Eggs, bunnies and Jesus Christ: the history and origins of Easter

Easter was originally a celebration of Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of sex, fertility, war, and religiously-sanctioned prostitutes, but evolved over centuries, blending Christian and non-Christian elements together. Hence the origins of the springtime celebration are far more complicated than you might expect

Where does the word ‘Easter’ come from?

The term seemingly derives from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, who was celebrated as she escaped Winter’s harsh clutches.

• Bede, the 8th-century monk, mentions the fourth month of April as “Eostre-month,” and feasts are celebrated in honor of the goddess
• Many cultures refer to the season by terms translated from “Pesach” or “Passover”
• Passover was the Jewish celebration of the liberation of the Children of Israel from Egypt by Moses

How does Easter relate to Jesus?

The Last Supper was the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his Crucifixion, when the bread and goblet of wine were dispersed as elements of his own body on the day now known as Maundy Thursday.

• Christ was therefore perceived as the New Pascha (Latin for ‘Passover’), and the celebration of his resurrection became the first Christian feast.

Easter eggs

Eggs were one of the foods forbidden during Lent, the 40-day fasting period of reflection and penitential preparation leading up to Easter.

• In the medieval period, any eggs laid during Lent were boiled for preservation so that when Easter Sunday rolled around, eggs were back on the menu.
• And eggs weren’t just used as a food source: a rural practice known as ‘pace-egging’ was common, where costumed groups roamed villages for eggs then given as gifts (similar to’mumming’) to the church as Good Friday offerings and to the lord of the manor.

Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the vernal equinox (on or around 21 March) of the northern hemisphere, when the sun is exactly above the equator, and day and night are of almost equal length.

What might have happened to Jesus’s body following his crucifixion

Where did the Easter bunny originate?

17th-century Heidelberg-based physicians Georg Franck von Franckenau and Johannes Richier in De ovis paschalibus (‘About Easter eggs’) did describe hares hiding baskets of brightly painted eggs for children to find.

• An earlier reference (from 1572) to an Easter ‘Hare’ which appeared at night to ‘lay’ eggs, again for the children to search continued as German settlers came to America and spread the tradition throughout the nation.

Who decided that Easter would be celebrated on this day?

Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, convened the Council of Nicaea and decreed that Christ’s resurrection was far too important to be connected with the festival of another faith

• Constantine ordained that Easter was to fall in close proximity to a similar significant time in the solar year
• Did the issues surrounding the calculation of the Easter date end with the Nicaea decree? No – confusion rumbled on as differing methods led to Easter being celebrated twice

When did Easter church services first begin?

In the northern hemisphere, each year the end of winter’s darkness was met with excitement over the coming of spring’s light.

• By the Middle Ages, it was only natural to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at this seasonal time, with religious services mirroring the changes.

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