The History of Easter

The story of “Easter” is a tiny part of a much larger picture of the social history of our ancestors for at least the last 5000 years and beyond, and should therefore be studied within this context.

The word “Oestre” and its variations were the old Teutonic word for dawn/sunrise. This word is one of the roots of our word “east” and the name of the female hormone “oestrogen.”

The Teutonic peoples came from Jutland, a peninsula that extended into Denmark and West Germany. Some migrated further into Scandinavia, Hungary, and Austria.

Oestre became the personification of the rising sun. In that capacity, a fertility goddess is associated with Spring.

The “bunny,” the “egg,” and Spring chicks: The hare and the egg were fertility symbols used by many people for thousands of years.

The Spring festival, celebrated by Teutonic peoples and dedicated to the goddess Eastre, was also a lunar one. At this time, people used the moon cycle to measure time; the first full moon after the vernal equinox was the start of their new year. It was thought that if an image of a hare could be seen on the disc of this full moon, it was a good omen, indicating a good harvest to come.

The egg as a fertility symbol was also significant. As people started keeping domestic fowl, such as chickens, the observation of hens’ eggs hatching, bringing forth yellow-colored chicks, was interpreted into their celebrations as the “sun” being reborn.

As the festival and its imagery were passed from generation to generation, fanciful stories were woven around the original. One is that the goddess Eastre/Ostara transformed her pet bird into a hare, but the change was incomplete; the hare still laid eggs. The story was further embellished by adding that these eggs were brightly colored.

Recently, the hare has been replaced by its cousin, the rabbit, probably because the rabbit became more prevalent than the hare.

Hot Cross buns: The two equinoxes were known as cross-quarter days, as Spring was the start of their new year, they marked loaves with a cross (plus) sign to represent the four seasons of the year that were about to enter a new cycle with their festivals. The Roman Church was unhappy about this as it wanted absolute control over the subjects of the “Holy Roman Empire”. Instead, it decided to “Christianize” all the old festivals. Easter became a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. People didn’t immediately consider this as they associated the festival with the feminine. In reaction to this, they created “Lady Day” on 25th March, as a day to celebrate the announcement by the angel Gabriel that Mary was to bring forth a new messiah. So that people had “Mary” to replace “Oestre”.

The Roman Church was unable to obliterate the old customs, though. Even today, although many people think of festivals such as Easter and Christmas as Christian, all the symbolism associated with them predates Christianity by thousands of years!

The Jewish festival of the Passover (Pesach) is thought to have no connection with that of the Teutonic “Oestre”. The Passover, although observed in the Spring, marks the escape from Egypt of the enslaved Jews, led by Moses. Passover begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is observed for 8 days starting at sundown.