Easter

The coming of spring brings the beginning of new life to earth. This regeneration of life has been attributed in times past to the return of the heathen goddess of spring and fertility. The worship of this ancient deity has crept into the worship of Western civilization, even by her very name--Easter.

What you Should Know About EASTER

Because of the human instinct to follow the crowd, many of us do what is wrong, often thinking that what we are doing is right. The human mind reasons that the majority must be right. Besides it is always easier to follow the crowd than to take a stand when others are in error. Have you ever noticed how people don't want to differ from those around them? For example, would you wear clothing styles from the 1930's? Wouldn't people look at you rather strangely if you started wearing clothing that was decades out of fashion? Human nature makes us feel uneasy to be considerably different from everyone else.

But because the crowd is of a certain opinion that does not make their opinion necessarily correct. Recall that at the trial of our Savior the crowds chanted, "Kill him! Kill him!" And they sentenced to death the most righteous man on earth.

Have you ever thought that some of what you were taught from childhood could possibly be very wrong? Fantasies about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny come to be real in the minds of children because these notions are encouraged year after year. When the truth is finally revealed, it sometimes hurts. The Bible clearly says, "Thou shalt not lie." Why, then, do we lie to our children?

Let's take a close look at our present day Easter celebration in light of the Bible and history.

Easter Customs of Western Civilization

It is the custom of most of western civilization to observe Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday and to attend church on Easter Sunday morning. Easter has been accepted without question as one of the most sacred of Christian holidays.

But where did our Easter customs originate? Just what do colored eggs, rabbits, roasted ham and hot cross buns have to do with the resurrection of our Savior? Why is this spring festival called Easter?

It is known from history that the apostles and early followers of the Messiah did not observe a holiday called Easter. The word "Easter" is nowhere found in any ancient Greek or Aramaic manuscripts of the New Testament.

The word Easter is used, however, in Acts 12:4 of some English translations of the Bible. However, Bible scholars openly admit that it is a mistranslation of the Greek word pascha, which comes from the Hebrew word for Passover. Greek texts and Bible concordances bear out this fact.

Albert Barnes acknowledges that "Easter" is a mistranslation in the King James Version. In his well-known Bible commentary, Barnes' Notes, he says, "There was never a more absurd or unhappy translation than this. The original is simply 'after the Passover.' The word Easter now denotes the festival observed by many Christian churches in honor of the resurrection of the Savior. But the original has no reference to that, nor is there the slightest evidence that any such festival was observed at the time when this book was written. The translation is not only unhappy as it does not convey at all the meaning of the original, but it also may contribute to foster an opinion that such a festival was observed in the time of the apostles."

Origin of the Word Easter

Encyclopedias and dictionaries reveal that the word Easter is of Anglo-Saxon origin. It can readily be traced to Eostre, the goddess of spring.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia verifies this in its article, "Easter": "The English word comes from the Aseastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess of whom sacrifice was offered in April. So the name was transferred to the paschal (Passover) feast. The word does not properly occur in Scripture, although the Authorized Version has it in Acts 12:4 where it stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version. There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament."

In Pfieffer's Old Testament History, we find that the goddess Easter, rose to prominence in Assyria and Babylon. "During Sumerian times Anu was the supreme god, with his abode in heaven. Along with his daughter, Ishtar, he was worshipped in Uruk at the temple E-anna ("the house of Anu"). Until Marduk of Babylon attained the primacy at the beginning of the Old Babylonian period, Anu was acknowledged as the greatest of the gods. In actual worship, however, his daughter Ishtar became more popular than her father.

"The concepts of love and warfare are both represented in Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna). At one time or another Ishtar was linked with the "great god" of almost every Mesopotamian city. Her presence was thought to guarantee fertility and, in her absence the land, humans and animals could not reproduce. Ishtar served the same function in Mesopotamia that Venus served in Greece." (pp. 344-346).

In the Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, we find under "Easter": "Easter is a word of Saxon origin and imports a goddess of the Saxons, or rather, of the East, Estera, in honor of whom sacrifices being annually offered about the Passover time of the year (spring), the name became attached by association of ideas to the Christian festival of the resurrection, which happened at the time of the Passover.... So the present German word for Easter, Ostern, is referred to the same goddess, Estera or Ostera."

