Origin Of Easter
After the dreary winter, the days are getting longer. The sun is getting brighter. At springtime, growth is beginning to quicken. Plants are coming back into bloom. Naturally springtime represents renewal of life or fertility in all its forms. Hence at or around the height of springtime, the spring (or vernal) equinox (which means “equal night”) on March 20 or 21 when the night and day are approximately equal, the ancients would celebrate that day in honour of the deity of fertility. This deity almost always takes the female form in consonance with the theme of fertility.
Among the Anglo-Saxons (the Angles and Saxon tribes who had migrated from Germany to live in England before the Norman conquest) and the Teutonics (the Teuton tribe in Germany) in Europe, she was called Eostre. She was Ostara among the Norse peoples in Scandinavia, Ausra in Lithuania, and Austri in Norway. In the Mediterranean area, this spring goddess of fertility was Aphrodite in Cyprus, Demeter in Greece, Hathor in Egypt, Cybele in Phrygia (now Turkey) and Ishtar in Assyria (today’s Iraq). Since Assyria was the cradle of civilisation, Ishtar was probably the earliest goddess of fertility. Archaeologist Austen H Layard discovered the name inscribed on Assyrian monuments at excavations in Nineveh. Collier’s Encyclopedia describes Ishtar thus:
“Ishtar, goddess of love and war, the most important goddess of the Sumero-Akkadian pantheon. Her name in Sumerian is Inanna (lady of heaven). She was sister of the sun god Shamash and daughter of the moon god Sin. Ishtar was equated with the planet Venus. Her symbol was a star inscribed in a circle. As goddess of war, she was often represented sitting upon a lion. As goddess of physical love, she was patron of the temple prostitutes. She was also considered the merciful mother who intercedes with the gods on behalf of her worshipers. Throughout Mesopotamian history she was worshiped under various names in many cities; one of the chief centers of her cult was Uruk.”[1]
“The Ishtar festivals were symbolical of Ishtar as the goddess of love or generation. As the daughter of Sin, the moon god, she was the Mother Goddess who presided over child birth; and women, in her honor, sacrificed their virginity on the feast day or became temple prostitutes, their earnings being a source of revenue for the temple priests and servants.”[2]
Among the Canaanites (the various tribes living in today’s Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria before the invasion of the Hebrews under Joshua), Ishtar was known as Astarte (from ‘strt found in Phoenician inscriptions, which reads as Astarte when transcribed in Greek or from the earlier ‘ttrt occurring in the Ugaritic texts). The Israelites deliberately misvocalised the name by retaining the consonants ‘strt and infixing the vowels of the Hebrew word boset (meaning “shame”) to create the artificial Hebrew name astoret (read as Ashtoreth) or astarot in the plural form (read as Ashtaroth). The intention was to mark the extreme depravity of this Canaanite deity when referring to her.[3] The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia[4]states:
“ASHTORETH ash’te-reth [Heb. ‘astoret. pl. ‘astarôt; Gk. Astarte]. A goddess of Canaan and Phoenicia whose name and cult were derived from Babylonia, where Ishtar represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly androgynous in origin. Under Semitic influence, however, she became solely female, although retaining a trace of her original character by standing on equal footing with the male divinities. From Babylonia the worship of the goddess was carried to the Semites of the West, and in most instances the feminine suffix was attached to her name; where this was not the case the deity was regarded as a male. On the Moabite Stone, for example, ‘Ashtar is identified with Chemosh, and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia ‘Athtar is a god. On the other hand, in the name Atargatis (2 Macc. 12:26), ‘Atar, without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess ‘Athah or ‘Athi (Gk. Gatis). The cult of the Greek Aphrodite in Cyprus was borrowed from that of Ashtoreth; that the Greek name also is a modification of Ashtoreth is doubtful. It is maintained, however, that the vowels of Heb. ‘astoret were borrowed from boset (‘‘shame’’) in order to indicate the abhorrence the Hebrew scribes felt toward paganism and idolatry.
In Babylonia and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. An old Babylonian legend relates how the descent of Ishtar into Hades in search of her dead husband Tammuz was followed by the cessation of marriage and birth in both earth and heaven; and the temples of the goddess at Nineveh and Arbela, around which the two cities afterward grew, were dedicated to her as the goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of Ashurbanipal’s seers and encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam. The other goddesses of Babylonia, who were little more than reflections of a god, tended to merge into Ishtar, who thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the productive principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress of mankind.”
