Easter, Ostern, and the Passover Connection
Easter, and its German equivalent Ostern, are peculiar words. They are the English and German language designations for the Christian celebratory day to honor and commemorate Jesus’ resurrection after crucifixion. The day is called by many names, varying from language to language, but the labels of Easter and Ostern are particularly anomalous. This is because the vast majority of other languages designate the celebratory day of Jesus’ resurrection with a name that derives from the Greek and Latin word for Passover, Pascha. For example, Easter is known as Pâques in French, Pasqua in Italian, Pascua de Resurrección in Spanish, Påsk in Swedish, and Påske in Danish and Norwegian, to name a few. This links back to the belief that Jesus was crucified around the beginning of Passover, and resurrected three days later, still in the Passover week. Instead of following the overtly Passover-themed trend, the German and English language communities opted to take a vastly different approach in how they named the celebratory day, resulting in confusion, controversy and debate that still rages on to this day.
Easter and Ostern have a complicated and contested origin history. On one side, a faction of scholars believe the words were derived from the Latin word, alba (meaning white, and could describe dawn), and the phrase, in albis (in white). Proponents of this position believe German and Anglo-Saxon communities latched on to the white and dawn imagery and symbolism, favoring those descriptions over the Passover references used by other Christians. In time, as the white and dawn allusions changed through the etymological evolution of language changes, translations, or mistranslations, the peculiar titles of Ostern and Eastern came to be. Encyclopedia Britannica summarizes this train of thought, stating, “There is now widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (‘dawn’) and became eostarum in Old High German, the precursor of the modern German and English term” (Encyclopedia Britannica, entry for Easter). On the other hand, other scholars, including prominent medieval historical figures, believed that Easter and Ostern were named after the archaic name of the month in which Passover occurred—the Paschal month. April, the Roman month in which Passover takes place, was known as Eosturmonath to the Anglo-Saxons and as Ostarmanoth or Ostaramonath to the Franks. In this line of thought, the English word, Easter, and the German parallel, Ostern, derived not from the phrase, in albis (in white) or eostarum, but from those ancient month names that were eventually supplanted by Roman-based calendars.
Eosturmonath and Ostaramonath
Eosturmonath and Ostaramonath can be found in historical records. Eosturmonath was preserved for posterity by a Northumbrian monk and historian named Bede (c. 673-735). Often called the Father of English History, he was the author of the acclaimed Ecclesiastical History of the English People and began the tradition of labeling dates before the birth of Jesus Christ as BC. On the topics of the months and Easter, Bede wrote:
“In olden time the English people—for it did not seem fitting to me that I should speak of other people’s observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation’s—calculated their months according to the course of the moon. Hence, after the manner of the Greeks and the Romans (the months) take their name from the Moon, for the Moon is called mona and the month monath. The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath… Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated ‘Paschal month’, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance” (Bede, De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), chapter 15 / §§329-331).
Historical use of Ostaramonath or Ostarmanoth can be found in the writing of Einhard (c. 770-840), who joined the court of Charlemagne sometime during the early 790s, and became a highly respected member of Charlemagne’s scholarly circle by 796. He composed a biographical Life of Charlemagne sometime between 817-827, in which he described how Charlemagne (r. 768-814) imposed the Frankish names of months on the subjects of the Carolingian Empire. Einhard wrote, “He gave names to the months in his native language, since before that time the Franks had given partly German and partly Latin names…And he called January Wintarmanoth, February Hornung, March Lentzinmanoth, April Ostarmanoth…” (Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne, chapter 29). Einhard, unfortunately, did not plainly explain the meaning of the month names, but they can nevertheless be inferred in a self-explanatory way. Wintarmanoth can be reckoned as Winter Month, Lentzinmanoth as Lent Month, and Ostarmanoth or Ostaramonath as Ostern or Easter Month.
Eostra, Ostrara, and Eos
The ironic and controversial nature the names, Easter and Ostern, come from their connection to Eosturmonath and Ostaramanoth, and how those archaic monthly titles came to be coined. As Bede reported, he believed that the Anglo-Saxon Eostre Month was “called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance” (De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), chapter 15 / §331). This Eaostre or Eostrae figure that Bede wrote of was an ancient Saxon protective goddess with connections to dawn, fertility, and possibly the season of spring. She was honored by her worshippers at the time of the spring equinox. Similarly, the Frankish Ostern (or Ostara) Month was, and is, believed by many to have been named after a Germanic equivalent to Eostre, named Ostara. It is also believed that Eostre and Ostara may be parallels of, or connected to, the Greek goddess of Dawn, Eos.
Despite the aforementioned Encyclopedia Britannica insistence that there is “widespread consensus” that Easter was named after a Latin phrase referencing dawn or white, many authoritative sources still directly link the name of Easter to a Saxon goddess. An article attributed to Professor Carole Cusack at the University of Sydney states, “The English word for Easter is derived from the name of a minor Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre, a goddess of the dawn or spring. Feasts in her honour were often celebrated in April. In German, the word for Easter is ‘Ostern’ and is derived from the German version of Eostre, called Ostara. In both these names the linguistic element meaning ‘east’ (eost, ost) reinforces the connection with the dawn” (read Here). Similarly, an article from the University of Chicago states, “In a Germanic language such as English, the festival of Easter (Ostern in German) derives from Eostre, a pagan goddess of the dawn and spring” (read Here). Additionally, the Oxford Companion to the Bible begins its entry on Easter with the statement, “Easter. From Eostre, a Saxon goddess celebrated at the spring Equinox” (Oxford Companion to the Bible, entry for Easter (written by A.R.C. Leaney), pg. 404).
Even if one presumes that Easter, Ostern, Eosturmonath and Ostaramonath were named after Latin phrases about dawn or white, debate can still lead back to pagan goddesses, as Eostre, Ostara, and Eos were all deities linked to dawn. Furthermore, Eos (also spelled Aos) was also associated with the color white. The Lyric poet, Ibycus (c. 6th century BCE), called her “white-cheeked Aos” (Ibycus, Fragment 284 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III)) and the poet, Bacchylides (c. 510-452+ BCE), similarly called her “White-horsed Aos” (Bacchylides, Fragment 20C, (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV)). Whatever the case, the debate about the origin of the word, Easter, still remains heated and ongoing.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (The Last Chapter (The Venerable Bede Translates John) by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons, Bible-Researcher, and Wikimedia Commons).
Sources:
- Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
- Two Lives of Charlemagne, by Einhard and Notker the Stammer, translated by David Ganz. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008.
- The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan. Oxford University Press, 1993.
- https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Eos.html
- https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/bede_on_eostre.htm
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/jesus.html
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibycus
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bacchylides
- https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/04/13/origins-of-easter.html
- https://news.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2016/why-easter-was-never-anything-christian-holiday
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eos-Greek-and-Roman-mythology
