The true origin of Easter

Every spring Christians face accusations regarding the origins of Easter lying in Pagan beliefs that the early church repurposed. These claims come either through atheists, people from different religious backgrounds, or even Christians themselves who have heard the story through the grapevine. The various supposed Pagan origin stories are largely linked to Pagan deities, Ishtar (Inanna/Astarte) and Eostre (Ostara/Austra/Eastre).

In this article, we aim not only to examine these pagan deities and their purported links to the Christian observance of Easter individually, but also to delve into the origins of the various aspects of the holiday as they are known today.

Section 1: Pagan deity Ishtar

The earliest association with Ishtar, known as the Mesopotamian goddess of war and sexual love, was linked to the storehouse. She personified various aspects such as dates, wool, meat, and grain. While most often recognized as a fertility figure, her marriage to Dumuzi is a lesser-known attribute of Ishtar.

The association between Ishtar and Easter has circulated since at least 2013, gaining some traction partly through the efforts of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. This, however, lacks historical evidence to substantiate it. Jacob Lauinger, an associate professor of Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University, goes so far as to call the association between Ishtar and Easter “crazy”.  Andrew McGowan, dean of Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School, agreed and affirmed that “the Ishtar connection is indeed a modern myth.”

One potential reason for the propagation of this modern myth could be the phonetic similarity between ‘Ishtar’ and ‘Easter.’ However, this association falls under the fallacy known as False Equivalence, which the website, Logically Fallacious defines as “An argument or claim in which two completely opposing arguments appear to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not.”

Section 2: The goddess Eostre

Eostre is primarily recognized as the goddess of spring and the dawn and is prominently featured in Anglo-Saxon and Old High German traditions.

Morris H. Lary, a lifelong student of history, religion, mythology, and a writer for History Cooperative provided insight into the origins and significance of Eostre. In his article, Eostre: The Mystery Goddess Who Gave Easter Its Name, Lary noted that historical information about the goddess is limited and that most of what we know today comes from an 8th-century English monk and historian, Bede.

Bede mentioned the goddess Eostre in his work ‘De temporum ratione’ (The Reckoning of Time). According to Lary, “Bede mentions Eostre as the name of a month corresponding to April and suggests that the festival of Easter may have been named after this goddess.” The monk does not provide any other extensive details about her.

Lary further commented on Bede’s Chapter titled “The English Months” wherein Bede highlighted how the Anglo-Saxons marked their months. Two are of particular notice as they are directly named after the goddesses Hretha and Eostre. These two months are Hrethmonath and Eosturmonath which align with modern-day March and April respectively. However, apart from this Bede offered nothing else. “. Given how recently pagan religion had been active in the area, he would surely have had access to more information about Hretha and Eostre,” Lary commented. “But whatever else Bede knew, he didn’t record”.

The reason so little is known about Anglo-Saxon practices is that they had no written language, leaving no records of their religious cults and rituals for modern researchers to study. This scarcity of direct information about Eostre makes it challenging to establish concrete facts. What little we do possess fails to mention Easter, indicating that any link between Eostre and the holiday is more speculative than historically grounded.

Section 3: Origins of Easter

The dating of Easter originated from early Christians’ attempts to determine the timing of Passover. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection took place during the Passover week. Consequently, early Christians sought to commemorate these events by aligning the celebration of Easter with their calculated estimation of the Passover timing. They decided it should occur on a Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (the moment when the sun crosses the plane of the equator towards the relevant hemisphere, making day and night of equal length.)

In most parts of the world, the holiday is known as ‘Pascha,’ derived from the Greek word ‘Pascha,’ which originates from ‘Passover.’ This term serves as the primary name for the celebration in regions speaking Latin or Greek-derived languages.

However, the term ‘Easter’ in English finds its roots in Germanic languages as English is fundamentally a Germanic language.

Anglophones likely adopted this term due to the association with the name of the month around April, known as ‘Eostremonath’ in the old English calendar—the fourth month. This naming convention mirrors the United States’ reference to Independence Day as ‘The Fourth of July,’ associating the holiday with the month of its occurrence.