Unger’s Bible Dictionary[5] states:
“Ash’toreth (ash’to-reth), Astarte, a Canaanite goddess. In south Arabic the name is found as ‘Athtar (apparently from ‘athara, to be fertile, to irrigate), a god identified with the planet Venus. The name is cognate with Babylonian Ishtar, the goddess of sensual love, maternity and fertility. Licentious worship was conducted in honor of her. As Asherah and Anat of Ras Shamra she was the patroness of war as well as sex and is sometimes identified with these goddesses. The Amarna Letters present Ashtoreth as Ashtartu. In the Ras Shamra Tablets are found both the masculine form ‘Athtar and the feminine ‘Athtart. Ashtoreth worship was early entrenched at Sidon (I Kings 11:5, 33; II Kings 23:13). Her polluting cult even presented a danger to early Israel (Judg. 2:13; 10:6). Solomon succumbed to her voluptuous worship (I Kings 11:5; II Kings 23:13). The peculiar vocalization Ashtoreth instead of the more primitive Ashtaroth is evidently a deliberate alteration by the Hebrews to express their abhorrence for her cult by giving her the vowels of their word for ‘‘shame’’ (bosheth).”
The Illustrated Bible Dictionary[6] states:
“ASHTAROTH, ASHTORETH. Heb[rew] astoret, astarot, a mother goddess with aspects as goddess of fertility, love and war, known to the Israelites through the Canaanites (1 Ki. 11:5). The name was common in one form or another, among many of the Semitic-speaking peoples of antiquity. In Mesopotamia Istar was identified with the Sumerian mother goddess Inanna.”
The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary[7] states:
“ASHTORETH. The Canaanite fertility goddess, also called Ashtoreth, Astarte, or Ishtar. … In the Babylonian pantheon this deity, known as Ishtar, was the daughter of the moon-god Sin and later the consort of Anu, the deity of heaven. She is usually regarded as the goddess of love and sensual pleasure or fertility, though the Assyrians also fostered her identification as the goddess of war. … In Hellenistic times Ishtar became identified with Venus or Aphrodite, the goddess of love; …”
The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible[8] states:
“ASHTORETH (… cognate to Sumer[ian] Inanna, queen of heaven). … The worship of mother goddesses in the Near E[ast] and elsewhere in the old world is evidenced by the frequency of small fertility figurines excavated from sites as early as the Lower Paleolithic. The earliest written documents from Mesopotamia Sumer[ia] mention the goddess as Inanna, … The equation of Inanna with Istar is proven by the interchangeability of the names in the various [versions] of the myths and the parallel use of their titles, …”
Collier’s Encyclopedia states:
“ASTARTE [aesta’rti], the Phoenician goddess of fertility and erotic love. The Greek name, ‘‘Astarte’’ was derived from Semitic, ‘‘Ishtar,’’ ‘‘Ashtoreth.’’ Astarte was regarded in Classical antiquity as a moon goddess, perhaps in confusion with some other Semitic deity. In accordance with the literary traditions of the Greco-Romans, Astarte was identified with Selene and Artemis, and more often with Aphrodite. Among the Canaanites, Astarte, like her peer Anath, performed a major function as goddess of fertility. … Egyptian iconography, however, portrayed Astarte in her role as a warlike goddess massacring mankind, young and old. She is represented on plaques (dated 1700-1100 b.c.) as naked, in striking contrast to the modestly garbed Egyptian goddesses.”[9]
Historian Will Durant, in his famous and respected work Story of Civilization at pages 235, 244-245 writes:
“Ishtar [Astarte to the Greeks, Ashtoreth to the Jews], interests us not only as analogue of the Egyptian Isis and prototype of the Grecian Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, but as the formal beneficiary of one of the strangest of Babylonian customs…known to us chiefly from a famous page in Herodotus: Every native woman is obliged, once in her life, to sit in the temple of Venus [Easter], and have intercourse with some stranger.”
And finally, The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, at page 487 connects Ashtoreth not only with Ishtar, but very significantly with Eostre:
‘‘[Easter] incorporates some of the ancient Spring Equinox ceremonies of sun worship in which there were phallic rites and spring fires, and in which the deity or offering to the deity was eaten … The festival is symbolized by an ascension Lily…a chick breaking its shell, the colors white and green, the egg, spring flowers, and the Rabbit. The name is related to Astarte, Ashtoreth, Eostre and Ishtar, goddess who visited and rose from the underworld.’’
