🐇 okay so easter has its pagan 🧝 origins but the 💲💲64,000 question can we still celebrate it ❓❓

Posted : 30 Mar, 2022 12:06 PM

Where did the word Easter come from?



The word “Easter” is not found in the Bible except in the King James Version. Acts 12:4, “And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”



So, if the word is not found in Scripture what is its origin?



“Originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival of the Resurrection of Christ, which occured at the time of the Passover.”2

“The name, which has been attested as early as the eighth century A.D., is believed to have derived from annual sacrifices in honor of Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess. The Eastern church, following the practice of early Jewish Christians, first observed the celebration on the fourteenth of Nisan, the first day of Passover. The Western church, following the Gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 28:1 par.), set the festival on a Sunday, the first to follow the new moon which occurs on or immediately after the vernal (spring) equinox as determined by the Council of Nicaea (325); thus the dates for Easter may range from March 22 to April 25.”3

If the word “Easter” has a pagan origin, should we then avoid using it? No, it does not mean we can’t use the word. In fact, many words we use in modern time have pagan origins such as “Saturday” which means “Saturn’s day,” a phrase used in the ancient Roman pagan belief that the god Saturn had influence over that day.



There is an error in argumentation called the genetic fallacy. The genetic fallacy says that if the origin of something is bad, then what comes from it cannot be trusted and should be avoided. It is like saying you cannot trust the directions that were given to you by someone who was a thief. His being a thief does not mean his directions are bad. Likewise, the origin of a word in pagan history does not mean the entire celebration that the word signifies in modern times is now somehow tainted and ungodly.



Nevertheless, it is up to the individual Christian to be convinced in his own mind (Romans 14:5) about the propriety of using the term and celebrating it on any particular day

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