The following edited information is from a book by Alexander Hislop titled The Two Babylons, a compilation of a massive amount of research material on various subject matters related to the ancient city of Babylon and it’s connections, in both spirit and practices, to the Roman Catholic Church:
“What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country (Britain). That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar (pronounced Easter). The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, ‘the priests of the groves.’...From Bel, the 1st of May is still called Beltane in the Almanac; and we have customs still lingering at this day among us, which prove how exactly the worship of Bel or Moloch (for both titles belonged to the same god) had been observed even in the northern parts of this island…. If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be difficult to believe that his consort Astarte was also adored by our ancestors, and that from Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now practised, are called by the name of Easter--that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath. The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover, and though not of Apostolic institution, was very early observed by many professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ....That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a period which, in the days of Tertullian, at the end of the second century, was believed to have been the 23rd of March. That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. ‘It ought to be known,’ said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, ‘that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate.’
From a self-professed witch, “Easter is named for a Saxon goddess who was known by the names of Oestre or Eastre, and in Germany by the name of Ostara. She is a goddess of the dawn and the spring, and her name derives from words for dawn, the shining light arising from the east….
“Ostara was, of course, a fertility goddess. Bringing in the end of winter, with the days brighter and growing longer after the vernal equinox, Ostara had a passion for new life. Her presence was felt in the flowering of plants and the birth of babies, both animal and human. The rabbit (well known for its propensity for rapid reproduction) was her sacred animal."
From a Christian, P. Taylor, “Basically, almost every vile, profane and idolatrous practice you can think of originated at Babel with Queen Semiramis, the Mother Goddess and Nimrod. As the people scattered from Babel with their different languages, they, of course, used different names for Nimrod (Tammuz) and Semiramis. Some called the Mother Goddess “ISHTAR” (originally pronounced “Easter”). In other lands, she was called Eostre, Astarte, Ostera, and Eastre. Other names for Semiramis, the Mother Goddess include: Wife of Baal, Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth, and Queen of Heaven. [The names Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth, and Queen of Heaven where used for Semiramis by the Israelites and the ungodly peoples around them, see Judges 2:13, Jeremiah 44:17-19, etc. Other names for Semiramis include Astarte (Cyprus), Diana (Ephesus and throughout Asia Minor), Cybele (Asia Minor), Isis (Egypt), Aphrodite, Ceres (Greece), Venus or Fortuna (Romans), Shingmoo (China), Disa (Scandanavia), Nutria (Etruscans), Virgo-Paritura (Druids), Isi or Indrani or Devaki (India).] The Mother goddess was frequently worshipped as the goddess of fertility - and as a sort of Mother Nature and goddess of Spring and sexual love and birth. She was also worshipped as a mediator between god and man (as the Roman Catholics do with Mary). Sexual orgies and temple prostitutes were often used in her worship and in attempting to gain her favor.”The word Easter is undoubtedly pagan in his roots and meaning. Why Christians continue to associate this word with the day of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour can likely be attributed to ignorance on the subject. May Christians let their yea be yea and their nay be nay and stop calling a duck an elephant.