How did the spring goddess of fertility festival get into Christianity? Encyclopaedia Britannica objectively says:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers … The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemoration of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it, of Christ as the true Paschal lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed.”[10]
The continued celebration of Passover by the Jewish Christians with a new meaning may be implied from 1 Corinthians 5:7-8: “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the festival…”[11]
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia[12] contains this entry:
”EASTER (es’-ter) (pascha, from Aramaic paccha’ and Hebrew pecach, the Passover festival): The English word comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April, so the name was transferred to the paschal feast. … There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament, though some would see an intimation of it in 1 Cor 5:7. The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Our Lord, or an Easter feast.”
The predominantly gentile church in the west however had no festival. In springtime their societies celebrated the very alluring sensual spring fertility festival in honour of Cybele. According to Gerald Berry:
“About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill … Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.”[13]
Attis’ annual death and resurrection took place in the period March 22-25[14]. Born of a human virgin named Nana, Attis grew up to become a sacrificial victim and Savior, slain to bring salvation to mankind. His body was eaten by his worshipers in the form of bread … [He was] crucified on a pine tree, whence his holy blood poured down to redeem the earth.”
Since this festival of fertility coincided somewhat in time (springtime) and motif (resurrection – renewed life) with the new-meaning Passover observed by the Jewish section of the church particularly in the east, the church in the west in the later part of the second century adopted it to commemorate the resurrection of Christ in their attempt to garner conversions. It was easier for pagans to embrace Christianity if they were permitted to continue with the lifestyles they had been accustomed to; such as celebrating their exciting feasts even if it meant doing so for a different reason – to honour Christ instead of Cybele. Sir James George Frazer in his classic study of magic and religion, The Golden Bough[15], argues:
“Now the death and resurrection of Attis were officially celebrated at Rome on the 24th and 25th of March, the latter being regarded as the spring equinox, and…according to an ancient and widespread tradition Christ suffered on the 25th of March…the tradition which placed the death of Christ on the 25th of March…is all the more remarkable because astronomical considerations prove that it can have had no historical foundation… When we remember that the festival of St. George in April has replaced the ancient pagan festival of the Parilia; that the festival of St. John the Baptist in June has succeeded to a heathen Midsummer festival of water; that the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin in August has ousted the festival of Diana; that the feast of All Souls [Halloween] in November is a continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead; and that the Nativity of Christ himself was assigned to the winter solstice in December because that day was deemed the Nativity of the Sun; we can hardly be thought to be rash or unreasonable in conjecturing that the other cardinal festival of the Christian church—the solemnization of Easter—may have been in like manner, and from like motives of edification, adapted to a similar celebration of the Phyrgian god Attis at the vernal equinox… It is a remarkable coincidence…that the Christian and the heathen festivals of the divine death and resurrection should have been solemnized at the same season… It is difficult to regard the coincidence as purely accidental.”
Interestingly, wherever the Christian worship of Jesus and the pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Gerald Berry finds that on the day Christians “used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus”, the “pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation.“[16]
It was the Anglo-Saxon Christians who subsequently gave it a name – Easter – after the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic spring goddess of fertility Eostre. According to De Tempore Rationum (On the Reckoning of Time) in Chapter 15 “The English Months” by Bede (around 672-735 A.D.):
“In olden times the English people – for it did not seem fitting to me that I should speak of other nations’ observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation’s – calculated their months according to the course of the Moon. Hence, after the manner of the Greeks and the Romans, [the months] take their name from the Moon, for the moon is called mona and each month monath. The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath … Eosturmonath 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.”[17]
Bede is the most reliable source on the origin of Easter. Encyclopaedia Britannica, dictionaries and other reference works cite Bede on this topic. He was a monk of the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul at Wearmouth and Jarrow, Northumbria (now England). A well-known author and scholar, Bede wrote on many topics, including music, science, history and scripture commentaries. The most important and best known of his works is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People).[18]
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia[19] contains this entry:
”EASTER (es’-ter) (pascha, from Aramaic paccha’ and Hebrew pecach, the Passover festival): The English word comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April…”
The east and the west used different calendars. Consequently, it was inevitable that dissonance would arise between the day the Jewish Christians observed the new-meaning Passover and the day the western Christians celebrated Easter. While the Jewish Christians held the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, irrespective of the day of the week, western Christians under the influence of the church at Rome insisted … that Christ was crucified on Friday, the day preceding the Jewish Sabbath, and rose again on late Sunday, on which therefore the anniversary ought to always be kept[20].
