Is Easter a Pagan Holiday?

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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.

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