Why still call it Easter?

[newcalling]

I’m not sure where this thread belongs, so I completely understand if it is moved.

I am a former pagan who is in the process of joining the church. I already love the church and consider myself Catholic. I study everything in depth, pray a lot, and I do not make decisions or join things lightly, so it is a big deal that I call myself Catholic and look forward so much to first confession, communion and confirmation.

However, I have long been baffled that Christians, Catholics first, kept and continue to keep the name Easter for the feast of the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the name of a pagan Goddess.

I know that we adapt the message to the culture, but it’s not like we kept calling Christmas “Saturnalia,” though we do sometimes call it by the Nordic pagan “Yule/Jule.” In the case of Easter it is the name of a goddess!

Not only is it the name of a goddess, but some Archaeology suggests that it is related to other goddessess such as Ostara, Ishtar, Isis, and even Ashera! Ashera is the cult of the supposed wife of God which is denounced repeatedly in the Old Testament.

Anyway, just wondering why we keep it and kept it that way even early on.

 

[GEddie]

I can’t answer the question, but not all languages do that; in Spanish, the name for the feast is “Pascua,” from Greek Pasch.

ICXC NIKA

 

[patrick457]

I’m not sure where this thread belongs, so I completely understand if it is moved.

I am a former pagan who is in the process of joining the church. I already love the church and consider myself Catholic. I study everything in depth, pray a lot, and I do not make decisions or join things lightly, so it is a big deal that I call myself Catholic and look forward so much to first confession, communion and confirmation.

However, I have long been baffled that Christians, Catholics first, kept and continue to keep the name Easter for the feast of the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the name of a pagan Goddess.

I know that we adapt the message to the culture, but it’s not like we kept calling Christmas “Saturnalia,” though we do sometimes call it by the Nordic pagan “Yule/Jule.” In the case of Easter it is the name of a goddess!

Not only is it the name of a goddess, but some Archaeology suggests that it is related to other goddessess such as Ostara, Ishtar, Isis, and even Ashera! Ashera is the cult of the supposed wife of God which is denounced repeatedly in the Old Testament.

Anyway, just wondering why we keep it and kept it that way even early on.

Short answer: the whole Easter = Ishtar thing is just pure hogwash. It is, however, true that ‘Easter’ was the name of an obscure Germanic goddess who is known in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) as Ēostre. This is what the Venerable St. Bede wrote in the 8th century:

Eosturmonath Ēostre’s-month] 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.

You might say that in English, Easter is called ‘Easter’ simply by force of habit: you would notice that from Bede’s quote above, the English were already calling the feastday by that name for quite some time by the time that he wrote. There’s no biggie here, Easter was called such simply because it usually fell on April, ‘Ēostre’s-month’.

(Of course I should point out that the original Christian term for Easter is Pascha, ‘Passover’. That’s how it is called in Greek and Latin, in most languages in fact - and that’s why in English we also have expressions like ‘Paschal Triduum’. English - and some dialects of German - are but two of the small handful of languages that calls the feast by some name other than Pascha.)

Unlike fundamentalists, we Catholics don’t automatically equate ‘pagan’ stuff with ‘bad’. It’s a form of inculturation: we take good (or at least, non-harmful) things from a given culture and ‘baptize’ it, or we leave them as they are. We adapt the way the gospel is presented to non-Christian cultures.

So what if ‘Ēostre’s-month’ had a name of a Germanic goddess in it? Our days of the week in English are all also mostly made up of the names of pagan gods (Tiw’s-day, Odin’s-day, Thor’s-day, Frige’s-day, Saturn’s-day). But almost nobody - outside from neo-pagans, that is - actually seriously worships any of these divinities or consider them to be real anymore, even if they call the days of the week ‘Wednesday’ or ‘Friday’. (In any case, it’s not as if the days of the week share the same name across different languages. )

 

[CB_Catholic]

etymonline.com/index.php?term=Easter

You will note that besides the possible pagan references, the word was derived from the word for “Dawn”. Since English is a Germanic tongue, we use the word Easter. The rest of the world doesn’t.