In 160 A.D. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and Anicetus agreed to permit differences of practice on this point. In 196 A.D. Victor I tried to get the whole question settled but the Asiatic churches held out.
Finally in his attempt to syncretise the prevalent pagan practices and the Christian religion, Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., by imperial edict, set the date for the celebration of the Passover/Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox; and that if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following[21]. The 1967 New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, at page 433 records the decree at the Council of Nicaea as such:
“As for Easter, the Fathers decreed (1) that all Christians should observe it on the same day, (2) that Jewish customs should not be followed, and (3) that the practice of the West, of Egypt, and of other Churches should remain in force, namely, of celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox”.
The 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, at page 228, in describing the final decision at Nicaea in A.D. 325 quotes the following words of Emperor Constantine:
“At this meeting the question concerning the most holy day of Easter was discussed, and it was resolved by the united judgment of all present that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day…And first of all it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin…for we have received from our Saviour a different way …And I myself have undertaken that this decision should meet with the approval of your Sagacities in the hope that your Wisdoms will gladly admit that practice which is observed at once in the city of Rome and in Africa, throughout Italy and in Egypt…with entire unity of judgment.” Another fragment records that Constantine urged all Christians to follow the custom of “the ancient church of Rome and Alexandria.”
According to International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia[22]:
“The rule was finally adopted, in the 7th century, to celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the 14th day of the calendar moon which comes on, or after, the vernal equinox which was fixed for March 21.”
Hence the adopted festival Easter supplanted the older Jewish Passover and rose to become one of the most important festivals of the Roman Catholic Church. Some early reformers realizing the paganistic origin of Easter tried to curb its celebration. For example, in 1647 John Knox, a Protestant Scottish leader and one of King Edward’s chaplains, decreed that all pagan festivals kept by the Catholic Church including Christmas, Easter, All Souls Day, Candlemas and Halloween were “heretofore superstitiously used” and were not to be observed by the Protestant church. They failed. Today most Protestant churches also celebrate Easter.
Customs And Celebrations Of Easter
1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica describes the celebrations and customs of Easter:
“By the time that the Christian liturgy had begun to take shape (2nd century), the Sunday Eucharist was preceded by a vigil service of Scripture readings and psalms. In this must be seen the origin of the Easter Vigil service, one of the striking celebrations of Easter in both East and West; from being a weekly observance the vigil has turned into an annual one at Easter only. As it is now constituted in the Roman Catholic missal, this vigil consists of the blessing of the new fire (a practice introduced during the early Middle Ages); the lighting of the paschal candle; a service of lessons, called the prophecies; followed by the blessing of the font and baptisms and then the mass of Easter. A similar form is used in Lutheran and some Anglican churches. This pattern is quite primitive and, in its principal elements, can be traced to the 3rd-4th century. In the course of time the vigil in the West (but never in the East) came to be celebrated on Saturday evening, then on Saturday afternoon, and finally, by the end of the Middle Ages, on Saturday morning. In 1951 (optionally) and 1955 (obligatorily) throughout the Roman Catholic church, the Easter vigil was restored to the starting time of about 10:00 pm, so that the first mass of Easter begins at midnight. Easter vigils in certain Protestant churches are similarly scheduled. … Among the Eastern Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches, … The vigil service is preceded by a procession outside the church representing a fruitless search for the body of Christ. Then comes the joyful announcement, “Christ is risen,” followed by the Easter Eucharist. When the procession first leaves the church, there are no lights anywhere, but on its return hundreds of candles and coloured lamps are lighted to show the splendour of Christ’s Resurrection. … In the Protestant churches, Easter Sunday observances are the culminating point of a series of services held during Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday. It is customary for the sacrament of Holy Communion to be administered during Holy Week, but the time of its observance varies. Many denominations have established the custom of celebrating Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter); others administer the sacrament on Easter morning some time before the regularly established hour of worship. Many Protestant churches hold joint interdenominational Good Friday services, prepared under the auspices of the local ministerial association. These services in many communities centre on the traditional seven last “words” (or sayings) of Christ and are conducted from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm with choirs and clergy of the participating denominations. This interdenominational pattern culminates in the Easter dawn service, which is of such interest in the United States that it commands wide television and radio coverage. The origin of the sunrise service is not known, but it would appear to be rooted in the Gospel narratives describing the Resurrection of Christ–e.g., John 20, “Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark.” Mingled with this biblical warrant is an association with the spring of the year and the idea of the new birth symbolized in nature’s renewal of itself out of the death of winter.
