Easter Does Not Have Pagan Origins!
- Jason Pluebell
- Apr 20
- 5 min read
It's that time of the year when we celebrate and reflect on the sacrifice our Lord Jesus offered on the cross at Calvary. Jesus was flogged, beaten, kicked in the dust, and forced to carry His cross afterwards. He was described as having parts of His muscles and ribs visible from the whipping. Jesus then suffered crucifixion, where His wrists and feet were nailed to a wooden cross that was erected from the ground. This technique cut a tendon in the arm that cut off support to His lungs and back, forcing Him to push off His feet to gasp for air. This sacrifice was painful physically, but unimaginable spiritually. Jesus bore the sin penalty for all humans who call on His name throughout time! There is forgiveness for all who trust in the name and power of Jesus!
Every holiday, there are people on the internet who will try to bash the party with pagan claims about the Bible and Jesus. Many claim that Easter "for sure" and "without a doubt" has pagan roots. It's modern-day symbols obviously represent fertility cults, right? It has to be Cult related with painted eggs and the Easter bunny. The main argument is that since some things look like they may be pagan symbols, they must be pagan symbols. This has little to no evidence backing it other than pure speculation, The truth is a little more complicated than mere appearance and sounds of words.
Where Did The Name "Easter" Come From?
The name Easter has nothing to do with pagan gods. Some will say the name has ties to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and the Anglo-Saxon goddess Ostara. These claims lack actual substance and utilize fallacies and emotional manipulation to grab people's attention. The truth is, and it's hard to hear for some TikTok enthusiasts, the name Easter is only the sound of the pronunciation in English and Germanic-speaking areas of the world. Any other part of the world: Greek, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Gaelic, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh, and more; call the holiday Pascha.
Is "Easter" a Pagan Name?
Some still insist that since Easter sounds like the name Ishtar, it was a holiday stolen from the Babylonians. This is blatantly committing an Association Fallacy; Where the conclusion is derived from a similar sound of the words and nothing else, hence why these claims lack historical substance. No historical, cultural, or linguistic evidence supports the claims that Easter came from the name Ishtar. Even yet, some will still claim that the name comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Ostara.
The sad thing about Ostara is, we only have only one source that mentions her! It comes from a writing by Saint Bede (AD 673 - AD 735), and there are no pagan or Christian mentions of Osrtara outside of Saint Bede's mention. The truth here is that the name Ostara has etymological connections to the ancient Germanic word Ostaro, which simply meant "springtime". Scholars actually know very little about Ostara, most think that Saint Bede made her up when he mentioned her (Frank Snetion, Anglo-Saxon England, Pg 98). We have no idea who Ostara was, what she did, where or when she was worshipped, and who worshipped her. We know nothing about Ostara; anything else is pure modern fiction.
Where Does "Easter" Come From?
The origin of the name of Easter is a debate, but the majority of scholarly consensus is this. The main agreement is that the name formed from the fact that Pascha fell on (in Germanic areas) Eosturmonath, or the 4th month on the old English calendar.
Resurrection Sunday fell in the month of Eosturmonath, and eventually was shortened. The name of the month was eventually shortened and adopted by English and Germanic folk as Easter. It is a very similar situation to Cinco de Mayo, or calling Independence Day "the 4th of July". The name of the holiday(s) originated as a nickname derived from the month the holiday fell on. The names came from the timing of the holidays. So, Christians who eventually began calling Pascha "Easter" were probably under this exact premise and ended up adopting the Germanic name of the timing of the season.
What About The Easter Bunny?
"Bunnies have lots and lots of babies, so they must be pagan fertility symbols, right?" The first instance of an Easter Bunny happened in 1572, long after pagans had any influence in Europe; it wasn't even a bunny to begin with, but a Hare. Hares cannot breed with bunnies; they live in different areas, they cannot be domesticated, they live alone unless breeding, and they have longer pregnancy cycles. Hares and bunnies are not the same animal. The idea of the Easter Bunny being pagan comes from a writing in the 19th century from Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (1785 - 1863) in his work "Deutsche Mythologie".
Grimm had absolutely no evidence to back up his claims, he just made pure speculation and an Association Fallacy. There is little evidence for the bunny being a popular pagan fertility symbol across any cults (Encyclopedia of Easter Carnivale & Lent, Tanya Gulvich, Pg 96). Bunnies are a very common springtime animal in the Northern Hemisphere. They travel in large packs with very frequent mating seasons that leave them extremely numerous in the springtime after winter. You see bunnies more often in the spring, ya know, when Easter takes place. So their association with the celebration can be tied to the 16th-century Germans connecting the animals with the month of Eosturmonath. Both the animals and the Resurrection became linked to the Springtime and Easter.
But Easter Eggs Have To Be Pagan, Right?
Eggs are indeed used in pagan rituals, but only as much as any other food, because they were commonly eaten. Eggs are a very common food across religious and cultural spectrums, so they are not prominent in this aspect whatsoever. The earliest reference to Easter eggs comes from AD 1290 when King Edward Ⅰ decorated 450 hard-boiled eggs with golden leaves to be given to his family and friends. This is the earliest the tradition can be traced back, and nobody in the time of the event even connects Edwards' eggs to anything but his decision to have a fun tradition for Easter. There is also evidence of Easter eggs being made in the early Middle Ages.
This is because during Lent, many people would fast and, as a result, would not eat their eggs. They would hard-boil their chicken eggs so they would last longer, since they could not eat them during their 40 days of fasting. Eggs were a very common and cheap food compared to meat and others. So eggs were boiled to be preserved, and may have been decorated on holidays and festivals if they were being served, but none of this tells us they came from pagan cults!
Conclusion
Do not let anti-holiday(ists) ruin your focus on Christ. Let this season be a time of reflection on your sin and Jesus' payment. Easter is not about bunnies, candy, or eggs. It's about the death and resurrection of humanity's saviour, Jesus Christ; It's about the graceous love God displayed in the most humble act in History; It's about the lives that can be saved eternity by simple trust in Jesus' sacrifice and Lordship; It's about the Body of Christ (the Church) coming together and remembering that we are all sinners being slowly sanctified into heavenly creatures for God's Glory on Earth; It's about the eternity we will spend with God shouting "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.”; It's about our beloved triune God's love for His creation. Amen.
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