Is the Name “Easter” of Pagan Origin?

[Lady Vizsla]

by Roger Patterson

The modern controversy over the name Easter, when used in association with the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, is interesting, to say the least.

The modern controversy over the name Easter, when used in association with the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, is interesting, to say the least. The controversy seems to have blossomed at the beginning of the twentieth century and has caused many disturbances through the years. Examining this question is important to many Christians who do not wish to mix the worship of false gods with their worship of the only true God.

As discussed in the previous article, the date of Easter has been claimed to follow pagan feasts. However, this claim falls flat when examined against the record of history. The name and symbols used in the celebration of the Resurrection have faced similar claims, and we should examine these with the same rigor.

According to various sources, the name Easter has its origin with a goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre (also Estre, Estara, Eastre, Ostara, and similar spellings in various sources). It is believed that she is the goddess of the dawn and was worshipped in the spring by pagans in Northern Europe and the British Isles. In The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop claimed Eostre is actually a name derived from the Babylonian goddess Astarte. Hislop extended this connection to include goddesses from around the world: Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Venus, and others. In fact, Hislop argued that all of the systems of gods and goddesses find their origin with Nimrod and his wife Semiramis at the Tower of Babel. Thus, every primary god is a figure of Nimrod, and every primary goddess is a figure of Semiramis.

Similar claims are made by Ralph Woodrow in his 1966 book Babylon Mystery Religion, but Woodrow drew heavily on Hislop’s work to support his claims. The thesis of each of these books is to connect the modern practices of the Roman Catholic Church to the idolatrous worship of various gods. While many of the claims in the books are sound, the connection of Eostre to these other goddesses is tenuous at best.

To those who have used Woodrow’s early work, please note that he has changed his position on many of the conclusions in the book. Woodrow has stopped circulating his early work and replaced it with an updated title The Babylon Connection? To demonstrate some of the false conclusions concerning pagan connections proposed by Hislop, Woodrow explains:

By this method, one could take virtually anything and do the same—even the “golden arches” at McDonald’s! The Encyclopedia Americana (article: “Arch") says the use of arches was known in Babylon as early as 2020 B.C. Since Babylon was called “the golden city” (Isa. 14:4), can there be any doubt about the origin of the golden arches? As silly as this is, this is the type of proof that has been offered over and over about pagan origins.1

Hislop’s logic becomes incomprehensible in places, and he made fundamental errors demonstrating his thinking to be false. For instance, he argued on a phonetic basis that Eostre from Saxony must be the same as Astarte, Ishtar, and Ashtoreth. This is a leap to consider their relationships based on the sound of the names alone. We might find many examples of words that sound the same in various languages but share no common root or meaning. Hislop attempted to make other connections, but they are unconvincing and do not take into consideration the time these goddesses were worshipped or the importance of the confusion of languages at Babel. He also neglected to consider the relationship between the English and German words used today.

There remains only one written record of a goddess who might be connected to Eostre of the Saxons. The church scholar Bede,2 who lived in modern-day England from AD 673–735, recorded the names of several of the goddesses worshipped by early Saxons. He identified Eostre as one whose festivals were celebrated in the month given her name.

Eosturmanath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month,” and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour 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-honoured name of the old observance.3

Bede’s description was tentatively confirmed in the nineteenth century by Jacob Grimm. Grimm was a linguist of the highest caliber who studied and preserved the histories, languages, and traditions of the Germanic peoples, also called Teutonic in older literature. This would include the Franks, Saxons, Angles, Slavs, Vandals, Goths, and others. These groups would have shared a common language family, and Grimm traced the connections among many of their gods and goddesses in his writings. Bede is discussed in the work Teutonic Mythology, first published in 1835.

The two goddesses, whom Beda (De temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly, without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and Eâstre, March taking its Saxon name from the first, and April from the second. It would be uncritical to saddle this father of the church, who everywhere keeps heathenism at a distance, and tells us less of it than he knows, with the invention of these goddesses.

