[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

You’ve Never Seen THIS Side Of Donald Trump President Donald Trump Nominates Former Florida Rep. Dr. Dave Weldon as CDC Director Joe Rogan Tells Josh Brolin His Recent Bell’s Palsy Diagnosis Could Be Linked to mRNA Vaccine President-elect Donald Trump Nominates Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture Trump Taps COVID-Contrarian, Staunch Public Health Critic Makary For FDA F-35's Cooling Crisis: Design Flaws Fuel $2 Trillion Dilemma For Pentagon Joe Rogan on Tucker Carlson and Ukraine Aid Joe Rogan on 62 year-old soldier with one arm, one eye Jordan Peterson On China's Social Credit Controls Senator Kennedy Exposes Bad Jusge Jewish Land Grab Trump Taps Dr. Marty Makary, Fierce Opponent of COVID Vaccine Mandates, as New FDA Commissioner Recovering J6 Prisoner James Grant, Tells-All About Bidens J6 Torture Chamber, Needs Immediate Help After Release AOC: Keeping Men Out Of Womens Bathrooms Is Endangering Women What Donald Trump Has Said About JFK's Assassination Horse steals content from Sara Fischer and Sophia Cai and pretends he is the author Horse steals content from Jonas E. Alexis and claims it as his own. Trump expected to shake up White House briefing room Ukrainians have stolen up to half of US aid ex-Polish deputy minister Gaza doctor raped, tortured to death in Israeli custody, new report reveals German Lutheran Church Bans AfD Members From Committees, Calls Party 'Anti-Human' Berlin Teachers Sound Alarm Over Educational Crisis Caused By Multiculturalism Trump Hosts Secret Global Peace Summit at Mar-a-Lago! Heat Is Radiating From A Huge Mass Under The Moon Elon Musk Delivers a Telling Response When Donald Trump Jr. Suggests FBI recovers funds for victims of scammed banker Mark Felton: Can Russia Attack Britain? Notre Dame Apologizes After Telling Hockey Fans Not To Wear Green, Shamrocks, 'Fighting Irish' Dear Horse, which one of your posts has the Deep State so spun up that's causing 4um to run slow? Bomb Cyclone Pacific Northwest

Religion
See other Religion Articles

Title: Easter Named for the Germanic Goddess of Springtime
Source: Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
URL Source: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/ostara.html
Published: Nov 6, 1996
Author: D. L. Ashliman
Post Date: 2009-04-11 10:12:18 by Deasy
Keywords: Ostara, Eostra, pagan, history
Views: 199
Comments: 9

According to the historian Bede the Venerable (673?-735), writing in chapter 13 of his De temporum ratione, the heathen Anglo-Saxons called the third and fourth months "Rhedmonath" and "Esturmonath" after their goddesses Rheda and Eostra respectively.

Rheda, except for the brief citation above, has been forgotten.

Eostra (Ostara) has fared somewhat better, although there is little direct evidence of her and her followers.

The following views, advanced by Jacob Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie (1835), are generally held by Germanic scholars:

• April, in Anglo Saxon, Old High German, and some modern German dialects, is called "Ostara's month."

• All cultures living in temperate (or winter dominated) climates celebrate the coming of spring with major rituals and festivals. One of the most important of spring festivals among pre-Christian Germanic tribes apparently was dedicated to the goddess Ostara, whose name suggests "east" and thus "dawn" and "morning light."

• The name of Ostara's (Eostra's) festival was transferred to the celebration of Christ's resurrection when Anglo-Saxon and German heathens converted to Christianity. Thus, unlike other European cultures, English and German Christians still attach the name of a heathen goddess to their most sacred holiday: Easter or Ostern. In other European languages the holiday's name is based on the Hebrew word "pasah," to pass over, thus reflecting the Christian holiday's Biblical connection with the Jewish Passover.

• In addition to the name, other popular Easter customs also have heathen origins:
  • The belief in the curative properties of water drawn early on Easter morning. These beliefs were common in Germany into the nineteenth century.

  • The veneration (if now only playful) of rabbits and hares.

  • The decoration of eggs (obvious fertility symbols).

• Place names suggest that Ostara was venerated throughout ancient Germany and Denmark.

• Although neither the Prose Edda nor the Poetic Edda mentions Ostara, both works refer to a male dwarf named Austri, whose name also means "east."

The Name for "Easter" in selected European Languages

All other European words for "Easter" derive from the Hebrew word "pasah," to pass over, thus reflecting the Christian holiday's Biblical connection with the Jewish Passover.

Revised November 6, 1996.

Click for Full Text!

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  

Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 8.

#1. To: Deasy (#0)

Easter Named for the Germanic Goddess of Springtime

Bunny Rabbit?

Jethro Tull  posted on  2009-04-11   10:15:46 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Europeans used to want big families. Rabbits set a good example.

Deasy  posted on  2009-04-11   10:18:52 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Europeans used to want big families. Rabbits set a good example.

So did the Irish Catholics in my neighborhood. Kids were stuffed into the apts. with a shoe horn.

Jethro Tull  posted on  2009-04-11   10:33:46 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

I was always thought the Easter bunny was a Celtic-Druid holdover.

MUDDOG  posted on  2009-04-11   10:39:51 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

        There are no replies to Comment # 8.

End Trace Mode for Comment # 8.

Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest

[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]