Does Easter Have Pagan Roots? Exploring the Debate

Christians, Pagans and Easter: Is There a Connection?  

Christians, pagans and Easter…. Does Christ’s resurrection have anything to do with pagan rituals and celebrations that welcome the arrival of spring? Opinions are divided.

Some people find a common thread between the Bible’s profoundly moving story of sacrificial love and eternal salvation, and pagans’ joyful nature-based tales of bonfires, eggs and rabbits. But many Christians insist there is no connection.

If you’re curious about a possible connection, as I was, fix yourself a cup of hot tea or coffee, get comfortable, and let’s look at the situation.

The Relevance of Old Testament Stories

Early Christians were Jewish converts for the most part. They believed Jesus’ death and resurrection were a continuation of the Jewish Passover and the Exodus. Beginning in Exodus 5, the Bible shares stories of the Israelites’ enslavement in Egypt, the 10 plagues God unleashed on Pharaoh and his people, the parting of the Red Sea, and Moses’ encounter with God on Mt. Sinai.

The story continues in Exodus 19. God makes a covenant with the Israelites, Moses receives the 10 commandments and the Israelites build a tabernacle. The covenant was a permanent and binding agreement in which God promised to make Israel “his treasured possession” and “holy nation,” and the Israelites agreed to obey his laws. God kept his part of the agreement. But the Israelites? Not so much.

Passover & the 10 Plagues

The Passover story begins with God’s decision to unleash 10 plagues on Egypt because its leader, the pharaoh, refused to free the enslaved Israelites. The 10^th and final plague resulted in the deaths of all the firstborn people and livestock in the land, according to the Bible. The only exception was the Israelites who – at God’s command — marked their doorposts with lamb’s blood.

Easter and Christ’s Triumph Over Death

For Christians, these Old Testament stories are an important prelude to what happens in the New Testament. But what did they have to do with Easter?

Early Christians believed that Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled the Passover sacrifice. They celebrated Christ’s triumph over death by coming together once a week to have communion and share scripture. They eventually added an annual observance that sometimes coincided with Passover and eventually became known as Easter.

The early Christians didn’t celebrate “Easter” as we do. They called the day “Pascha,” which comes from the Hebrew word “Pesach,” i.e., Passover. But they could not agree on when to observe it.

The Council of Nicaea settled the question in 325 AD, when a group of bishops met and decided, among other things, that Pascha would be observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, which was when day and night lengths are equal. (We still determine Easter’s date this way.)

Determining Easter’s date is convoluted from my perspective, but it is what it is because church leaders decided not to set an immovable date, as other leaders did with Christmas. For Easter, they used a complicated formula that took lunar, solar and ecclesiastical calendars into account. Rather than go through the calculations, most Christians use a calendar or Google.

The word “Easter” wasn’t adopted until the 7^th or 8^th century. Some religious scholars believe it came from an Old German word for “dawn,” which begins in the eastern sky. Others think it originates with the pagan goddess of spring and dawn, Eostre.

That Brings Us to the Pagans

Easter is the most sacred day in Christendom because it commemorates the day Jesus rose from the dead and gives believers the promise of eternal life. It’s also a complicated holiday. At any rate, it seems odd that this holiest of holy days in the Christian faith would become intertwined with eggs, goddesses and fantastical animals running around with colored eggs and candy.

I admit to knowing next to nothing about pagan practices and apologize if I offend any followers. But if you’re interested in learning more, check out the Patheos article, Christian & Pagan Holidays: Easter Bunnies Come from Ostara, here.

Religious experts agree that Christ’s crucifixion occurred about the time of Passover, which always takes place in the spring. Spring is also the time when pagans still celebrate the arrival of warmer and longer days, as they have for thousands of years. In ancient times, spring also meant that pagans in northern areas and their livestock had survived another long and brutal winter.

Light, Life & Fertility

Central to the pagan celebrations was/is the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, or Ostara. Pagans believe she embodies light, life and fertility, and some people think the word “Easter” comes from her. The problem is that the mythical goddess’s connection to Easter is based on the writings of one man – an 8^th century English monk named The Venerable Bede. Another myth claims that Easter was named after a Mesopotamian deity named Ishtar, but there is almost no evidence to support this claim.

What we do know is that spring is the time when lilies, daffodils, tulips and other beautiful flowers blossom, and soft pinks, yellows, purples and corals replace the somber winter landscape. Crops begin to grow again, and livestock and other animals welcome offspring. Earth feels alive once again.

For the sake of brevity, let’s confine ourselves to several stories about Eostre. Ancient pagan celebrations included rituals and offerings to Eostre, which people offered in hopes the goddess would provide an abundant harvest. According to some stories, Eostre was accompanied by a hare that represented fertility and the promise of new life. The hare also announced spring’s arrival, according to some people, and in one myth, Eostre changed a bird into a hare that laid eggs.

What’s the Truth?

So now, we come back to the question of whether Christians adapted certain pagan traditions into the Christian Easter. There are arguments on both sides.

Church leaders did have a habit of adapting and incorporating existing traditions from other cultures. They reasoned that those traditions were already familiar to the people they were trying to convert and would make conversions easier.

It’s said that the Druids dyed eggs and buried them in plowed fields to encourage an abundant harvest. As far back as 1,300 BC, people in Eastern Europe practiced the ancient art of “pysanky,” which means “to write.” This tradition involved drawing or writing elaborate circles, crosses, horses, stags and other symbols on eggs.

Christians color eggs and have Easter egg hunts, of course. But we also incorporated eggs into our religious celebrations. Many Christians fast during Lent, which precedes Easter, and eggs were one food many gave up. But on Easter Sunday, that requirement ended.

Christians versus Pagans

There are a few superficial parallels between pagan myths and Christian beliefs, but the similarities don’t prove Christianity is rooted in paganism.

• First-century Christians were Jews, not pagans.
• Christians worship one God. Pagans worship many gods or divine forces in nature.
• Christians focus on salvation through Christ and the afterlife. Many pagans believe in divine forces that exist in nature.
• Christians have one authority — the Bible. Pagans don’t generally have that type of authority.
• Christians believe in original sin, while many pagans do not.
• Modern pagans often have earth-focused traditions, i.e., Druids and Wiccans, which modern Christianity does not have.
• Pagans sometimes blend various faith traditions, rather than one exclusive God.
• Some pagans believe Jesus is a wise teacher. However, they don’t tend to believe he’s divine. Rather, he co-exists with various gods and goddesses.