We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ostarmânoth is found as early as Eginhart [c. 800] ([contemporary of Charlemagne]). The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of [Old High German] remains the name ôstarâ; it is mostly found in the plural, because two days (ôstartagâ, aostortagâ, Diut. 1, 266) were kept at Easter. This Ostrâ, like the [Anglo Saxon] Eâstre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries. All the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical “pascha;” even Ulphilas writes paska, not austro, though he must have known the word; the Norse tongue also has imported its paskir, Swed[ish] pask, Dan[ish] paaske. The [Old High German] adv. ôstar expresses movement toward the rising sun (Gramm. 3, 205), likewise the [Old Norse] austr, and probably an [Anglo Saxon] eástor and Goth[ic] áustr.4 (Italics in original)

Some scholars have called Eostre an invention of Bede and discount the connections, but the confirmation of Grimm cannot be easily discredited; nor does the quality of Bede’s other works lead us to disbelieve him. Grimm established a clear connection between the Anglo-Saxon Eâstre and the German Ostrâ. Similar connections are found in etymologies that describe the origin of Easter from many sources. Ester and oster, the early English and German words, both have their root in aus, which means east, shine, and dawn in various forms.5 These names may have developed independent of the name of the goddess as a reference to the Easter festivals, or they may have been related to her name in some way.

Contrary to suggesting a connection to a Saxon goddess, some have suggested Easter finds its root in the German word for resurrection—auferstehung. In a footnote to his translation of the work of Eusebius, Christian F. Cruse defended the usage of the word Easter:

Our English word Passover, happily, in sound and sense, almost corresponds to the Hebrew [pesach], of which is a translation. Exod. Xii. 27. The Greek pascha, formed from the Hebrew, is the name of the Jewish festival, applied invariably in the primitive church to designate the festival of the Lord’s resurrection, which took place at the time of the passover. Our word Easter is of Saxon origin, and of precisely the same import with its German cognate Ostern. The latter is derived from the old Teutonic form of auferstehn, Auferstehung, i. e. resurrection. The name Easter is undoubtedly preferable to pascha or passover, but the latter was the primitive name.6

Nick Sayers argued along these lines to suggest that the origin of Easter in English comes from the German:

Because the English Anglo/Saxon language originally derived from the Germanic, there are many similarities between German and English. Many English writers have referred to the German language as the "Mother Tongue!" The English word Easter is of German/Saxon origin and not Babylonian as Alexander Hislop falsely claimed. The German equivalent is Oster. Oster (Ostern being the modern day equivalent) is related to Ost which means the rising of the sun, or simply in English, east. Oster comes from the old Teutonic form of auferstehen / auferstehung, which means resurrection, which in the older Teutonic form comes from two words, Ester meaning first, and stehen meaning to stand. These two words combine to form erstehen which is an old German form of auferstehen, the modern day German word for resurrection.7 (Italics in original)

In the Hebrew, Passover is Pesach. The Greek form is simply a transliteration8 and takes the form Pascha. Virtually all languages refer to Easter as either a transliterated form of pascha or use resurrection in the name. English and German stand apart in their use of Easter (Ostern) to refer to the celebration of the Resurrection.

We should also consider the early translations by German and English scholars in this examination. John Wycliffe was the earliest translator to publish a complete New Testament in English (1382), though he did his translation from the Latin Vulgate. Wycliffe transliterated the word pascha to pask, rather than translating it. When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German (New Testament in 1522), he chose the word Oster to refer to the Passover references before and after the Resurrection.

William Tyndale translated the Bible into English from the Greek and Hebrew. His New Testament (1525) uses the word ester to refer to the Passover. In fact, we owe our English word Passover to Tyndale. When translating the Old Testament (1530), he coined the term to describe how the Lord would “pass over” the houses marked with the blood of the lamb (Exodus 12). The usage of ester was retained in the 1534 revision of the New Testament, and it was not until later that it was known as Easter, adding the a. Luther and Tyndale were the first to use a translation of pascha rather than a transliteration.9

The following are comparisons of the early translations by Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale, and the translators of the 1611 King James Version (KJV), demonstrating the handling of pascha.

