Why, you may ask, do Christians call the Sunday Jesus rose from the dead “Easter”?
Good question.
Apparently Christians are capable of getting their knickers in a knot about this: the word itself derives from an old English word, “Eostre,” which is the name of a pre-Christian deity.
What? Were those rascally medievals trying to foist pagan practices on the innocent followers of Jesus?
No, no, a thousand times no.
There are some very interesting cases of early and medieval Christians taking over bits and pieces from pagan practice and weaving them into Christianity (the date chosen for Christmas and locations of certain places of worship come to mind). The result could actually help the church to grow: if people were already taking that day off, or if they were used to worshipping at that place, it could be a way to reach them with the Christian message.
But that isn’t what happened with Easter and “Eostre.”
The evidence comes from the 8th century Church historian known as The Venerable Bede. In a book called The Reckoning of Time Bede tells us that before Christianity the months of the year were named for the pre-Christian deities.
So what we think of as “April” was, long ago, called “Eosturmonath” or “Eostre’s Month.”
English speakers shouldn’t find this too unfamiliar, since we have days of the week like “Wednesday,” “Thursday,” and “Friday.” Think Woden’s Day, Thor’s Day, and Frigg’s Day. Heaven help us if using the very language forces us into tacit paganism.
*HEAD SMACK*
So “Easter” is just a word for the month. The word from pagan culture just got carried over after the uniquely Christian Holy Day began to be celebrated.
Bede also tells us that by his time people had come to call April “Paschal Month.”
Much earlier, and still in Orthodoxy, the holy day came to be called the “Pascha.”
The term refers to “Passover,” the great Jewish holy day remembering the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. God “passed over” the Israelite’s houses when the deadly plague came on Egypt. It is what finally led to their release to escape through the parted waters of the Red Sea.
“Easter” is the Christian “Pascha” — our new Exodus through Christ
Christians (with a great deal of biblical evidence to help them) were declaring that Jesus’ resurrection was the Christian Passover — in Christ we are now delivered from slavery to sin, and freed to new life, belonging to God.
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Yes, the holiday celebrating Christ’s resurrection is best called Pascha, not Easter! As an English speaker, I would even suggest we just call it Passover so that Christians can more accurately connect it to the Exodus account. This would also help restore ancient Biblical interpretation, which mined the Old Testament as a means of understanding Christ and the events surrounding him.
This connection between the Exodus Passover and Christ’s Passover is still closely linked in Eastern Orthodoxy. In fact, on Holy (Good) Friday night when the Orthodox do the Lamentations service (a sort of funeral service for Christ), all the faithful walk under the bier/tomb of Christ to reenter the church (following a funeral procession around the church). In this way, Christ’s bier becomes the doorway (lintel and doorposts) on which the blood has been smeared. This shows that Christ is the Passover lamb that allows death to pass us over. It’s a beautiful service with beautiful imagery.
I would like to take this line of thought a bit further, if I may. E.P. Sanders, in his book Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE – 66 CE, has shown that there were three major pilgrim feasts connected to the Temple: Passover (discussed above), The Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. Because of the way early Christians saw the Old Testament as foreshadowing Christ, these feasts continued to play an important role in early Christianity, and they still do in Orthodoxy to this day.
The Feast of Weeks, in antiquity, was also called Pentecost. It was the celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses. Today, in Orthodoxy, we still celebrate this feast, 50 days after Pascha (as did the ancient Israelites). Now we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is the new law. St. Paul once wrote, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). You can see the connections when approached this way.
The Feast of Booths, in first century Israelite Temple religion, was a remembrance of the dwellings (called Tabernacles) the Hebrews stayed in when they wandered the desert after the Exodus. It was celebrated in the fall. Christians saw this feast as foreshadowing the Transfiguration of Christ. In some Christian denominations the connection has been lost as they celebrate the Transfiguration as a part of Epiphany. However, in Orthodox Christianity, it’s still celebrated on August 6th, much closer to the Feast of Booths. Obviously Peter asks to make Tabernacles at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:4), but I wondered, what exactly is the connection? I found it in On the Soul and the Resurrection by St. Gregory of Nyssa (which I was reading preparing for this Thursday’s Dubuque ecumenical dialogue).
He writes,
“In another place, moreover, this same prophet says that the God of all…has appeared to us to inaugurate the feast with a covering [of branches], by the word ‘covering’ signifying the feast of the Tabernacles which was legislated of old by the tradition of Moses. …while the feast was always being celebrated, it had not yet been accomplished. Although the truth was being revealed in a type by the symbolism of what was being done, the true tabernacle had not yet been pitched. According to the prophetic word, however, the God and Lord of all revealed Himself to us in order to inaugurate for human nature the feast of the tabernacle of our destroyed dwelling, which would again be covered with a body when the elements should come back together. For the word ‘covering’ according to its proper meaning, signifies a garment and the adornment which this produces.”
In other words, the transfigured Christ, shows us the true human tabernacle, which is the resurrected, glorified, and transfigured human body. For now, however, we, like the Hebrews, remain in fragile, temporary dwellings as we wonder the desert (this life) looking for the Promised Land (the resurrection).
There is a tradition of St. Paul being a “tent maker.” However, to believe this to be a manual laborer is a misunderstanding! How does St. Paul speak of “tents”? He speaks of it as the Body of Christ, the Church (II Corinthians 5:1-10). I suppose one could say that St. Paul preached the message of the Transfiguration constantly!
Anyway, all this is to say that many modern Christians tend to leave the Old Testament behind (a modern day Marcionism), and calling Passover, Easter, helps alienate Christians from their roots even more. However, as modern Christians, we should reclaim our heritage in order to understand and growing closer to our Lord, Jesus Christ!