It’s part of our language and culture, the way the language developed, and we do not use it to convey worship of any goddesses, most people would not even know what you are talking about. It harms nothing and no one, and God is not offended.

If it offends your sensibilities, use the word the Church uses–Pascha or some derivation of Pascha. It really is not a big deal.

 

[spes_salvi]

etymonline.com/index.php?term=Easter

You will note that besides the possible pagan references, the word was derived from the word for “Dawn”. Since English is a Germanic tongue, we use the word Easter. The rest of the world doesn’t.

If Easter is derived from the word meaning “dawn,” it must be in reference to Christ being the “sun of justice” who rose again on Easter Sunday.

Malachi 4:2 “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church #1166 “By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.”(36) The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the “eighth day,” on which Christ after his “rest” on the great sabbath inaugurates the “day that the Lord has made,” the “day that knows no evening.”(37) The Lord’s Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet: (38)

The Lord’s day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord’s day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If pagans call it the “day of the sun,” we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his rays.(39)

 

[patrick457]

etymonline.com/index.php?term=Easter

You will note that besides the possible pagan references, the word was derived from the word for “Dawn”. Since English is a Germanic tongue, we use the word Easter. The rest of the world doesn’t.

This is also a correction of what I wrote in my last post, but German also uses a cognate of ‘Easter’ (Ostern in standard (High) German; Oostern in Low German; Ouschteren in Luxembourgish; Ostan in Bavarian; Ostere in Ripuarian (spoken in the Rhineland); Oschdere in Palatine German; Oschder in Pennsylvania Dutch).

English, Scots (Easter, used alongside Pace - from Pascha) and these dialects of German are the only Germanic languages that use these words; most of the others use a deritative of Pascha (Dutch: Pasen; West Flemish: Poaschn; Zeelandic: Paese; Danish, Norwegian: Påske; Swedish: Påsk; Icelandic: Páskar; Faroese: Páskir; Dutch Low Saxon (a form of Low German): Poaske; West Frisian, North Frisian: Puask; Limburgish: Paosje).

 

[dmar198]

This is also a correction of what I wrote in my last post, but German also uses a cognate of ‘Easter’ (Ostern in standard (High) German; Oostern in Low German; Ouschteren in Luxembourgish; Ostan in Bavarian; Ostere in Ripuarian (spoken in the Rhineland); Oschdere in Palatine German; Oschder in Pennsylvania Dutch).

Where does the German name come from? Because I wonder if it’s possible the English term derives from the German one.

 

[Simca]

I’m not sure where this thread belongs, so I completely understand if it is moved.

I am a former pagan who is in the process of joining the church. I already love the church and consider myself Catholic. I study everything in depth, pray a lot, and I do not make decisions or join things lightly, so it is a big deal that I call myself Catholic and look forward so much to first confession, communion and confirmation.

However, I have long been baffled that Christians, Catholics first, kept and continue to keep the name Easter for the feast of the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the name of a pagan Goddess.

I know that we adapt the message to the culture, but it’s not like we kept calling Christmas “Saturnalia,” though we do sometimes call it by the Nordic pagan “Yule/Jule.” In the case of Easter it is the name of a goddess!

Not only is it the name of a goddess, but some Archaeology suggests that it is related to other goddessess such as Ostara, Ishtar, Isis, and even Ashera! Ashera is the cult of the supposed wife of God which is denounced repeatedly in the Old Testament.

Anyway, just wondering why we keep it and kept it that way even early on.

It’s a really good question. In Judaism, where our religion comes from, Jesus rose on the day known as ‘‘First Fruits’’. As it says in I Corinthians 15:20, ‘‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep’’. So originally, the day was still celebrated as the fulfillment of the First Fruits holiday.

