Karly

Easter has always been a time of celebration. Whether it’s chocolate eggs and pastel baskets, early springtime blossoms, or the deeply held religious meaning of resurrection and renewal, the word “Easter” carries centuries of tradition, but have you ever stopped to wonder where the word itself comes from?

This week, I found myself thinking about that exact question. As someone who loves tracing words back to their roots, peeling back layers of history and myth, I couldn’t help but dig into the story behind “Easter.” And, like so many etymological rabbit holes (fitting, in this case), it led me somewhere surprising.

The Pagan Goddess Theory

One of the most widely shared theories comes from the Venerable Bede, an English monk writing in the 8th century. According to Bede, the word Easter (Old English: Ēastre or Ēostre) was named after a pagan goddess of spring and fertility. This goddess, Ēostre, was supposedly celebrated with a festival around the spring equinox.

However, it’s worth noting that Bede is our only written source on this goddess—there are no surviving myths, rituals, or depictions of Ēostre elsewhere. Some scholars have speculated that Bede may have been blending Christian and pre-Christian ideas, or even interpreting the linguistic roots based on the calendar.

Still, the imagery associated with Ēostre (rabbits, eggs, springtime) is undeniably tied to the symbols we now see everywhere during the Easter season.

From East to Easter

Another layer to this story is the directional link: the word Easter may be connected to the word east, the direction of the sunrise, symbolizing rebirth, hope, and new beginnings. In Proto-Germanic, austrōn- means “dawn,” and it comes from the Proto-Indo-European root aus- meaning “to shine” or “to rise.”

So Easter, in its name alone, may be tied not just to religious observance or folklore, but to something even more ancient: the sun itself, rising again after winter, promising light.

But Not Everywhere…

Interestingly, the word Easter is primarily used in English and German (Ostern). In most other languages, the holiday takes its name from Passover, or Pesach, the Jewish holiday that corresponds to the same time of year and is deeply connected to the Christian story of Easter.

For example:

• Spanish: Pascua
• French: Pâques
• Italian: Pasqua
• Greek: Πάσχα (Pascha)

All of these derive from the Latin Pascha, which comes from the Aramaic and Hebrew Pesach, marking a direct linguistic line from Judaism to early Christianity.

There’s something poetic about all of this, about how a single word can carry echoes of spring goddesses, sunrise rituals, ancient languages, and shifting faiths. Whether you call it Easter, Ostern, or Pasqua, the heart of the celebration remains renewal, transformation, and light returning after darkness.

And maybe that’s why I love words so much. They aren’t just tools; they’re time capsules. Little traces of the past folded into our present.

What do you call Easter where you’re from? Have you ever thought about the roots of holiday words like this one? I’d love to hear your thoughts. 🌷