Easter Reflections

What a great weekend of celebrating the resurrection of our Savior from the dead!

As the new song we sang, "See What A Morning" says: "Death is dead! Love has won! Christ has conquered!

The weekend started with our Good Friday service during which we reflected on the cross, and sang songs that reminded us of the work that Jesus accomplished there.

We had a time of confession where we wrote our sins out on small slips of paper and nailed them to the big crosses at either end of the cafeteria; a powerful outward symbol of our sin being paid for on that horrible and wonderful tree.

We shared a time of communion after that, and Pastor Todd encouraged us with the truth of the power of the cross from God's Word.

Sunday morning we had two services celebrating Christ resurrection from the dead; the event which solidifies our faith, and gives us hope of our own future resurrection.

Amid all the greetings of "Happy Easter!" I started to wonder where the term "Easter" came from; and whether it was linguistically related to the resurrection, or if it was just a name that was coined to paste on this season.

Here's what dictionary.com had to say:

Easter

originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival of the Resurrection of Christ, which occured at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha (the Passover). When the Authorized Version (1611) was formed, the word "passover" was used in all passages in which this word pascha occurred, except in Act 12:4. In the Revised Version the proper word, "passover," is always used.

O.E. Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from P.Gmc. *Austron, a goddess of fertility and sunrise whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from *austra-, from PIE *aus- "to shine" (especially of the dawn). Bede says Anglo-Saxon Christians adopted her name and many of the celebratory practices for their Mass of Christ's resurrection. Ultimately related to east. Almost all neighboring languages use a variant of L. Pasche to name this holiday.

So we got "Easter" from a Saxon goddess of fertility! Hence the rabbits...very fertile creatures, and the eggs! Somewhere along the line, Christendom claimed the title for our celebration of Christ's resurrection because the Pagan sacrifices took place around the same time. I wonder why they chose to take the Pagan name instead of coming up with something on their own, or simply calling it "The Resurrection?" I guess "Resurrection" has twice as many syllables... :-)

Click HERE for a more in-depth essay on the origins of "Easter"

So yeah, that's just an interesting fact for you, a little encouragement try to be well informed on the faith that we hold, of the gospel in which we stand, and by which we are being saved.