While rabbits and eggs have no direct connection to Jesus, the word “Easter” is derived from the ancient German word for “rise,” which is synonymous with the concept of rising from the dead; this is the reason we call the direction the sun rises in “east” in English. English is a Germanic language, not a Latin one, so it uses a different word for Easter than Latin-based languages like Spanish and French. Latin languages use a variation of “Pasha,” the Latin/Greek translation of “Pesach.” Pesach is the Hebrew word for Passover, a.k.a “The Festival of Unleavened Bread”. Some argue that Easter is a pagan holiday because it is linked to the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar. The connection between Ishtar and Easter is a false cognate. Those language groups aren’t even in the same family, since the word “Easter” is derived from English and German.

First, Passover is the actual biblical holiday. Jesus’ Last Supper was the Passover meal, and Jesus rose on the day of the First Fruits offering, which is received after the Sabbath following Passover (Lev 23:9-14). Jesus called himself the bread of life (John 6:32-40), which is a reference to unleavened bread. Leaven is often used as an analogy for sin (Gal 5:7-10, 1 Cor 5:5-7), so Jesus is saying that he is a sinless person, which sets him apart from the rest of humanity. This is just like how unleavened bread (matzah) is distinguished from leavened bread (chametz). Passover points to Jesus’ blood being the agent that liberates believers from sin and removes their leaven, saving them from the consequences of sin, which is death. Just like how God spared the firstborn sons of Israel from the final plague with the blood of lambs on the doorpost, because of Jesus’ blood, we are spared condemnation for our sins. In addition, the Israelites were instructed to eat the Passover lamb without leaving anything behind and burning up anything that wasn’t eaten (Ex 12:10, Ex 23:18). This is similar to how God’s presence within believers (the Holy Spirit) purifies them daily by burning away sin (or yeast) and making them like Jesus, the unleavened bread. Lastly, the Israelites were instructed to eat the lamb without breaking its bones (Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Psalms 34:20), a practice connected to the fact that Jesus was crucified without breaking any bones, as recorded in John 19:36. 

With all that being said, it is not sinful to celebrate Easter when it is put in a biblical context and points to Jesus alone. Rabbits and eggs have nothing to do with Passover, so those things are not necessary, and for some believers, those things are considered sinful because of their pagan origins, much like Santa Claus and pine trees on Christmas. Early Christians adopted eggs because of their association with phoenix legends, and the Phoenix is known for “rising” from the ashes, just like how Christ “rose” from the dead. So it seems more like cultural appropriation rather than pagan worship. Pagans worshipped everything under the sun, including the sun, so it’s tough to find anything that somebody in history didn’t worship.

Our word ”Easter” comes from the Saxons and is similar to the German cognate “ostern”, which is derived from the old Teutonic form of “auferstehn”, which means resurrection. English is a Germanic language, meaning its main words are derived from the Germanic languages. So, Easter, coming from the German word “Ostern,” makes sense. Ishtar, Astarte, and other names are Babylonian and part of the Akkadian language, which belongs to the Semitic language family, not the Germanic one. Therefore, the connection to Ishtar is a false association. 

In Hebrew, Passover (The Festival of Unleavened Bread) is called Pesach (פֶסַח). This is transliterated into the Greek word Páscha (Πάσχα), which is carried over into Latin as the same word. So Latin-based languages and a few others refer to the holiday Easter with a transliterated form of Pascha. In Latin languages, it’s Páscoa in Portuguese, Pasqua in Italian, Pascua in Spanish, and Pâques in French. Other non-Latin languages, such as Finnish (Pääsiäinen), Dutch (Pasen), and Indonesian (Paskah), also use variants of Pascha. English and German use “Easter” or “Ostern” to refer to the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. Some other languages also use their native words for ‘resurrection’ to describe Easter, such as Serbian (Uskrs or Vaskrs), Vietnamese (lễ Phục sinh), Chinese (Fùhuó Jié/复活节), and Korean (Buhwalchol/부활절). These are the native words for the “rise” or “resurrection” in these languages.

Regarding the English translations of Pesach in the Bible, a process involving multiple Bible translators over several hundred years was involved. John Wycliffe, the earliest translator to publish a complete New Testament in English (1382), translated from the Latin Vulgate, Pascha to Pask. In addition, when Martin Luther translated the Bible into German (the New Testament in 1522), he used the word “Oster” to refer to Passover. Lastly, William Tyndale, who translated the New Testament into English from Greek (1525), uses the word “ester” to refer to the Passover. He coined the term Passover to describe how God “passed over” the houses marked with the blood of the lamb (Exodus 12). Ester and Oster are both based on the root word aus, which is used for shine, dawn, and east. The usage of “ester” was retained in the 1534 revision of the New Testament. Later, the “a” was added to “ester,” and it became Easter. Luther and Tyndale were the first to use a translation of “Pascha” rather than a transliteration of it into a different word.

