Where did “Easter” come from? This question isn’t about the Christian observance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Rather, it’s about the name of the holiday. Though some churches call it “Resurrection Sunday” in order to avoid the more common name, which has become associated with all sorts of secular observances. Regardless of the less used names, “Easter” is the most common name, and it doesn’t seem to be obviously associated with the holiday. So, where did the word come from? When did the observation of Christ’s resurrection become “Easter”?
The problem with answering this particular question is that no one really knows the answer. There are some interesting theories, none of which has any sort of conclusive evidence to suggest that it is the right answer.
One of the more interesting arguments, that has its roots purely in linguistics, begins with the Christian designation of Easter week as “in albis.” “In Albis” is the plural of the Latin word “alba,” which means “dawn.” The dawn association has to do with the resurrection (presumably at sunrise) on the third day. The argument is that the Latin word “alba” eventually became “eustarum” in high Germanic. That word eventually became “ostern”, the German word for Easter. “Easter” is believed to be derived from Ostern. Incidentally, the modern French word for Easter (Pâques) is also derived from the Greek word for the Passover (pascha).
One of the more popular theories today has to do with the conversion of Anglo-Saxons by Christian missionaries. The theory is that the word came from the Germanic tribal languages, which eventually folded into the Old English. Specifically the word comes from the pagan goddess, Eostre. Everything we know about the goddess Eostre comes from the 8th century writings of Saint Bede, an English monk who resided in a monastery in the kingdom of North Umberland (in England). Bede didn’t actually say that the name of the holiday came from the goddess. Rather, in “The Reckoning of Time” Bede mentions the goddess in connection with the naming of the month of April. “Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month.” That’s the full excerpt and the earliest written documentation for the name. The theory is that “Eosturmonath” eventually morphed into the name “Easter” which was applied to the Christian holiday. The linguistic argument behind this position is plausible.
Incidentally, the Eostre theory has birthed some poorly supported claims that have grown popular in recent years. In terms of historical support, we don’t hear a lot about the Eostre again until the 1800s. Jacob Grimm, a linguist who was responsible for many books including editing “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” asserted that oral traditions of the goddess existed in Germany in his time. There is no written, documented evidence supporting any of this material. In addition, the oral traditions that Grimm claimed to find were from 10 centuries after the only mention of Eostre anywhere else. In addition, the goddess was probably regional and not worshipped long or widely, based on her total absence from any records, lyrics, poetry, etc. I mention this because it’s not a very good source. However, scholars have used these later oral traditions as evidence for arguments that rabbits and eggs were adopted to the holiday from the Eostre pagan observances. The idea being that pagans brought their traditions to the church. Earlier in this series, I addressed the origin of the tradition of Easter eggs, which has earlier documented support than these observances.