Around the Christian observance of Easter as the climax of the liturgical drama of Holy Week and Good Friday, folk customs have collected, many of which have been handed down from the ancient ceremonial and symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals brought into relation with the resurrection theme. These customs have taken a variety of forms, in which, for example, eggs, formerly forbidden to be eaten during Lent, have been prominent as symbols of new life and resurrection. The hare, the symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt, a role that was kept later in Europe, is not found in North America. Its place is taken by the Easter rabbit, the symbol of fertility and periodicity both human and lunar, accredited with laying eggs (often brightly coloured or decorated) in nests prepared for it at Easter or with hiding them away for children to find.”
Many of these and other Easter celebrations and customs originated from paganistic spring festival practices. Compton’s Encyclopedia, 1956, Volume 4, says this:
‘‘Many Easter customs come from the Old World … colored eggs and rabbits have come from pagan antiquity as symbols of new life … our name ‘Easter’ comes from ‘Eostre’, an ancient Anglo Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-christian spring festivals.’’
Encyclopeadia Britannica says:
“Christianity … incorporated in its celebration of the great Christian feast day many of the heathen rites and customs of the spring festival.”
Hot Cross Buns
At the feast of Eostre, an ox was sacrificed. The ox’s horns became a symbol for the feast. They were carved into the ritual bread served during the feast. Thus originated “hot cross buns”. The word “buns” is derived from the Saxon word “boun” which means “sacred ox.” Later, the symbol of a symmetrical cross was used to decorate the buns; the cross representing the moon, the heavenly body associated with the goddess, and the four quarters of the moon’s phases. These buns were also used in the worship of the queen of heaven 1,500 years before the Christian era. They were also known amongst the Teutonic tribes as osterstuopha and moon-shaped ostermane.
Bryant’s Ancient Mythology offers this possible origination of the buns:
“The offerings which people in ancient times used to present to the Gods were generally purchased at the entrance of the [Arkite] Temple; especially every species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the Gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun. The Greeks, who changed the Nu final into a Sigma, expressed it in the nominative Bous, but in the accusative more truly Boun. Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it a kind of cake with a representation of two horns. Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner, a sort of cake with horns. Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed. ‘He offered one of the sacred Liba, called a Bouse, which was made of fine flour and honey.’ It is said of Cecrops that he first offered up this sort of sweet bread. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred.
Easter Rabbits And Eggs
Easter rabbits and eggs originated from customs associated with the spring festival dedicated to Eostre. Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Reference Encyclopedia, 1962, Volume 8, page 2940 states:
“Although Easter is a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of an ancient time antedating the rise of Christianity. The origin of its name is lost in the dim past; some scholars believe it probably is derived from Eastre, Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated Eastre monath, corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, and traditions associated with the festival survive in the familiar Easter bunny, symbol of the fertile rabbit, and in the equally familiar colored Easter eggs originally painted with gay hues to represent the sunlight of spring.”
A Treasury of Amenican Superstitions has this observation:
“The hare represented abundant life and the fertility of the earth … Because hares were born with eyes open, they were sacred to the ‘open-eyed’ moon in Egypt, and thus connected with Easter, as the day set by the moon’s orbit to this day. The Germans made the hare sacred to the goddess Eostre, and said that on Easter eve it would lay eggs for good children.” The Celts believed that Eostre’s spirit animal was a hare. She is also associated with the dawn and the moon and the egg. All these represented fertility and growth. One delightful legend associated with Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground whose wings had been frozen in the previous harsh winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. The hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre. The symbols of the Ostara, the Germanic equivalent, were also the hare and the egg. Both represented fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit and eggs traditions are not just limited to Eostre but appear to be worldwide religious symbols of fertility and new life in many ancient civilisations; and from which Catholic innovators drew inspiration.
The Catholic Encyclopedia admits:
“Because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table of Easter day, colored red to symbolize the Easter joy … The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter … The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.”
