Why it's Called Easter

and why it should not be.

Photo by Josh Eckstein on Unsplash

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Dear reader,

I want to share my greatest Easter irritation. This one far outstrips my 2022 cheeky public campaigning¹ against the abomination of novel hot cross bun flavours.

This one is more serious because it’s used as a tool to try and give a snide little hit against Christians in the English speaking world every single year.

It’s almost guaranteed that while I’m on radio or commenting on social media about Easter, someone will send a text or leave a comment - never anybody I know, and on-air they’ll never call - proclaiming ‘Eostre!’ Sometimes it appears just like that with no explanation, and sometimes they’ll offer the explanation that she’s a fertility goddess. Whatever way it’s offered, it’s usually put out there as some sort of trump card that is meant to undermine and invalidate the Christian remembering of Christ’s death and resurrection.

I applaud those people for doing some etymology work, and for faithfully regurgitating something they saw on the internet, but clearly not much real history work has been done if anyone thinks that would or should derail the Christian celebration of this time.

I want to offer some illumination on this. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you may have heard me on the radio speak about this, or seen me mention it on social media, but I don’t think I’ve written this fully on it previously.

As an interesting aside for those not familiar with the Christian calendar, Pascha/Easter is a season, not just a weekend. The season began on Resurrection Sunday (the Sunday of last weekend) and in the West it goes through to Pentecost 50 days later (7 weeks). In Eastern Orthodoxy it ends the day before the celebration of the Ascension, so 39 days.

The days of what we usually call ‘Easter weekend’ are more traditionally known as the Paschal Triduum (Thursday evening to Sunday evening), Easter Triduum, or Holy Triduum, thus differentiating the weekend itself from the season that follows. The Pascha season focuses on the stories between Christ’s resurrection and ascension. It also contrasts from the penitential and sombre nature of Lent with its fasting. It’s a time of celebration, joy, and feasting.

But back to the naming.

If you’ve grown up in the English speaking world you’ll probably only know this time as Easter, and yes, that name has its origins in a fertility goddess known as Eostre/Ostara. That’s not news. The Roman Catholic Daily Missal 1962 acknowledges it on ‘Easter Sunday’.

Here’s the introduction from the missal that I own.²