Why do we call it “Easter”?
Good question.
For most of the world, “Easter” is referred to as “Pascha” (or a derivation thereof) which is the Greek then Latin transliteration of the Hebrew Pesach meaning “Passover.” In fact, the use of “Easter” is limited to English and the Germanic languages. There are a few theories as to why this may be:
- Easter sounds like the Old English for “East” – the direction of the sunrise (our daily sermon on the resurrection!) and also the direction from which Christ will return.
- Easter is derived from the German Ostern which meant the season of increasing sunlight. The spring sun has its birth in the East and renews life upon the earth each year.
- Easter is taken from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring Eostre (or Ostera). (This isn't likely since there's no historical record of a widely venerated British or German goddess by this name.)
Whatever the case, theologians across the world and through Church history more-or-less agree that we should probably just drop the name Easter and call it Pascha, but at this point the name is so deeply embedded in our culture that a name change is functionally impossible!
