Newsgroups: alt.blasphemy,alt.christnet,alt.pagan,talk.religion.misc,,alt.christnet.bible,alt.religion.gnostic Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!dns From: dns@netcom.com (Lefty Redux) Subject: Re: ===Let's not forgot what Christmas REALLY means=== Message-ID: Organization: Our Lady of Heavy Artillery References: <4cbqqh$frf@news.eecs.umich.edu> <4cmar1$26t@news.accessone.com> Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 08:23:27 GMT Lines: 20 Sender: dns@netcom7.netcom.com Xref: shell.portal.com alt.blasphemy:2896 alt.christnet:71567 alt.pagan:140171 talk.religion.misc:198198 alt.christnet.bible:45468 alt.religion.gnostic:2748 In article <4cmar1$26t@news.accessone.com> Skytoucher writes: > >The Easter Bunny and easter eggs are, of course, not Xian in origin. >The eggs probably derive from the spring rites to which you refer. As >for the name Easter, I confess ignorance, but since this holiday was >celebrated by the Christians in the Roman Empire long before Constantine, >I have serious doubts that it derives from the Goddess Eostra. That is, >in all likelihook, a coincidental resemblance. As other posters have pointed out, the strictly English name "Easter" comes from the month in which it commonly fell. April was originally referred to as "Oestremonth". The month _was_, in fact, named after the goddess, but the holiday was not. In virtually all other languages, the name for Easter is derived from the Hebrew word for Passover, _pesach_. In French, Easter is _Paschal_, in Russian it's _pascha_, etc. -- Lefty Redux [gYon-Pa] , C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.