Encyclopedia Britannica[23] states:
“Around the Christian observance of Easter…folk customs have collected, many of which have been handed down from the ancient ceremonial…symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals…for example, eggs…have been very prominent as symbols of new life and resurrection. … The egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptian and Persians, who had also the custom of coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival. … ”The hare, the symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt, a symbol that was kept later in Europe… Its place has been taken by the Easter rabbit.” In Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, James Bonwick, p. 211-212 writes: “Eggs were hung up in the Egyptian temples. Bunsen calls attention to the mundane egg, the emblem of generative life, proceeding from the mouth of the great god of Egypt. The mystic egg of Babylon, hatching the Venus Ishtar, fell from heaven to the Euphrates. Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in Egypt, as they are still in China and Europe. Easter, or spring, was the season of birth, terrestrial and celestial.” Babylonians used eggs as part of the rituals of their mystery cults, while the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese, during their respective spring festivals, would present among themselves gifts of decorated eggs. Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, p. 233 sums it up as follows: “The origin of the Easter egg is based on the fertility lore of the Indo-European races. … The egg to them was a symbol of spring… In Christian times the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection”
Easter Lilies
Easter lily has long been revered by pagans of various lands as a holy symbol of fertility associated with the male reproductive organ.
Easter Sunrise Service
This custom can be traced back to the ancient pagan custom of welcoming the sun god at the dawn of the vernal equinox – when daytime is about to exceed the length of the nighttime. It was a time to celebrate the return of life and reproduction to animal and plant life as well. They would greet the rising sun and sing praises, chants, or hymns to the sun.
Easter Candles
The religious practice of lighting fires dates back to the ancient Aryans. This practice continues among the Germans who lighted new fire by means of a bonfire during the spring festival to welcome the rebirth or resurrection of the Sun god. Then the sticks of the bonfire were sent to each home to start the fires to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest. This practice was introduced to Catholicism as the Easter candle. This single giant candle was lit on the eve of Easter and then on Easter Sunday itself, after a procession around the chapel according to the revolution of the sun, all the candles of the church were lit from it. This continued for the year until next Easter when the single Easter candle was again lit.
The Catholic Encyclopedia admits:
“The Easter fire is lit on the top of mountains from new fire, drawn from wood by friction; this is a custom of pagan origin in vogue all over Europe, signifying the victory of spring over winter. The bishops issued severe edicts against the sacrilegious Easter fires, but did not succeed in abolishing them everywhere. … The church adopted the observance into the Easter ceremonies, referring it to the fiery column in the desert and to the resurrection of Christ.”
Origin Of Good Friday
For over 200 years there was nothing special about any Friday in the apostolic church. The Jewish Christians continued with the celebration of their ethnic Passover day but with a new meaning i.e. instead of deliverance by Moses, it was deliverance by Jesus through his death and resurrection. The Gentile Christians in the west increasingly borrowed Easter from the pagans but celebrated it as a commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus. Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish lunar calendar whichever day of the week it might fall while Easter was celebrated on the Sunday after the spring equinox. A practice developed where they fasted during the six days preceding Easter. A document written around 380 AD called the Constitutiones Apostolorum (Apostolic Constitution) records:
“He therefore himself charged us to fast these six days, on account of the impiety and transgression of the Jews; commanding us to mourn over them, and lament for their perdition. For even he himself wept over them, because they knew not the time of their visitation. But he commanded us to fast on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), and on the Preparation (Friday), the former on account of his being betrayed, and the latter on account of his Passion. But he appointed us to break our fast on the seventh day at the cockcrowing, but to fast during the Sabbath itself; not that the Sabbath is a day of fasting, it being the rest from the creation, but because we ought to fast this one Sabbath only, while on this day the Creator was yet under the earth. For on their very Feast day they apprehended the Lord, that that oracle might be fulfilled which saith, They placed their signs in the middle of their feast, and knew them not. Ye ought, therefore, to mourn over them, because when the Lord came they did not believe on him, but rejected his doctrine, judging themselves unworthy of salvation.”