Luke 2:41—This passage refers to a Passover festival before the Resurrection, using pascha (πάσχα).

Wycliffe—And his fadir and modir wenten ech yeer in to Jerusalem, in the solempne dai of pask.

Luther—Und seine Eltern gingen alle Jahre gen Jerusalem auf das Osterfest.

Tyndale—And his father and mother went to Hierusalem every yeare at the feeste of ester.

KJV—Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

Acts 12:4—This passage refers to a Passover festival after the Resurrection, using pascha (πάσχα).

Wycliffe—And whanne he hadde cauyte Petre, he sente hym in to prisoun; and bitook to foure quaternyouns of knyytis, to kepe hym, and wolde aftir pask bringe hym forth to the puple.

Luther—Da er ihn nun griff, legte er ihn ins Gefängnis und überantwortete ihn vier Rotten, je von vier Kriegsknechten, ihn zu bewahren, und gedachte, ihn nach Oster dem Volk vorzustellen.

Tyndale—And when he had caught him he put him in preson and delyvered him to .iiii. quaternios of soudiers to be kepte entendynge after ester to brynge him forth to the people.

KJV—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.

1 Corinthians 5:7—This passage refers to Christ as the sacrificial Passover lamb, using pascha (πάσχα).

Wycliffe— . . . For Crist offrid is oure pask.

Luther— . . . Denn wir haben auch ein Osterlamm, das ist Christus, für uns geopfert.

Tyndale— . . . For Christ oure esterlambe is offered up for us.

KJV— . . . For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.

It would seem from the translations of Luther and Tyndale that by 1500, the word oster/ester simply referred to the time of the Passover feast and had no association with the pagan goddess Eostre. Even if the word had an origin in her name, the usage had changed to such a degree that Luther was comfortable referring to Christ as the Osterlamm. On the other hand, Cruse’s Resurrection etymology is also consistent with this passage, and Luther referred to Christ as the “Resurrection lamb.” Likewise, Tyndale was comfortable referring to Christ as the esterlambe.

To suggest these men thought of their Savior in terms of the sacrificial offering of a pagan goddess is quite absurd in light of their writings and translations of other portions of Scripture. Even the translators of the KJV, who relied heavily on Tyndale’s work, chose to use Easter in the post-Resurrection context of Acts 12:4. Using a word that means resurrection would not make sense to describe the Passover festivals prior to the Resurrection of Christ. However, Luther still used oster consistently in his New Testament.

It must not be forgotten that the meanings of words change over time. This can be demonstrated by a multitude of examples. However, even if the name we now use to refer to Christ’s Resurrection was connected to a goddess some 1,400 years ago, it does not bear that connection today. An analogy might be drawn to our current calendar system. We use the term Sunday to refer to the day on which Christ rose from the dead with no hint of applying worship of the sun or its associated deities. We refer to the Fourth of July, a colloquial term for Independence Day in the US, with no connotation of the tyrannical emperor for whom the month is named (Julius Caesar). The testimony of Luther and Tyndale in applying the names “Osterlamm” and ”esterlambe” to Christ as the sacrificial Lamb that brings us peace with God seems to be a compelling argument that, even 500 years ago, Easter had no association with pagan worship.

However, if the word Easter used to refer to the Resurrection, it no longer seems to carry that understanding in the minds of many today. This may be the result of the suggestion from Hislop and others, including virtually all published etymologies of the word, which promote the idea that the name comes from the goddess Eostre.

In an attempt to honor God, many have desired to move away from the term Easter, using Resurrection Day in its place. What could be more fitting or clearer than to simply refer to the day on which we celebrate the risen Lord as Resurrection Day? I can think of no better solution to this topic, but I am aware that many Christians will continue to use the term Easter with a clear conscience. I trust that as this topic is discussed, Christians will seek to keep their focus on the fact that they serve the resurrected Christ—one who has conquered death on their behalf. This reality is what we celebrate on Easter . . . I mean, Resurrection Day.  

