Why Easter is called Easter, and other little-known facts about the holiday [View all]

[guillaumeb]

Jumping right to the heart of the article:

The naming of the celebration as “Easter” seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century.

Christian leadership, similar to the Romans before them, often appropriated local non-Christian religious holidays as a way of encouraging acceptance of Christianity.

For more:

http://religionnews.com/2017/04/13/why-easter-is-called-easter-and-other-little-known-facts-about-the-holiday/