Origins of the name Easter: The name Easter originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE), a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos. 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: eastre. Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were: Aphrodite, named Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two places which claimed her birth; Ashtoreth from ancient Israel; Astarte from ancient Greece; Demeter from Mycenae; Hathor from ancient Egypt; Ishtar from Assyria; Kali, from India; and Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility. An alternative explanation has been suggested. The name given by the Frankish church to Jesus resurrection festival included the Latin word alba which means white. (This was a reference to the white robes that were worn during the festival.) Alba also has a second meaning: sunrise. When the name of the festival was translated into German, the sunrise meaning was selected in error. This became ostern in German. Ostern has been proposed as the origin of the word Easter.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 07:59:30 +0000
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