What About Easter?

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The word "Easter," comes from "Eastre," the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of Spring and fertility (see source). The rabbit was sacred to the Germanic goddess "Eastre." It appears that at one time, there was a custom among ancient Egyptians and Romans to give eggs as presents at this time of the year. That was intended to insure that the recipient would have fertile and productive year (source).

Many of the customs associated with Easter, illustrate this and other pagan connections. The yearly observance soon included Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and a whole season of Lent. Assimilation of pagan practice into "Christian" observances, became quite common. The egg, was simply borrowed as a symbol of the "Christian" holiday. Some were dyed red to represent Christ's shed blood. The term Easter, is found only once in the King James Bible in Acts 12:4, and is a mistranslation. The Greek word translated "Easter" is "pascha," and is correctly rendered "passover" in later translations (Acts 12:4 NKJV). It is obvious that the King James translators used this term in a passage where the context  clearly shows that a Christian holiday is not being discussed at all, but the killing of James, the brother of John by Herod (Acts 12:1-2).

The practice of a yearly observance of Easter, began early in the form of a "Christian" Passover. Many Jews continued to keep their Jewish customs and religious holidays after their conversion to Christ. Even Paul was not adverse to observing Jewish customs when expedient (Acts 18:18-21), but his teaching indicates they were kept on an individual basis (Romans 14:5-6 and should not be bound on others (Gal. 2:3-5). Paul condemns observing certain days set aside by man in a religious sense (Gal. 4:8-11). Shortly after the death of the apostles, some of the Jewish festivals began to be observed as Christian festivals. Easter was officially recognized by a church sliding into apostasy in A.D. 325 at the Council of Nicea (source)

The Scriptures tell us that Christ instituted the Lord's Supper as the proper memorial to commemorate His death (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-36). Both biblical and historical evidence indicate that this was a weekly observance (Acts 20:7; Acts 16:2). The Bible is virtually silent regarding any yearly observance of Christ's resurrection, and thus is based upon human tradition, not God's word. Our Lord warned of the danger of human traditions (Mark 7:1-13). Traditions of men are wrong when they become matters of doctrine or a practice bound upon all, or when they displace the commands of God by the keeping of the tradition.

 —Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets

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