Section 4: Where does the Easter Bunny come from

The first reference to an “Easter bunny” came in the late 16th century (1572) from a German text, according to Jacqueline Simpson and Stephen Roud who co-authored a book titled A Dictionary of English Folklore, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2000.

Regarding the German text, the authors stated that while the ‘Easter Bunny’ itself is a recent arrival, the ‘Easter Hare’ has been around for some time. “In several German-speaking regions of Europe ‘Easter Hare’ comes by night to lay eggs for which children search.”

This idea emerges around 500 years after the cessation of pagan worship in Europe. The notion that the Easter bunny has pagan roots is attributed to Jacob Grimm, a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist, renowned for his documentation of folklore and fairytales. In his 1835 work ‘Deutsche Mythologie,’ Grimm mused about the origins of the Hare: “The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara.” He attempted to connect Ostara to Jesus by stating that the goddess seemed to have been the “divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing”, adding that this version of the goddess could be “easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian’s God.”

Grimm, while a notable figure in mythological studies, speculated on the Easter Bunny’s origins without concrete evidence to support his assertion. Despite his suggestion linking the Easter Bunny to a pagan deity, no definitive evidence establishing its direct connection to ancient pagan traditions exists.

Naturally, the spring season, during which Easter occurs, is also the time when hares emerge for their mating season after a period of hibernation; this aspect has provided a solid foundation for associating them with Easter.

Section 5: Easter eggs

The exact origins of Easter eggs are not certain. Those who try to link it to paganism, however, miss the most likely explanation.

Tanya Gulevich, the author of ‘The Encyclopedia of Easter, Carnival, and Lent’, stated that “the earliest historical records concerning decorated Easter eggs indicate that they were given as gifts. In 1290, King Edward I of England had his servants prepare 450 Easter eggs by boiling them and covering them with gold leaf. He presented them to members of his household on Easter Sunday.”

It is unlikely, however, that he created this tradition as Gulevich stated that “historical documents reveal that Easter eggs were also known in Poland and Germany at this time.”

Hans J. Hillerbrand, a Professor Emeritus of History and Religion at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, wrote in an article for Britannica that the use of “painted and decorated Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century.”

The most likely explanation for the presence of eggs during this time revolves around Lent, the period of six weeks leading up to Easter. In medieval Europe, people would abstain from meat, dairy, and eggs throughout the 40 days of Lent.

Peggy Trowbridge Filippone wrote an article for Learn Religions named Easter Eggs: History, Symbolism, and Holiday Tradition. In the article, Filippone affirmed that another reason for the presence of eggs during the Easter celebrations was that observers of Lent also abstained from eggs during the Lenten season. “Therefore, Easter was the first chance to enjoy eggs and meat after the long abstinence,” Filippone commented.

Emma J. Wells, an ecclesiastical and architectural historian at the University of York wrote an article for History Extra: Eggs, bunnies and Jesus Christ: The History and Origins of Easter. In the article, Wells explained that eggs laid during the season of Lent were “boiled for preservation so that when Easter Sunday rolled around, eggs were back on the menu.”

Wells added that many of the eggs were painted in bright colors, a practice that does have ancient roots. “Red was used to symbolize the blood of Christ, first by early Christians, then by the Orthodox Church; while in Germanic regions, they were colored green and hung on trees on Maundy or ‘Green’ Thursday.”

While the eggs found their way into games, Wells stated that Easter eggs and hunts for said eggs only became popular in England in the Victorian Era.

Section 6: Conclusion

Christians are not disputing the historical origins of rabbits, eggs, and words that sound similar to Easter by pagans. We dispute the idea that the Christian Easter tradition originated from pagan rituals or celebrations.

Easter is firmly rooted in early Christians determining the closest date to the Passover during which Jesus Christ laid His life down for our salvation, so that all who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

While many may partake in pagan-rooted activities such as painting and hiding eggs, the intention behind doing so has nothing to do with pagan deities. Assuming a connection is to commit an association fallacy.

Ultimately, there is a lack of concrete evidence supporting Easter’s alleged pagan origins. Belief in this myth simply comes down to not taking the time to research the claims and weigh the evidence against the Christian origin of the tradition.