The truth about Easter! The actual entries for the Catholic Encyclopedia are listed below. I recommend that you get your information from real Catholics and from real Catholic sites like Catholic Answers. See this: http://catholicfirst.com/thefaith/churchfathers/volume01/ignatius06.cfm It was written by the bishop of the church In Antioch who was a close friend and disciple of St. John, who was the last of the apostles to die. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm (on Easter) http://www.catholic.com/ (Catholic Answers) Pax vobiscum,

Easter for centuries has been a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and is in most places a uniquely Christian holiday. The date of the celebration of Easter is related to the Jewish calendar date of Passover, because Jesus was crucified just before Passover. Information has been published about pagan roots of the symbols, date and even the name "Easter," but this information is not necessarily true or reliable and the church has Christian meanings for many, if not all of those symbols. Just as the cross, which was a symbol of torture and execution to much of the Roman world, has become instead a symbol of life and redemption to Christians, so many of the reportedly pagan symbols of Easter have real Christian meaning in most churches. Just because something has a non-Christian meaning or even root (like a cross or perhaps a fish) does not make it necessarily unacceptable to God or Christians. Some believers and churches reject all such symbols. At least one religious group rejects all holidays. This is not the historic or common Christian position. Unfortunately, like Christmas, much of the meaning of the holiday is lost on the popular culture and believers must work at keeping the meaning of the holiday in opposition to the fluff of chocolate bunnies and colored marshmallow candies, etc., but I would contend that the church need not abandon something just because the secular society around us perverts it.

Easter is on the calendar in almost every Christian church and country, and the vast majority of people called Christians accept and celebrate it as the remembrance of Jesus resurrection. In all the modern world, Easter is an irrefutably Christian holiday (though now tainted by commercialism). [Response to Hedrick: The word "Easter" resembles the name of a couple of ancient "gods" but until about 1980 (if I remember right) almost nobody in the modern world knew or cared. Whether the spelling or pronounciation of the word came from one of these is irrelevant to me. If it was discovered that there was an ancient diety who was called something like "Church" or "Bible" I would not suddenly cease to use the word... that is silly. And so is refusing to accept "Easter" because it might have derived from a pagan source.] Early Christians, including Jesus and his disciples, recognized religious holidays and feasts. They had just finished the ceremonial celebration of the annual Passover feast when Jesus was arrested and subsequently crucified. Some today insist that all the rules changed when Jesus died or was raised, but the Bible says God does not change, so it stands to reason that God is (still) not offended by the concept of festivals, holidays or other celebrations. I believe in the Bible He condemns those who perverted the observances. The Bible also specifically tells us "do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day," (Col. 2:16) and "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord." (Rom. 14:5,6) Those who insist that the Bible does not condone holidays have to ignore or contort these verses to come to that position. Some honestly believe we should not have holidays and I do not condemn people who disagree with me about them. Those who accept the Bible can't justly condemn those who do or do not celebrate Easter as the annual recognition of Jesus resurrection.

It is obviously a christian holiday since it is celebrated by most christians, the question should be (and was probably intended to find out) why easter is clebrated when it is and when did christians start celebrating it. The very short answer is that many pagan religions celebrated a fertility festival in spring, when christianity spread to Rome the christian feast days (eg xmas, easter etc) were intentionally aligned to fit the dates of pagan festivals to ease the convertion of the populous and also obliterate the memory of the old religious holidays.

In the interest of clarifying a distortion posted in this thread, the context of a partial quote posted elsewhere from the Catholic Encycopedia: "The English term, according to the Ven. Bede (De temporum ratione, I, v), relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown, even in the Edda (Simrock, Mythol., 362); Anglo-Saxon, eâster, eâstron; Old High German, ôstra, ôstrara, ôstrarûn; German, Ostern. April was called easter-monadh..." "The Romance languages have adopted the Hebrew-Greek term: Latin, Pascha; Italian, Pasqua; Spanish, Pascua..." I seriously doubt that those who reject the holiday would accept it if the English and German speaking churches adopted the "Pascha" term rather than "Easter/Ostern," and I believe the whole argument that it is a pagan festival because of the name is misguided. The article does deal with the names that are used to refer to the holiday but nowhere suggests the holiday itself has pagan roots - it does list without endorsement or defense symbols and peculiar customs related to "Easter time." It appears to me the encyclopedia references another source (Ven. Bede) without confirming or supporting it. In fact, the context suggests to me uncertainty if not skepticism ("however... otherwise unknown") about the association with "Estre". I also do not see that Ven. Bede's association with "Estre" (written in the 700s) necessarily explains the Old German "ôstra" (though I am sure others do). Note: Ven. Bede was apparently a sainted monk of Anglo-Saxon descent who wrote well-respected commentary on the Bible. I know some of you disagree, I maintain the position that the sound of the name is not relevant. Even if some form of the word was once associated with an imagined power or diety, it is still just a word - and a word which does not have those associations for most people in the world.