Are the origins of Easter within Christianity, or before that?

by svinch

Someone told me that Easter was related to the Babylonian deity Ishtar. Is this true?

talondearg

Basically, no.

What is Easter?

Easter is a festival that celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus within the Christian religion. It's primary significance lies in a theological meaning overladen on a presumed historical event.

Who is Ishtar?

Ishtar is a goddess associated with love, war, fertility within the Babylonian pantheon.

What is the presumed connection between Easter and Ishtar?

Every now and again you get the suggestion that the English word Easter derives from Ishtar. The English word is generally supposed to derive from Old English Ēostre or Ēastre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess.

This doesn't get you anywhere near the origin of Easter, since Easter didn't begin in an Anglo-Saxon cultural/historical context at all. It began in a Judaic/Hellenistic context under Roman rule, and the name for Easter across those languages is derived from pesach (Hebrew), "Passover", so Pascha in Latin, and Πάσχα in Greek.

There is some mention in Bede in the 8th century that Ēostur-monath had changed in meaning since feasts in honour of Ēostre have been replaced by Paschal feasts, i.e. pagan holiday replaced by Christian one.

Some Eastern traditions may derive from co-opting pagan ones, but Easter itself doesn't appear to be a borrowing, and certainly not of the name Ishtar, since you are leaping across a good 6-700 years of church history before the name Easter appears.