[cristobela]

Prior to reading this, the topic Garland had posted back in 2013 [Is the Name “Easter” of Pagan Origin?] had settled it for me—that there were no pagan ties—now I'm ambivalent again. emotion_sweatdrop

About this though...

Quote:

In an attempt to honor God, many have desired to move away from the term Easter, using Resurrection Day in its place. [...]

... as an "f.y.i." to everyone: a more biblical alternative name for the day He rose from the dead would be "firstfruits".

• 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV)
  
  20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

The day of firstfruits (Yom Habikkurim) is described in Leviticus 23:9-14. It's one of the seven "moedim" or holy appointments of God. Jesus died on passover as the passover lamb, and raised back to life on firstfruits as our firstfruits. YHWH doesn't give out rituals meaninglessly. 3nodding His holy appointments are pretty much a script of what's to come. And they still have prophetic fulfillment (God's wrath will "pass over" us on judgment day thanks to the lamb's blood, and we will be offered as firstfruits too).

• Revelation 14:4 (NIV)
  
  4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.

The closer we stick to biblical terms, the more treasures we discover.  

[Lady Vizsla]

cristobela

Prior to reading this, the topic Garland had posted back in 2013 [Is the Name “Easter” of Pagan Origin?] had settled it for me—that there were no pagan ties—now I'm ambivalent again. emotion_sweatdrop

About this though...

Quote:

In an attempt to honor God, many have desired to move away from the term Easter, using Resurrection Day in its place. [...]

... as an "f.y.i." to everyone: a more biblical alternative name for the day He rose from the dead would be "firstfruits".

• 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV)
  
  20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

The day of firstfruits (Yom Habikkurim) is described in Leviticus 23:9-14. It's one of the seven "moedim" or holy appointments of God. Jesus died on passover as the passover lamb, and raised back to life on firstfruits as our firstfruits. YHWH doesn't give out rituals meaninglessly. 3nodding His holy appointments are pretty much a script of what's to come. And they still have prophetic fulfillment (God's wrath will "pass over" us on judgment day thanks to the lamb's blood, and we will be offered as firstfruits too).

• Revelation 14:4 (NIV)
  
  4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.

The closer we stick to biblical terms, the more treasures we discover.

I think that's a good name, I suppose it doesn't matter to me whether it's Easter, Resurrection, or Firstfruits Day, I love the day because it's glorious being reminded of the morning when the tomb was found empty smile  

[Lady Vizsla]

SARL0

i'm convinced the word "Easter" is of pagan origin.
but it doesn't mean to me what it did/does to the pagans.
nor am i convicted that i'm partaking in some wicked holiday when i fill plastic eggs w/ chocolates and hide them. sort of like when an atheist does something that appears "christian" it doesn't make him christian - what he believes in his heart is what makes him Christian or not.

Easter has a completely different meaning in my heart than anything pagan. and that's what's important - what we believe in our hearts.

Isn't "Easter" in Acts 12:4 a mistranslation of the word "pascha" and should it be translated as
"passover"?

I completely agree. I love celebrating Good Friday and Easter in equal measure because those days are the most wonderful reminders during the year. My family shared chocolate on Easter when I was back home, but it had no pagan meaning, we went to church and honoured Jesus for his sacrifice.  

[cristobela]

SARL0

i'm convinced the word "Easter" is of pagan origin.
but it doesn't mean to me what it did/does to the pagans.
nor am i convicted that i'm partaking in some wicked holiday when i fill plastic eggs w/ chocolates and hide them. sort of like when an atheist does something that appears "christian" it doesn't make him christian - what he believes in his heart is what makes him Christian or not.

Easter has a completely different meaning in my heart than anything pagan. and that's what's important - what we believe in our hearts.