It’s really too bad that Christianity has become so separated from Judaism. So much is lost to us in fully understanding the beauty of Christ’s fulfillment of very intricate aspects of Judaic form and worship. But understanding can be gained in the study of the Holidays and the sacrificial system, and in asking God to reveal himself to us through this study

 

[patrick457]

Where does the German name come from? Because I wonder if it’s possible the English term derives from the German one.

Both English and German (as well as other languages like Swedish, Norwegian or Dutch) belong to what is called the Germanic languages. All of these languages ultimately descend from a single ancestor known as Proto-Germanic, which in turn derives from Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of most languages spoken in Europe and South Asia.

Both English Easter and standard German Ostern are thought to ultimately from a Proto-Germanic word, *Austrǭ ‘dawn’. This word itself is a descendant of the Proto-Indo-European words for ‘dawn’ or ‘to shine’ (modern English east also derives from this root). *Austrō thus seems to be a Germanic goddess of dawn, herself ultimately coming from the Proto-Indo-European Hausos, the personification of the dawn as a young woman.

Specifically speaking, English Easter is descended from *Austrǭ by way of Old English/Anglo-Saxon ēastre or ēostre (specifically, the term Ēosturmōnath/Ēastermōnath ‘Ēostre’s Month’)), while Ostern is its descendant via Old High German ōstara (Ôstarmânoth). It happened that both the Anglo-Saxons and the High Germans shared the same name for the month of April: ‘Ēostre’s/Ôstar’s Month’. And because Easter oftentimes fell during April, the same month when these tribes originally held feasts in honor of Ēostre’s/Ôstar before they became Christians, they applied the name to the feastday as well. (Bede in the 8th century seems to imply that the cult of Ēostre was already dead among the Anglo-Saxons in his time.)

(To be specific, the Old English for Easter is not the singular feminine noun Ēastre, but instead the plural Ēastrun/Ēastron/Ēastran, or the neuter plural Ēastru, Ēastro.)

Here’s the interesting thing. Some of the westernmost Slavs who were in contact with the Germanic tribes adopted the Germanic name, with the result that Easter is called Jastrë in Kashubian (a sister language to Polish spoken by a minority in Polish Pomerania), jutry in Upper Sorbian, and jatšy in Lower Sorbian (the Sorbs are a Slavic minority in eastern Germany) - all related to Ēastre and Ôstara.

 

[patrick457]

It’s a really good question. In Judaism, where our religion comes from, Jesus rose on the day known as ‘‘First Fruits’’. As it says in I Corinthians 15:20, ‘‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep’’. So originally, the day was still celebrated as the fulfillment of the First Fruits holiday.

Actually, to be more precise, there was no single day the first-fruits of the harvest were offered. Offerings of first fruits were accepted in between the period between Shavuot (Pentecost; the spring harvest - fifty days after Passover) to Sukkot (Booths/Tabernacles; the autumn harvest). Jesus, as we know from the gospels, was crucified during the Passover season; St. Paul also implies as much (in the same letter in fact): “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”

 

[Simca]

Actually, to be more precise, there was no single day the first-fruits of the harvest were offered. Offerings of first fruits were accepted in between the period between Shavuot (Pentecost; the spring harvest - fifty days after Passover) to Sukkot (Booths/Tabernacles; the autumn harvest). Jesus, as we know from the gospels, was crucified during the Passover season; St. Paul also implies as much (in the same letter in fact): “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”

Yes, this is true: there was a First Fruit offering for each crop: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. The first harvest of the year was wheat. The first sheaf of wheat was waved before the Lord as an offering on the day we celebrate as Easter.
(see ‘‘The Temple - its Ministry and Services in the Time of Christ’’’ by Alfred Edersheim. Also a good explanation can be found here: jewsforjesus.org/publications/newsletter/march-1997/firstfruitsthenandnow )

 

[CrossofChrist]

In addition to being derived from “dawn”, it’s worth noting that the German word for “eastern” is the same as the German word for Easter, IIRC. The sun rises out of the darkness in the east, or eastern part of the world, and Christ is the true Son that rises, triumphing over the darkness of sin and death.