It was Ambrose (c. 340-397), the Archbishop of Milan, who championed the idea that the Friday before Easter (which he called the “day of the Passion”) should be celebrated as a commemoration of the passion of Jesus as an addition to the celebration of Easter (which he sometimes called the “day or feast of the Resurrection”). In his “Letter to the Bishops of Aemilia”, he wrote:
“We must then keep this law of Easter, not to keep the fourteenth day as the day of the Resurrection, but rather as the day of the Passion, or at least one of the next preceding days, because the feast of the Resurrection is kept on the Lord’s day; and on the Lord’s day we cannot fast; for we rightly condemn the Manicheans for their fast upon this day. For it is unbelief in Christ’s Resurrection, to appoint a rule of fasting for the day of the Resurrection, since the Law says that the Passion is to be eaten with bitterness, that is grief, because the Author of Salvation was slain by so great a sacrilege on the part of men; but on the Lord’s day the Prophet teaches us that we should rejoice, saying, “This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it. Therefore it is fit that not only the day of the Passion, but also that of the Resurrection be observed by us, that we may have a day both of bitterness and of joy; fast on the one, on the other be refreshed… But even the Lessons of the Old Testament shew that different days are to be observed for the Passion and Resurrection: … We observe that the day of the Passion is marked out as a fast, for the lamb is to be slain at the evening: though we might understand by evening the last time, according to John who say, “Children, it is the last time”. But even according to the mystery, it is plain that it was killing in the evening, when darkness immediately took place, and true fasting is to be observed on that day, for “thus shall ye eat it with anxiety”: but anxiety belongs to those who fast. But on the day of the Resurrection there is exultation of refreshment and joy, on which day the people appears to have gone out of Egypt, when the first-born of the Egyptians had been killed… We have made it clear then that the day of the Resurrection ought to be observed after the day of the Passion, and that this day of the Resurrection ought not to be on the fourteenth moon, but later, as the Old Testament says, because the day of the Resurrection is that on which they people going out of Egypt, after being baptised, as the Apostle says, “in the sea and in the cloud”, overcame death, receiving spiritual bread, and drinking spiritual drink from the rock…”
According to Gilmartin, Thomas, “Good Friday”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909, eventually, this Friday before Easter came to be called “Feria VI in Parasceve in the Roman Missal, he hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German”. It is unclear when and why the English called it “Good Friday”.
Customs And Celebrations Of Good Friday
According to Gilmartin, Thomas, “Good Friday”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909, the celebration of Good Friday has three parts: “The first part consists of three lessons from Sacred Scripture (two chants and a prayer being interposed) which are followed by a long series of prayers for various intentions; the second part includes the ceremony of unveiling and adoring the Cross, accompanied by the chanting of the Improperia; the third part is known as the Mass of the Presanctified, which is preceded by a procession and followed by vespers.”
Christian Viewpoint
Jesus did not institute Easter or Good Friday and neither he nor the apostolic church celebrated them. They are not found in the Bible. The King James Version renders the original Greek word pascha in Acts 12:4 as “Easter“. However elsewhere in the Bible where the same word is used, it is always faithfully translated as “Passover”. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia[24] explains this error as such:
”EASTER (es’-ter) (pascha, from Aramaic paccha’ and Hebrew pecach, the Passover festival): The English word comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April, so the name was transferred to the paschal feast. The word does not properly occur in Scripture, although the King James Version has it in Acts 12:4 where it stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American). There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament, though some would see an intimation of it in 1 Cor 5:7. The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Our Lord, or an Easter feast.”
Barnes’ Notes[25] says this:
“In the old Anglo-Saxon service-books the term “Easter” is used frequently to translate the word “Passover.” In the translation by Wycliffe, the word “paske,” that is, “Passover,” is used. But Tyndale and Coverdale used the word “Easter,” and hence, it has very improperly crept into our King James Version.”
The command of the Lord is that his death should be commemorated often and without any fixed time:
“As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)
Christians should not celebrate Easter because it is essentially a paganistic festival for the worship of the spring goddess of fertility.
God unequivocally condemns the worship of the spring goddess of fertility. In Canaan, her name was Ashtoreth. The Israelites were attracted to the worship of Ashtoreth soon after occupying Canaan: “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. … And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”[26] The judges failed to eliminate this evil and periodically it gained prominence[27]. It was rife in the time of Samuel. At Mizpah during the election of Saul, the prophet ordered Israel thus: “put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only.” Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only[28]. It was not permanent though. Later, the Israelites apostatised after this Canaanite cult of Ashtoreth and this contributed to their defeat at the hand of the Philistines. Samuel had to remind them to return to God[29]. After the Philistines had killed Saul, his armour was placed in the temple of Ashtaroth at Beth-shan[30]. As Beth-shan was not occupied by Israel, the inference is that the cult of Ashtaroth was general to the area. It also suggests that Ashtaroth was a goddess of war. Solomon, seduced by his foreign wives, gave royal sanction to the worship of Ashtaroth in Israel: “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods… For Solomon went after Ashtaroth the goddess of the Zidonians… And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.”[31] However it was Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre, and wife to Ahab, who principally established the Ashtoreth religion in Israel. She caused altars to be erected to this idol in every part of Israel; and at one time 400 priests attended the worship of this Canaanite goddess[32]. The sanctuaries of Ashtoreth remained with Israel until King Josiah of Judah some 300 years later destroyed them along with other remnants of idol worship[33]. Unfortunately, according to The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, with heightened pressure from the Babylonians and the imminent fall of Jerusalem, King Josiah’s cultic reforms dissipated and this deity, in its Babylonian manifestation as Ishtar, was worshipped openly as the “queen of heaven”[34].