The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909 edition states: "A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring.... The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility."

Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, 1949 ed., vol. 1, p. 335, states: "Children roll pascha eggs in England. Everywhere they hunt the many-colored Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is not mere child's play, but the vestige of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit was the escort of the Germanic Goddess Ostara who gave the name to the festival by way of the German Ostern."

The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible states under "Easter": "Originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre. As early as the 8th century the name was transferred by the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian festival designed to celebrate the resurrection of Messiah. In A.V. (Authorized Version) it occurs once (Acts 12:4), but is a mistranslation."

The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 8, p. 828 reads: "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first [followers of the Messiah]. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl., v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither our Savior nor His apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival...and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, 'just as many other customs have been established.'"

Barnes' Notes also states that Easter is not of biblical origin: "The word Easter is of Saxon origin, and is supposed to be derived from Eostra, the goddess of love, or the Venus of the North in honor of whom a festival was celebrated by our pagan ancestors in the month of April. As this festival coincided with Passover of the Jews, and with the feast observed by Christians in honor of the resurrection of the Messiah, the name came to be used to denote the latter."

Webster's New World Dictionary states under the word "Easter": "Orig., name of pagan vernal festival almost coincident in date with paschal festival of the church; Eastre, dawn goddess; see EAST." Originally, Easter was the name of the spring goddess of vegetation or fertility. Interestingly, Webster's New World Dictionary states under the word "East": "to shine, dawn, whence L. aurora, dawn."

Now the connection between the worship of this goddess of spring and the traditional Easter sunrise services emerges.

The Oxford English Dictionary says under the heading "Easter" that this deity "was originally the dawn-goddess."

Bible Condemns Easter

Easter, as we know it, has no basis in the New Testament nor even in the Bible. This spring festival came from the worship of the dawn goddess believed to be responsible for fertility. Her name in the Hebrew language was Ashtaroth. She was also called the "Queen of Heaven." Her worship is mentioned in the Bible in Jeremiah 7:17-20.

In this passage, our Heavenly Father warns, "See not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 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 unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore, thus says Yahweh Elohim; behold, My anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched."

Alexander Hislop in his well-known book, The Two Babylons, clearly shows that the "Queen of Heaven" mentioned in the above passage from the Bible was indeed the goddess Easter. He frankly states, "Easter bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the 'queen of heaven,' whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country."

Hot Cross Buns

The "cakes" in the above passage from Jeremiah 7:17-20 are the hot cross buns which were used in this idolatrous worship. The word "cake" used in this passage is translated from the Hebrew word "kavvan," and literally means "bun." This word is used here and in Jeremiah 44:19, where it again is used for the hot cross buns offered to the queen of heaven.

These hot cross buns that Jeremiah spoke of are the same kind baked by those who celebrate Easter today. The cross with which they are marked is used as the symbol for woman. In hieroglyphics that cross means living or life. Worship of life and fertility led to including rabbits in the rite of Easter because of their fruitful reproduction. The Easter egg, similarly, represented life in the ancient mystery religions.

Easter Ham

In Egypt, those who were too poor to offer a pig at this festival baked sacrificial cakes and ate them instead. (The Golden Bough, ch. 3, p. 53).

The fact that the pig was the sacrificial animal accounts for why baked ham is still eaten during this festival today.

The pig was sacred to the goddess Demeter. Demeter is just another name for Astarte or Easter. Fraser says about Demeter--or Easter--in The Golden Bough, "In art she was represented carrying or accompanied by a pig; and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess. But after an animal has been conceived as a god or a god as an animal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god sloughs off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic; and that then the animal, which at first had been slain in the character of the god, comes to be regarded as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its hostility to the deity; in short, that the god is sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to Dionysus, and it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself.... The scholiast tells us that it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine trees into the chasms of Demeter and Proserpine,'" Fraser continues (p. 48), "...In Hessen and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing time, when they are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag; so, lastly, the corn from the last sheaf is kept till Christmas, made into the Yule Board, and afterwards broken and mixed with the seed-corn at sowing in spring. Thus, to put it generally, the corn-spirit is killed in animal form in autumn; part of his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his worshippers; and part of it is kept till next sowing-time or harvest as a pledge and security for the continuance or renewal of the corn-spirit's energies."

