of what I said.
This is false logic…
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Of course it is.
Just because religions are similar does not mean that one borrowed from the other.
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True.

However, I can’t think of one Christian celebration which is unique to Christianity and didn’t already exist in various forms at the time. Can you?
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
However, I can’t think of one Christian celebration which is unique to Christianity and didn’t already exist in various forms at the time. Can you?
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I don’t know, The Adoration of the Cross? Lazarus Saturday? Palm Sunday?

I would argue that Christianity is more grounded in historical fact than all the other myths and pagan rites.
 
It depends on what you consider “various forms.” The date of Easter can be easily linked to Pagan festivals, but the Christian celebration of Easter is unique to us, likewise with Christmas. If you’re thinking of the dates, then I’m sure there would be overlap between any two given religions if you throw enough religions into the pot. However, Easter coincides roughly with the Jewish Passover, and celebrated on Sunday, as it is the day Christ was risen. The adjustment of the date later on can be seen as accomodating Pagans depending on how you look at it, but the Christian celebration of Pascha/Easter, properly and correctly seen as the resurrection of our Lord, is entirely Christian in origin.

So, which are you talking about, the celebrations or the dates?
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
Its an historical fact that Paganism predates Christianity.
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Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that we get the celebrations of Christmas and Pascha (I’ll refrain from using Easter in this topic, lest I get mistaken for the Pagan celebration) from Christ Himself, as His birth and resurrection, and not from any Pagan sources. What we actually, as Christians, celebrate on those days has nothing to do with anything Pagan.

Also, you can call Good Friday a purely Christian thing, with no possible connections to Paganism I’m aware of. As well as Holy Thursday.
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
The ancient Egyptian Ankh?

The celebration of Attis’ death and rebirth?

Roman Entry of the Trees?
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Congratulations, you know your mythology. I don’t understand how that would prove that one was copied from another. There’s not a whole lot of themes religion can deal with, and I’m not surprised they overlap. The fact is, Christianity has a historical base. The cross did exist, it is not based off of the Ankh, and both Jesus and Lazarus were historical persons.
 
PeaceSerenity said:
Congratulations, you know your mythology.
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No need for that. I’d like to continue in a respectful tone.
The cross did exist, it is not based off of the Ankh, and both Jesus and Lazarus were historical persons.
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Is there independent confirmation on any of that, or is it all limited to Christian texts and church doctrine?
 
Mr_Skeptic said:
No need for that. I’d like to continue in a respectful tone.
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I was actually serious, I’m sorry it came off rudely.

There is historical proof that the Romans used the cross to kill criminals, so at least that we can definitely know was not based off of an Ankh. I can’t argue any further than that because I’m not sure to what extend you reject the Bible. Would you argue that Jesus did exist, but wasn’t the Mesiah, or that it’s all just a fairy tale. I need to know, so that I can answer you in a way that you will accept.
 
latin_rite said:
O well if the dictionary says its true it must be. Someone needs to remind me of where they talk about the rabbit or where they mention the egg at Easter mass.Only time the Easter rabbit and Easter eggs are mentioned at my Church is for fun activities for the kids.
Again. I will be calling it Easter for a long time to come. Because the word Easter has nothing to do with the pagan gods. Not even in origin. Like i said i won’t be brow beaten by pagans into changing my ways. Especially when they are in the wrong. I hope they don;t come across a pagan god that has a name like Christmas. Or i suppose people will change Christmas to happy birthday…day
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Easter was rooted in paganism. The pagan traditions were adapted to Christianity as part of converting individuals without creating an uproar.

Why not say “Happy Eostre” being that’s the origin? I prefer Happy Resurrection Day so to keep the focus on Christ. But to each their own.
 
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