The Meaning of 'Easter'

The meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ’s victory over death, according to the Bible. The Internet site “allaboutJesusChrist.org” offers the following information about the word “Easter”:

The term “Easter” did not always symbolize Christ’s resurrection. The feast day of Easter was once a pagan celebration of renewal and rebirth. Held in early spring, it honored pagan Saxon goddess Eastre. When Christian missionaries converted the Saxons, the holiday, which fell around the same time as the memorial of Christ’s resurrection, was merged with the pagan celebration and became known as Easter.

I don’t how much of the following is reliable, but here is more Internet-available legendary detail about “Easter”:

Not long after the global flood (Genesis 6-9), Nimrod, a grandson of Noah, turned from following God and became a tyrannical ruler. According to the Bible, Nimrod created Babel, Nineveh, Asshur, Calla and other cities known for lifestyles promoting evil. Nimrod died, and his wife, Queen Semiramis, deified him as the Sun-god, or Life Giver. He became known as Baal, and those who followed the religion which Semiramis created in his name were called Baal worshippers. They were associated with idolatry, demon worship, human sacrifice and such.

The origin of “Easter” involves the birth of Semiramis’ illegitimate son, Tammuz. Semiramis convinced people that Tammuz was Nimrod reborn. People had looked for the promised savior (Genesis 3:15) and were persuaded by Semiramis to believe Tammuz was that savior, even that he had been supernaturally conceived. Before long, in addition to worshipping Tammuz (or Nimrod reborn), the people also worshipped Semiramis herself as the goddess of fertility. In other cultures, she has been called Ishtar, Ashtur and, yes, Easter.

The origin of Easter goes back to the springtime ritual instituted by Semiramis following the death of Tammuz, who, according to tradition, was killed by a wild boar. Legend has it that through the power of his mother’s tears, Tammuz was “resurrected” in the form of new vegetation that appeared on the earth.

In the city of Babel, people created a tower to defy God. Until that time, people on earth spoke one language. God confused their language (Genesis 11:7) to keep them from further unifying in false beliefs. As people moved to other lands, many took pagan practices with them.

The Easter Bunny and Easter eggs can be traced to practices established by Semiramis. Rabbits are prolific and have long been associated with fertility and its goddess, Ishtar. Many ancient Babylonians believed a fable about an egg that fell from heaven into the Euphrates River. Queen Astarte (another name for Ishtar or Semiramis) was “hatched” from that egg, according to fable.

For Christians, the origin of Easter is simply the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Gospel accounts, Jesus Christ, the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament, was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover. Since that event took place, those who believe Christ is their Messiah have honored that day and often celebrated it with the traditional Passover.

As Christianity spread throughout non-Jewish nations, where Passover had not been celebrated, pagan rites of Easter (“rites of spring” traditions) assimilated into what the Christian church called “Resurrection Day.”

Easter was generally dismissed as a pagan holiday by America’s founding Puritans and was not widely observed in the U.S. until just after the Civil War.

My mother bought small dye packets and dumped their contents into coffee cups in the 1950s. My younger sister and I stained some hardboiled eggs. I held each egg in a little looped wire device and dipped each into a cup of yellow, red, blue or green colored water. The longer I held an egg underneath tinted liquid, the more pastel-colored its shell became.

I doubt that dyeing eggs and eating chocolate Easter bunnies and yellow “sugar chickens” damaged my faith in Jesus Christ. In Sunday school in the 1950s, I learned I needed Jesus as my Savior and learned to worship him and not to worship Baal, Ishtar or seasons the Lord created. At home and in church, I learned the real meaning of Easter and learned to love Jesus’ words found in Revelation 1:18: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”