In so doing, these worshippers used the pig as a sacrament to the corn spirit, while part was saved to renew the spirit's energies at spring planting.

What does our Heavenly Father think of this practice? "A people that provokes Me to anger continually to My face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burns incense upon altars of brick; which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Which day, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day," Isaiah 65:3-5.

The practice is also found in Isaiah 66:17, "They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, says the Eternal Yahweh."

Easter Plants and Flowers

The gardens mentioned above are likely the gardens of Adonis (Hebrew Tammuz). Fraser says, "These gardens of Adonis are most naturally interpreted as representatives of Adonis or manifestations of his power; they represented him, true to his original nature, in vegetable form," The Golden Bough, p. 282.

These gardens of Adonis were surprisingly carried over to our present-day Easter celebration in the form of potted Easter plants. The Golden Bough, pp. 295-296, states, "The last example of the gardens of Adonis which I shall cite is the following. At the approach of Easter, Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils and canary-seed in plates, which are kept in the dark and watered every two days. The plants soon shoot up; the stalks are tied together with red ribbons, and the plates containing them are placed on the sepulchres which, with effigies of the dead Christ, are made up in Roman Catholic and Greek churches on Good Friday, just as the gardens of Adonis were placed on the grave of the dead Adonis. The whole custom--sepulchres as well as plates of sprouting grain--is probably nothing but a continuation, under a different name, of the Adonis worship."


	APHRODITE (left) was another name for the goddess Easter. In Alexandria, her image was displayed along with potted plants, cakes, and ripe fruit. Above is a modern cast made from an ancient Astarte mold.

In this country at Easter, stores stock up for a big rush on potted plants. King Solomon was correct when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun." The worship of Adonis and Astarte continues, even by way of their very names. Interestingly, the word Adonis literally means the "lord" in English. This fact is documented in The Golden Bough, "The worship of Adonis was practised by the Semitic peoples of Syria, from whom it was borrowed by the Greeks as early at least as the fifth century B.C.E. The name Adonis is the Phoenician Adon, 'lord.' He was said to have been a fair youth, beloved by Aphrodite (the Semitic Astarte), but was killed by a boar in his youthful prime. His death was annually lamented with a bitter wailing, chiefly by women; images of him, dressed to resemble corpses were carried out as to burial.... His revival was celebrated on the following day.... At Alexandria images of Adonis and Aphrodite were displayed on two couches; beside them were set ripe fruits of all kinds, cakes, plants growing in flower pots, and green bowers twined with anise.... At Byblus the death of Adonis was annually mourned with weeping, wailing, and beating of the breast; but next day he was believed to come to life again and ascend up to heaven in the presence of his worshippers. This celebration appears to have taken place in spring...."

It is interesting to note from the above account that Adonis (English "lord") was the lover of Aphrodite, or Easter. Remember, Aphrodite, or Easter, was responsible for bringing things back to life in spring. This is where the worship of these two deities merge. As you can see from the above account, Adonis was brought back to life the day after his death. It therefore follows that Aphrodite, or Easter, was responsible for his resurrection. This is why the worshippers of Adonis gather on hilltops at the break of the dawn on the anniversary of his resurrection to pay homage to the goddess Easter--the one responsible for his resurrection. This holiday is still kept in the very same way today.

It should be stated that the resurrection of our Savior was not on Easter Sunday, but that it occurred the previous evening around sunset. The account found in Matthew 28 clearly shows that when the women came to the tomb, they found it empty. The angel whom they encounter informs them, "He is not here: for He is risen." Write for our free booklet or read online, The Resurrection--Was it on Sunday?

To learn more about this day, including where Easter Parades started and the Easter Sunrise Services, click here.