Easter History Tips
Read these 5 Easter History Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Easter tips and hundreds of other topics.
The Easter Bunny is Here!
Today, celebrations of Easter are often marked with the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. But did you know that the cute furry character with the colored eggs and basket comes from somewhere? One ancient myth belongs to the Anglo-Saxons. As the story goes, the goddess Ostara turned her pet bird into a rabbit to entertain some children. The rabbit then proceeded to lay color eggs that Ostara took and passed out to the children.
A Different Day Each Year
Easter falls on a different day each year. But have you ever stopped and wondered why? Back in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed the use of the Gregorian calendar, the twelve-month system that is used throughout most of the world today. And ever since then, Easter has fallen between March 22 and April 25 of every year. Western Christians celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after every Paschal Full Moon. In actuality, this full moon is not an astronomical occurrence, but a complex series of calculations.
What's in a Name
There are a few different versions of the origins of the name Easter. One widely held belief pegs the origin of the name Easter from Eostre, the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. This belief comes from the writings of Christian scholar Bede The Venerable. In Christian societies where English and German are not the language of choice, the name is derived from Pesach, which is the Hebrew name for Passover.
The Pagan Origins of Easter
A number of Pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean region held a major celebration after the spring equinox. One Pagan religion believed that the Phrygian fertility goddess Cybele had a consort named Attis, born of a virginal birth. Each year, Attis died and was resurrected during the spring equinox, around the time of Easter today. This account is similar in concept to the Christian account of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christian Origins of Easter
In Christianity, Easter is a day to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Around the second century, Christian missionaries sought to convert Pagan tribes of northern Europe. In doing so, the Christians discovered that the Pagan festivities celebrating spring coincided with their observance of Christ's resurrection. The missionaries decided to incorporate the Pagan traditions into their own teachings surrounding Jesus Christ and Easter became a religious celebration from then on.
