The Fake Origins of Easter

H/t to The Church Mouse. Interesting blog post shared with thanks...

 Before the Easter season has passed, Mouse wanted to quote a large part of a blog post from Catherine Meyer's About.com blog on alternative religions.

Every year Catherine gets annoyed by people quoting made up history about the origins of Easter.

Catherine explains:

"The historical record of Eostre is incredibly small: a single reference written by a Christian monk named Bede, writing after the supposed worship of Eostre has already vanished from England. he comments that the word Easter, in English, comes from Eostre, or perhaps from Eostremounth, the mouth in which Easter occurs.

That's it.

Bede doesn't know anyone who worships Eostre, and no worshiper of Eostre has left any records of her at all. There is no mention of a specific holiday for Eostre, and no mention of rabbits or eggs. Most of the claims equating Eostre and Easter, therefore, are entirely made up. The only potential connection is the word Easter and the name Eostre, an issue that only exists in English. In Romantic languages, the word for Easter is based on Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover, which Jesus was celebrating at the time of his execution. And the Romantic language speakers have been celebrating Easter far longer than the English.

Stop repeating the fallacy. Please. And stop presuming world practices revolve around what went on in England."

Mouse agrees, and now you know. So next time someone tells you that Easter was originally a pagan festival called Oestre, you can set them straight.