What does the word Easter mean?
Easter doesn’t mean what you may think. The word Easter is the same as the word ‘esther’ or ‘ishta’ or ‘ashteroth’. These words mean ‘woman’. You may wonder why the celebration of Jesus resurrection is connected to a word meaning woman… Easter has been celebrated for thousands of years before Jesus was born. It was the celebration before the harvest. Eggs were given, hot cross buns (etc) and sacrifices made to the fertility goddess ‘ashteroth’ so that they may have a fruitful year of harvest. Also they wanted their animals be fruitful (hence the eggs). In around 300 AD constantine combined many pagan festivals with christian ideas – hence instead of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus at Passover – it was now celebrated at the time of the fertility festivals. Hence why we call it ‘easter’!
