Easter

[platypus]

Shame that Christians use such a pagan name to worship on Paskha...

We steal what we want from the pagans. Due to manifest destiny, the word Easter now belongs to Christians. It's one of the perks of being on the winning team.

 

[Mockingbird]

The particular goddess only appears in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which suggests he either misunderstood his sources or he was making things up.

The relevant passage from Bede's De temporum ratione (not the Historia ecclesiastica) is:

Eosturmonath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit. A cuius nomine nunc paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquae observationis vocabulo gaudia novae solemnitatis vocantes.--De temporum ratione 15

which means (Faith Wallis's translation)

Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs names Eostre , in whose honor 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-honored name of the old observance.

This is the only mention of this goddess in all literature, leading some scholars to accuse Bede of inventing deities to explain the names of the months. This is also the source of Jakob Grimm's hypothesis that there may have been a German goddess names Ostara, who is not attested in ancient or medieval sources.

 

[Eamonomae]

This is the only mention of this goddess in all literature, leading some scholars to accuse Bede of inventing deities to explain the names of the months. This is also the source of Jakob Grimm's hypothesis that there may have been a German goddess names Ostara, who is not attested in ancient or medieval sources.

h2éwsōs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Very misleading. The Indo-European pantheons almost all have a Dawn-Goddess with a name sounding similar to "Eos" who share fundamentally similar characteristics, including morning and fertility. It would seem unlikely that Bede got that out of nowhere, even if "Ostara" had little prominence at that point in time.

In Greco-Roman paganism, she was also not only the goddess of the morning light, but a goddess of romance and love - she was a rival of Aphrodite who cursed her with an insatiable lust for the love of human men.

 

[Isaiah53IsMessiah]

Shame that Christians use such a pagan name to worship on Paskha...

Easter is only the name for Pascha in Germanic languages, it is named after the month in which it takes place in the old Germanic calendar, Ostarmanod. Some months in the Jewish calendar, which is featured in the Bible, are named after pagan deities from Babylon. You don't really have an argument here. Just because a word is associated with a pagan deity doesn't mean that you are committing idolatry simply by uttering it or using it in any capacity, I'd say that actually is borderline superstition. Pascha is the proper name for the feast though, it is cognate to the Hebrew word Pesach meaning Passover. In fact, in the majority of non-Germanic languages the holiday that we English speakers normally call Easter is called Passover.

 

[andrewlya]

Easter is only the name for Pascha in Germanic languages, it is named after the month in which it takes place in the old Germanic calendar, Ostarmanod. Some months in the Jewish calendar, which is featured in the Bible, are named after pagan deities from Babylon. You don't really have an argument here. Just because a word is associated with a pagan deity doesn't mean that you are committing idolatry simply by uttering it or using it in any capacity, I'd say that actually is borderline superstition. Pascha is the proper name for the feast though, it is cognate to the Hebrew word Pesach meaning Passover. In fact, in the majority of non-Germanic languages the holiday that we English speakers normally call Easter is called Passover.

Two wrongs don't make it right. We must reject paganism

 

[Vladimir Al-Masih]

Yes, Jews are wrong.

 

[Hawkeye]

When I was immature in faith, these concerns too were a stumbling block to me. What, after all, does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? But I have come to realize in the awesome power of the Christ, a conquering king Who subjugates the universe. What should it matter that anything might be pagan in origin; "Easter," or Christmas, or iconography? Where are the pagans to claim them? Christ has conquered them all and, taking theirs, has made something new.

 

[Brother Michael]

What could be more pagan than the name Mark, which means “consecrated to the god Mars”? Yet thanks to St. Mark, it is one of the most Christian of names.

 

[Arachne]

Two wrongs don't make it right. We must reject paganism

How's your campaign to change the names of days going?

 

[andrewlya]

When I was immature in faith, these concerns too were a stumbling block to me. What, after all, does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? But I have come to realize in the awesome power of the Christ, a conquering king Who subjugates the universe. What should it matter that anything might be pagan in origin; "Easter," or Christmas, or iconography? Where are the pagans to claim them? Christ has conquered them all and, taking theirs, has made something new.

I am sorry that is your opinion, if God says not to mix paganism with the true worship, we should not.

'This is what YHWH says: “Do not learn the ways of the heathen or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the heathen are terrified by them.'- Jeremiah 10:2

 

[andrewlya]

How's your campaign to change the names of days going?

We live in a heathen ungodly world, what do you expect. YHWH's days will come soon enough, please do not mock things you should not

 

[andrewlya]

What could be more pagan than the name Mark, which means “consecrated to the god Mars”? Yet thanks to St. Mark, it is one of the most Christian of names.

Mark is a Latin name, however Hebrew is מרקוס it means Politie or Shinning.

 

[andrewlya]

Yes, Jews are wrong.

Jews have adopted much of paganism just like Christians have. Don't be one of those who makes the same error

 

[Arachne]

We live in a heathen ungodly world, what do you expect. YHWH's days will come soon enough, please do not mock things you should not

Nonsense. Many languages don't use the nomenclature inherited from Latin, and it makes them no more holy or favoured than those who do, because there's no such thing as inherently holy or unholy languages. What do I expect? You being reasonable would be a good start, but I keep getting disappointed.