Easter is known for its bunny rabbits, colored eggs, hot cross buns, and the return of springtime. But where did Easter come from?
Few people realize that Easter is not about the resurrection of Christ. The only time the word “Easter” is found in the Bible (Acts 12:4), it is there by mistranslation. The word in the original Greek is “Passover.” Jesus died at the time of the Passover feast, but the Passover is not Easter and Jesus did not die at Easter time. Easter is an ancient spring festival. Long before the time of Christ, the pagan goddess Ishtar, or sometimes known as Astarte or Ashtoreth, was worshiped in different countries. Our modern practice of sunrise worship originates from the pagan festival honoring Ishtar. The story of Easter also helps explain how Sunday became sacred and the origin of virgin worship.
The Scheme of Imitation
Centuries before the birth of Christ, Satan encouraged people to have religious beliefs and practices that would imitate the coming Saviour’s resurrection.
This was a brilliant strategy that kept people from recognizing and appreciating the plan of Salvation. Because pagans had similar beliefs of a “resurrection” before Christ, it is much easier to say that Christ’s resurrection was just another version of the same old pagan story from long ago that has nothing to do with reality or a plan of salvation of any kind. Many scoffers use this type of reasoning to explain away the Bible’s truths.
The sacrificial system was also imitated by pagans, but perverted to be all about appeasing a wrathful God instead of a loving God that became flesh and died willingly in our place. Satan has always counterfeited and perverted the truth because he knows that if he does so, many will be led to disbelieve the Bible and not choose Christ.
The early pagan practices and beliefs about Ishtar and the resurrection prepared the world for the religious apostasy which would occur after the time of Christ. The pagans believed in a god that was resurrected each spring on Easter—a day which was dedicated to Ishtar, the mother goddess. She was also called the queen of heaven and supposedly interceded with the gods on behalf of humankind. This precise belief has been applied to Mary by the Roman Catholic Church, but it is as pagan as it gets, and has no basis in the Bible whatsoever.
The mother goddess has had many names throughout the various pagan religions in history. She has been known as Astarte, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Cybele, Rhea, Demeter, Ceres, Aphrodite, Venus, Diana, and Freya.
Easter did not originate for the purpose of celebrating Christ, but rather for the purpose of worshiping the mother goddess Ishtar. Because worshipers of Ishtar presented her with two fertility symbols—eggs and rabbits—these became part of the Christian Easter celebration. Because sunrise at the beginning of spring was the holiest day in the Mithraic calendar (next to December 25), the practice of Easter sunrise services continued on into Christianity.
Because the Ishtar celebration was held each spring on a Sunday, close to the vernal equinox, the ascension of Christ was changed from 40 days after the time of Passover (as told us in the Bible) to the annual Easter celebration. All this began in paganism, with the Ishtar and Tammuz legend.
Many Christians celebrate Easter as the day celebrating the resurrection of Christ, but the truth is that the celebration of Easter actually comes from paganism.
This article is adapted by Wendy Goubej from Vance Ferrell, Christmas, Easter and Halloween—Where Do They Come From? (Altamont, TN: Harvestime Books, 2003).