Not a pagan festival

One of the anti-Christian polemics filling local newspapers and pamphlets in recent times is to say that the Christian Easter is just a borrowed pagan festival (Easter in English and Ostern in Germany). Let it be noted that the celebration is derived from the Greek word ‘Pascha’, which comes from ‘Pesach’, the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover festival.

The argument for the pagan origins of Easter is based on a comment made by the Venerable Bede, an English monk who wrote the first history of Christianity in England.

The Nordic/Germanic people (including Anglo-Saxon) were comparative latecomers to Christianity. Pope Gregory I sent a missionary enterprise to the Anglo-Saxons in 596/7. The forcible conversion of the Saxons began under Charlemagne in 772. Hence if ‘Easter’ was celebrated prior to those dates any supposed pagan festival of ‘Eostre’ can have no significance.

There is clear evidence that Christians celebrated an Easter/Passover festival by the second century, if not earlier. This festival originated in the Mediterranean basin and was not influenced by any Germanic pagan festivals.

In the Stations of the Sun, Prof Ronal Hutton (well-known historian of British paganism) criticises Bede’s sketchy knowledge of other pagan festivals and that Bede’s statement about Eostre “falls into a category of interpretations which Bede admitted to be his own,rather than generally agreed or proven fact”.

According to Prof Hutton there is no evidence outside of Bede for the existence of this Anglo-Saxon goddess. He concludes there is no evidence for a pre-Christian festival in the British Isles in March or April.

Another point is Charlemagne defeated the Anglo-Saxons. He spoke a Germanic dialect. He attacked the pagan Saxons and forcibly converted them. Therefore very unlikely he would name a month after a Germanic goddess.

Then why Easter?

One theory is that the Latin phrase ‘in albis’ (in white) which Christians used in reference to Easter week found its way into Old High German as ‘eostarum’ or ‘dawn’.

Prof Hutton suggests ‘Eosturmonath’ simply meant the “month of opening” comparable to April in Latin. The names of both Saxon and Latin months were related to spring, the season when the buds open.

So in ancient Anglo-Saxon areas they called their Passover holiday Easter simply because it occured around the time of Eosturmonath/Ostarmanoth. It reflects a general date in a calendar, rather than the Paschal festival having been renamed in honour of a supposed pagan deity.

(The article is contributed by Rasputin Bismarck, Kolkata)