Isn't "Easter" in Acts 12:4 a mistranslation of the word "pascha" and should it be translated as
"passover"?

Although an atheist may not be a sincere Christian for partaking in Christian activities, people who see him/her associating with Christianity will falsely believe this is what a Christian looks like, even as they see the atheist go on to use profane speech, and live a heathen lifestyle, partaking in pagan practices. Such an individual damages our reputation and God's. YHWH / Jesus is holy, set-apart from the world's worthless practices and myths—and so are His people. We're not, even by mere outward appearance, suppose to participate in the idolatry of the nations nor give honor to their myths.

• 1 Timothy 4:7 (NIV)
  
  7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
  
  
• 2 Kings 17:15 (NIV)
  
  15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

The Easter bunny is a worthless idol and a myth. So is the tooth fairy.

And if people actually did interact with fairies (spirits), in all the celtic lore, they are interacting with demons. The practices that exist in their name are giving honor to demons. We cannot partake in both.

• 1 Corinthians 10:19-21 (NIV)
  
  19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

God doesn't care how we view it. An idol isn't anything. And a myth isn't anything. But we are not to participate in their practices anyway.

We cannot dress up in their myths and idolatrous practices and think we're not being wicked and evil. It is evil to not care about misleading people by the way we dress and by what we participate in; that is deliberately leaving people in confusion and darkness despite being called to be vessels of truth and a light. Define "evil" and "wicked" biblically:

• Nehemiah 1:7 (NIV)
  
  7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.
  
  
  
• 2 Kings 17:13 (NIV)
  
  13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”
  

Being wicked and evil is merely going against God's instruction. And He instructed us to have nothing to do with the idols and myths of the nations. The practice is either honoring demons, or it's honoring lies. That ruins our testimony as people who walk in the Truth, the Way, and the Life.

YHWH said their ways were not acceptable even if we made Him the focus (thus not acceptable even if we changed the meaning of the festivity in our own minds and hearts).

• Deuteronomy 12:30-31 (NIV)
  
  30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

The reality of these practices, what conforms to the truth, will give honor to the pagan beliefs, not YHWH. The history is there. All who seek the truth will find it.


As for the website you linked to: they're unstable in their claims.

First of all, it's not on April 14th that God's passover takes place. But Nisan (or Abib) 14th. The biblical month that initiates the year does not always fall on April on the worldly calendar. It's a range; some years it falls on March, sometimes on April. It falls on the 14th of the biblical calendar every year without fail, but not on the 14th on secular calendars.

Second, they failed to take into account how the Jewish people started addressing both "passover" and "unleavened bread" all by the same term "pesach". Unleavened bread lasts seven days, but when you look at Jewish calendars they make it 8 days. I explained this in Garland's previous thread:

real eyes realize

This reminds me of the conversation that was had in an old thread about the use of the term "Easter" only appearing in the KJV and only once (Acts 12:4), the term referring to a pagan feast that Herod wanted to celebrate. But examining the Chapter again, Herod expressed interest in pleasing the Jews (v. 3), and more importantly, I've discovered that the Jewish calendar (which is not necessarily the biblical calendar) refers to both the literal day of passover + the feast of unleavened bread all as "passover" (pesach). Passover is just one day according to Leviticus 23, but the Jews include the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" under the term "Passover" too, differentiating the days by calling the 14th of Nisan "Erev Pesach" (eve of the passover) while the 15th of Nisan until 22nd they just call "Pesach".

Quote:

Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.

http://www.hebcal.com/holidays/pesach




]http://www.hebcal.com/hebcal/?v=1&year=2013&month=3&nx=on&mf=on&ss=on&nh=on&D=on&vis=on&set=off&tag=hol.obs

...despite Leviticus 23:5-8 saying the Passover begins on the 14th of Nisan while the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th lasting a week (so until the 22nd of Nisan).

