Blog: Debunking Easter

One idea that seems to be really popular amongst angry, blue-haired, crystal-obsessed cat moms on the internet is the idea that Easter is actually a pagan holiday and was taken over by the Christians to push Christianity onto the people. Their basis for this is the fact that we have culturally adopted things like egg hunts and the Easter Bunny, which were traditionally used as pagan symbols of fertility. However, though we have adopted those things, Easter is still a fundamentally Christian holiday and here’s why….

One of the popular theories behind Easter is that the holiday is actually a pagan celebration celebrating the Saxon goddess, Eostre, who was a fertility goddess who was celebrated around the spring equinox and had bunnies as her sacred animal. While this theory seems legit at first, if you actually go and do some research, you’ll find how ridiculous this idea is.

First of all, Eostre was seems to have been an incredibly obscure goddess as the only mentions of her include a whopping one passing reference written by the Venerable Bede in the 8^th century. That’s it. One reference is all that this theory is based on. Moreover, no one has found anything that even suggests that Eostre was worshipped. There are no shrines, writings, or any other documents that suggest her existence in the minds of the Saxons.

Secondly, the word Easter comes from the Old Germanic word “Ostarâ”, which meant “east.” It also has roots in Latin, with some speculating that it has it’s roots in the term “in albis”, which is “dawn” or “daybreak” in modern Spanish or Italian. This means that the word “Easter” is simply an Anglicized version of this. Though some will still claim that Ostarâ is another name of Eostre, even then, I would say that this is bogus given the fact that there are words that can mean several different things and those words can have their meanings dumbed down over time. This theory still falls prey to my previous debunking of the idea that Easter was a celebration of Eostre.

Third, there is yet another idea that Easter has some obscure ties to Ishtar (because her name is somehow pronounced as “Easter” which…huh?), the Assyrian goddess of war, fertility, and sex for much the same reasons as the idea that Eostre is the true reason for Easter is floating around. Just because these fertility goddesses – and many other goddesses, mind you – had bunnies and eggs as their symbols doesn’t mean that Easter is a pagan holiday.

Have we adopted some of that imagery? Yes. But that doesn’t make Easter innately pagan. It just means that we needed something cute and fun for the kids to do while the parents either slept in or got ready for church.

Lastly, Easter’s origins as being a Christian holiday are not only strongly attested to in the Bible, but are also confirmed by multiple historical sources outside of the Christian church. It is the oldest Christian holiday on the calendar – yes, even older than Christmas – and its events have more historical and religious references to back them than any of the theories that Easter is a pagan holiday do.

Until next time,

M.J.