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Easter is a confusing holiday. The date changes, there are chocolate bunnies, and what does the word "Easter" even mean?

If you are at the store and you see chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and plastic grass, then it’s Easter time! But Easter is kind of a confusing holiday because it combines the Christian faith with a bunch of non-religious imagery. So, how did bunnies and candy get associated with Easter? Where does the word “Easter” come from? And why does the date of Easter always change?

Easter Celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus

Most importantly, Easter is a Christian holiday. In fact, it is arguably the most important Christian holiday because it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the central events of Christianity. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

For Christians, Easter Sunday celebrates the day Jesus raised from the dead. Christians gather together to sing songs about Jesus, read the Bible, and encourage each other as a church family to remember this core belief of the Christian faith.

“Easter” Is Not in the Bible

The story of the resurrection is all over the New Testament (NT). But the Bible never commands Christians to celebrate Easter. Except in the King James Version’s (KJV) translation of Acts 12:4, the word “Easter” is never found in the Bible. Even in this one occurrence of the word, it is a seventeenth-century translation of the Greek text, and Easter was already a holiday. The KJV translators were simply using the word “Easter” because it was widely-understood by the KJV’s original readers to be the holiday celebrating Jesus’s resurrection. The actual word used in the Greek text of Acts 12:4 is “pascha” (Πάσχα) which means “Passover,” referring to the Jewish celebration commemorating God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 12). Jesus’s death coincided with the celebration of Passover, symbolizing him as the “Passover lamb” whose blood protects believers from God’s wrath just as the original lambs’ blood protected the Israelites in Egypt when they covered their doorposts in that blood. This is why Christians speak of “the blood of the lamb” in reference to Jesus.

After the writing of the Bible, Christians thought that once a year the church should celebrate Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Initially, it appears that this was done on the same day. However, eventually these two celebrations were separated and Easter was celebrated on Sunday.

Easter and “Ishtar”

The word “Easter” is most likely European in origin, but no one has conclusively proven how the word originated. The ninth century A.D. seems to demonstrate the word’s earliest usage.

Some skeptics have claimed through a popular internet meme that “Easter” is a translation of the name of the Babylonian fertility goddess “Ishtar,” who is said to be symbolized by eggs and bunnies. Some evidence suggests she is the Babylonian version of the ancient goddess Asherah or Astarte, who is mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 34:13). These skeptics argue that Easter is, in reality, a celebration of Ishtar, sex, and fertility. This claim is patently false. There is no evidence that Ishtar’s symbols were eggs and bunnies (she was more likely symbolized by a lion and a star), nor is there linguistic evidence showing that the name “Ishtar” evolved into the word “Easter.” Just because two words sound similar does not mean they come from the same root or that they have any related meaning.

More importantly, the meaning of a holiday is decided by the people celebrating it. To Christians, Easter is the celebration of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, not the celebration of a Babylonian fertility goddess, regardless if any words sound the same or any dates coincide.

The Date of Easter Changes

You’ve probably noticed that the date of Easter changes. Easter moves between March 22 and April 25. Although there were a number of pagan festivals held in the spring, these do not seem to be the primary motivation for the dating of Easter. Christians dated Easter around the time of Passover. The dating of Easter involved the Passover and the time of the full moon around the spring equinox. Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on a different day because they follow a different calendar.

Different Customs Have Found Their Way Into Easter

There are many ideas about how bunnies and eggs made their way into Easter celebrations, but no one can trace the origins of these traditions for certain.

When Europe was being evangelized during the first millennium A.D., missionaries and church leaders would allow pagan converts to keep their language, clothing, and some holdovers from their old traditions as long as they were not blasphemous. Missionaries would insist that any holdover traditions be used to glorify God, so if the converted people had a fall or spring harvest festival, for example, a celebration would still be held at the same time of year, but it would thereafter be a festival of a martyred saint or a time of worship to Jesus. But some of the traditions connected to the old festivals carried forward into the new ones. This practice, called by some scholars “Christian Translatability,” is probably how eggs and bunnies found their way into Easter celebrations.

Should Christians Celebrate Easter?

Many Christians wonder if they should celebrate Easter if it has pagan influence. Some prefer to celebrate “Resurrection Sunday” instead of “Easter Sunday.” Whatever you do, remember that God never commanded us to celebrate Easter. Rather, the NT seems to indicate that early Christians regularly celebrated the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42), which itself commemorated Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection, and second coming (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). This seems to have been a regular practice rather than one limited to a special Easter Sunday (Acts 20:7).

There is nothing wrong with Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies as long as the focus of the holiday is on Jesus. Whatever you call Easter, the proper focus must be on Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

Talk About It
  1. What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. What is your favorite part of Easter, or what are some favorite family traditions? Explain.
  3. Have you seen the “Ishtar meme” on social media or elsewhere online? Why do you think people agree with this idea about Easter’s origin or feel they need to share it online?
  4. Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important for the Christian faith?
  5. Should early Christian missionaries have allowed pagans to keep some of their traditions after they put their faith in Christ? What about Christian missionaries today? Explain.
  6. How do you think this topic will influence the way you celebrate Easter?
  7. Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
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