Knowing that the Jews lump it all together, then when Acts 12:1-4 in the NIV says,

Quote:

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

It actually is a correct rendering. It's not referring to a pagan feast that Herod was going to observe, but the Jewish passover, since it happened during the feast of unleavened bread and Herod wanted to wait until those seven days were up—those seven days which the Jewish people still to this day refer to as Pesach/Passover even though Leviticus doesn't (it's actually the Feast of Unleavened Bread, "Chag Matstsah" in Hebrew). Needless to say, the "Jewish Calendar" is not following YHWH's word 100%.

edit: also, considering that Jesus was sacrificed on Nisan 14th (thus he's our passover lamb) and he resurrected three days later on Nisan 17th, it makes sense that "Easter" is being used in one version while "Passover" is used in other versions of the bible since he resurrected while the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" was going on.

And now that I'm on the subject, this is why I was ambivalent: the argument about the confusion of the languages has its merit. There are sounds found in one language that sound like the words in an unrelated language, and they have totally different meanings. For example, "aniyo" in Korean is a polite way of saying "no/false". But the Spanish "anillo", though sounding near identical, means "ring". So if that's what happened, then okay.

However, if "Easter" really is based off of the pagan goddess, then the attitude he expressed that, and I paraphrase, "even if it WAS the name of a pagan goddess, we can still use it to honor God" is adulterous and whorish, not an expression of wholehearted love towards God. It's like dedicating a feast in honor of your husband, but naming it after an ex-lover or another man. If this really is about honoring your husband, then why is the ex getting any mention at all? why is the ex being brought into the picture? If Easter really is the name of a pagan goddess, then what you guys, and the author of this article, are suggesting we do is akin to naming a feast in honor of YHWH but naming it Baal or Chemosh or Moloch. To use the blessings that YHWH bestowed upon us and make a feast to worship YHWH, but then knowingly adopt a name of a pagan deity to name the feast, thus honoring the idols and myths of other nations by giving it such a title, is not acceptable nor a wholehearted expression of love for the God who redeemed us.

YHWH even told us in Scripture that He does not want us using the names of other gods in our worship of Him.

• Jeremiah 12:16 (NIV)
  
  16 And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people.
  
  
  
• Hosea 2:17 (NIV)
  
  17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
       no longer will their names be invoked.

There is no justifying this. Partaking in the easter bunny, easter egg, and egg hunting festivities of the world (and whatever other myth and demon they honor) is sinful, evil, and wicked by biblical definition. We cannot give honor to demons nor honor idols / myths / lies. That is what the pagans do. Not us. And changing the meaning in our own hearts doesn't change its actual meaning in history and in YHWH's eyes. That history will always be there. It will always belong to the idols and the lie. Thus YHWH saying not to adopt their ways. The worship of YHWH does not involve honoring myths, honoring lies, nor honoring demons.  

[Lady Vizsla]

SARL0

Lady Kariel

SARL0

i'm convinced the word "Easter" is of pagan origin.
but it doesn't mean to me what it did/does to the pagans.
nor am i convicted that i'm partaking in some wicked holiday when i fill plastic eggs w/ chocolates and hide them. sort of like when an atheist does something that appears "christian" it doesn't make him christian - what he believes in his heart is what makes him Christian or not.

Easter has a completely different meaning in my heart than anything pagan. and that's what's important - what we believe in our hearts.

Isn't "Easter" in Acts 12:4 a mistranslation of the word "pascha" and should it be translated as
"passover"?

I completely agree. I love celebrating Good Friday and Easter in equal measure because those days are the most wonderful reminders during the year. My family shared chocolate on Easter when I was back home, but it had no pagan meaning, we went to church and honoured Jesus for his sacrifice.

3nodding exactly.
bunnies, pastel colors, pretty spring flowers, chicks, eggs and chocolate does not take on a wicked meaning by default just because of what someone else believes.
we are in Christ Jesus because of what has taken place in our believing, repented hearts. things that are not sinful do not become sinful automatically because someone else has a wicked heart of unbelief. be it presently, or hundreds of years ago.

Amen smile