If Easter originated from Ishtar/Inanna, which comes from the Akkadian language, then the Latin languages would also use a variation of Ishtar rather than Pesach (Passover). This is because Latin derives its alphabet from Greek, which in turn derived it from the Phoenicians, who used the same proto-Sinaitic script as Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Syriac. Instead of Páscha, the Latin/Greek would have to be a cognate of Ishtar if it truly came from that source. Since that isn’t the case, there is no direct connection between the Semitic Akkadian word “Ishtar” and the Anglo/Saxon word “Easter”. The Easter to Ishtar thread is a false cognate from a linguistic standpoint.

The theory connecting Ishtar to Easter was started by a British bishop named Alexander Hislop in the 1800s. He also referred to Christmas as a pagan holiday. His argument was based mainly on phonetics because the old Germanic deity Eostre sounded like Astarte, Ishtar, and Ashtoreth (various names for the love goddesses in the Ancient Near East). He believed that Ishtar and Easter were cognates. Cognates are words that sound similar and have the same meaning but are used in different languages. In Spanish and English, some words sound the same and have the same sense, such as celebración (celebration) and academia (academy). There are also examples of words that seem like cognates because of similar sounds and meanings, but have different etymologies (word origins) and are therefore not related to one another. For example, the Spanish word “embarazada” means “pregnant,” but to an English speaker, it appears to mean “embarrassed.” These false cognates can be within the same language or from different languages. 

Even if Easter came from the name of an old Germanic goddess (Eostre), its use today doesn’t apply to that. Just like modern Westerners don’t think about worshipping the sun on Sunday or the moon on Monday. Nor do we think about honoring Julius Caesar in July. Some words have ancient meanings tied to ancient religions, like the days of the week in most Western languages, but that doesn’t mean that modern speakers are automatically worshipping Norse gods on those days. No one is complaining about Thursday being a reference to Thor. Likewise, with Spanish speakers and the Roman gods, since their days are named after Roman deities. History and word origin are unavoidable aspects of linguistics, and every word carries some cultural baggage from an ancient culture, despite any secularization that occurs with modern usage; that’s just linguistics. Even some Hebrew words are borrowed from the Canaanite language. The words for the sun (shemesh | שֶׁמֶשׁ) and the Moon (yareach | יָרֵחַ) in Hebrew are the exact words that the Canaanites used, and they worshipped the sun and the moon as gods. Easter bunnies and similar symbols may or may not have pagan origins, but these traditions are unrelated to Jesus or the Bible. They, therefore, are not connected to Resurrection Day or Easter for a biblical Christian. Those are simply the “traditions of men”.

One final note: The First Fruits offering took place during the week-long Passover celebration, specifically on the first day after the Passover Sabbath, which is the day Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:1-10). Paul tells us that Christ is the “first fruit” of those who will be raised from the dead (1 Cor 15:20-23). Passover was the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar (Leviticus 23:4-8), and then the next day was the beginning of the seven-day Pesach (Festival of Unleavened Bread). This was the day Jesus was crucified (Good Friday). The first and seventh days of Pesach were Sabbaths. The First Fruits celebration was on the first day after the first Passover Sabbath (Lev 23:9-14), according to Pharisaic tradition. Sadducee tradition believed that First Fruits was after the weekly Sabbath. Since the Sadducees were the ruling party in the first century, First Fruits was observed on the 17th day (Sunday), as it fell after the weekly Sabbath (Saturday). Different sects of Jews observed Passover on different days. This may explain why the Gospel of John has Passover occur a day after the other Gospels, as he is referencing the national Passover (Sadducees) as opposed to the sectarian Passover (Pharisees). Pentecost occurred fifty days after that Sabbath (Lev 23:15-16), so the first of those 50 days started at First Fruits. This means the resurrection initiated a 50-day countdown until the distribution of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, as described in Acts 2.

Just as the first fruits offered to God under the Old Covenant anticipated the fuller harvest to come, we can expect the same final harvest in the final resurrection (John 5:25-30, Revelation 20), since Jesus is the “first fruit” of the resurrection, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. Additionally, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon God’s people on Shavuot, also known as Pentecost (Acts 2). Receiving the Holy Spirit marks those who are saved for the final harvest, when they will receive eternal life. The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is 50 days after the first Sabbath of Passover (or 49 days after the First Fruits). This is also known as Pentecost (from the Greek term pentekostos, meaning “fiftieth”), which was a grand celebration at the end of the grain harvest (Lev 23:15-22). 

Thus, Jesus connects Passover, First Fruits, and Pentecost. Easter is just a one-word term that sums them all up into the event of his death as our Passover lamb, resurrection as the First Fruit of all who receive eternal life, and the distribution of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost marking God’s children and distinguishing them from the word as Paul writes in Romans 8:5-11. Enough with this “Easter is pagan” nonsense, celebrate Jesus without painting eggs and talking about magic bunnies if it offends you, it’s that simple. If Christians can celebrate Christmas without Santa Claus, pine trees, and Yule Logs, then they can celebrate Easter without bunnies and eggs.

Sources:
An Ecclesiastical History to the Twentieth Year of the Reign of Constantine, 4th ed., Eusebius of Caesarea, trans. Christian F. Cruse (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1847), 221.
Beyond Ishtar The Tradition of Eggs At Easter
In-depth article debunking the Easter Linguistic roots