Some celebrations and customs of Easter themselves are condemned in the Bible itself. The Easter sunrise service has no biblical basis and bears no relation to the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus had already resurrected while it was still dark: “And early came Mary Magdalene, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” (John 20:1). It is actually the continuation of a paganistic tradition extant in the Old Testament times and condemned by the prophets:
“…Turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations that they do…and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz…And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then He said unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing…that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they…have returned to provoke Me to anger…Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” (Ezekial 8:13-18).
At dawn the sun rises from the horizon in the east. If the apostatised Israelites were worshipping the sun toward the east, it must have been a sunrise service. This sunrise service was held in conjunction with the spring goddess of fertility because while the men were worshipping, the women were weeping for Tammuz. Tammuz, according to The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, was the consort of Inanna or Ishtar or Ashtoreth:
“According to various extant Sumer[ian] legends, Inanna was the consort of the shepherd god Dumuzi (Heb[rew], Tammuz, Ezek 8:14) for whom she wept at his seasonal death.”
Legend has it that after Tammuz was slain by a wild boar, he descended into the underworld. But through the weeping of his mother Ishtar, he was magically revived in spring. So in order to ensure the success of crops and the fertility of the people, annually they would enact a drama whereby they would grieve with Ishtar over the death of Tammuz and celebrate his return. When new vegetation comes, they believed that Tammuz had returned from the underworld, ended winter and caused spring to begin[35].
Hot cross buns were also used as part of the worship of the queen of heaven – Ishtar or Ashtoreth – and this practice was vehemently condemned by the prophets:
“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” (Jeremiah 7:18)
“The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her? … Because you have burned incense …, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.” (Jeremiah 44:19-23)
[1] Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1980, Vol. 15, p. 748.
[2] Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1980, Vol. 9, p. 622.
[3] The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Inter-Varsity Press, England, 1994; The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1987; The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976.
[4] The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1979, Vol. 1, pp. 319-320.
[5] Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Moody Press, Chicago, 1966.
[6] The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Inter-Varsity Press, England, 1994.
[7] The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1987.
[8] The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976.
[9] Collier’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 97.
[10] Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed, Vol. 8, p. 828.
[11] The mid-2nd century apocryphal text known as “The Epistle to the Apostles” has Jesus instructing his disciples to “make commemoration of [his] death, that is, the Passover.”
[12] International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Biblesoft, 1996.
[13] Gerald L. Berry, Religions of the World, Barns & Noble, 1956.
[14] Curiously Tertullian declared that Christ was crucified on 25 March 29 A.D. (Adv. Jud., 8, Vol. 2, p. 719) and this was adopted by Hippolytus and Augustine.
[15] James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Vol. 1, McMillan, 1976, pp. 306-309.
[16] Gerald L. Berry, Religions of the World, Barns & Noble, 1956.
[17] Quoted in Wikipedia [www.wikipedia.org] in “Easter”.
[18] Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religion, 1911.
[19] International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Biblesoft, 1996.
[20] Bettany, G.T., Encyclopedia of World Religions, 1988; Funk & Wagnall’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, p. 434.
[21] Funk & Wagnall’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, p. 434.
[22] International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Biblesoft, 1996.
[23] Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991, Vol. 4, p. 333.
[24] International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Biblesoft, 1996.
[25] Barnes’ Notes, Biblesoft, 1997.
[26] Judges 2:11,13.
[27] Judges 10:6.
[28] 1 Samuel 7:3-4.
[29] 1 Samuel 12:10-11.
[30] 1 Samuel 31:10; cf 1 Chron 10:10.
[31] 1 Kings 11:4-6, 33.
[32] 1 Kings 18:7.
[33] 2 Kings 23:13.
[34] The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1987; Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19.
[35] Smith, Men and His Gods, p.86; Urlin, Festivals, Holy Days, and Saint’s Days, p. 89.