Home Gudgeon and gist Language Log Easter: eggs and rabbits

Easter: eggs and rabbits

Language Log 2025-04-21

This morning, as is my wont, I stepped out on my stoop to test the weather.  Across the street, I saw children running around picking up eggs that had been hidden in the grass here and there and delightedly putting them in the baskets they held with one hand.  These eggs were colored, all right, but made of plastic, not the kind of natural eggs we used to spend a lot of time on boiling and dyeing and, if we were fancy and clever, making designs and even using multiple colors through a combination of melted wax and various tools and techniques.  I fondly recall the olfactory and tactile sensations of vinegar, melted wax used during the process, and smooth egg shells.

Really elaborately decorated Easter eggs are called pysanky (plural form of pysanka from the Ukrainian word pysaty meaning "to write" (source), cf. Russian письменность ("writing").  You don't have to be a pro and make pysanky like the ones shown here, but you can derive a lot of fun and satisfaction making your own colored Easter eggs that are dyed and decorated in a fashion that is commensurate with your time and talents.

So, I knew for sure it was Easter because of the squeals of excitement the children made when they found another egg.  Once again, as I had many times in the past, I pondered what "Easter" had to do with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and with bunnies and eggs.  (Ditto for similar feelings about Yuletide and the birth of Christ.  I won't go into that today, but might in late December if someone reminds me then about "Calling Christmas Christmas" 12/25/11).

The direct meaning of "Easter" is fairly transparent:  related to the East, whence cometh the sun, bringing the warmness and brightness of the spring.  Having lived through a winter in Uppsala, Sweden, where there wasn't much warmth and light during the winter months, I can attest that people grow stir-crazy waiting for the sun to rise in the east as soon as possible.  Punxsutawney Phil's dilatory behavior on February 2 this year at the other end of the state of Pennsylvania exacerbated my own desire for the vernal equinox (see the discussion of Ēastre below) to arrive as soon as possible.

What is Easter?

For most people today,

Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic, Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

But not for pagans:

The modern English term Easter, cognate with German Ostern, developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, Ēastron, or Ēastran; but also as Ēastru, Ēastro; and Ēastre or Ēostre. In the 8th century AD, Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar Bede recorded in his The Reckoning of Time that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English for 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as "Paschal month") was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month".

In Latin and Greek, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), a word derived from Aramaic פסחא (Paskha), cognate to the Hebrew פֶּסַח‎ (Pesach). The word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt. As early as 50 AD, Paul the Apostle, writing from Ephesus to the Christians in Corinth, applied the term to Christ. It is unlikely that the Ephesian and Corinthian Christians were the first to hear Exodus 12 interpreted as speaking about the death of Jesus, not just about the Jewish Passover ritual. In most languages, the feast is known by names derived from the Greek and Latin Pascha. Pascha is also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration. Others call the holiday "Resurrection Sunday" or "Resurrection Day", after the Greek Ἀνάστασις, Anastasis, 'Resurrection' day.

(Wikipedia; for fuller treatments, see Ēostre and Names of Easter)

Not just the names of the festival indicate a pagan origin for Easter, the eggs and the bunnies also betray its pagan background.

The association of bunnies with Easter stems from ancient pagan traditions, particularly the festival of Eostre, a goddess of fertility and spring, whose symbol was the hare.  If you know anything about rabbits, you are probably aware of their prolific breeding traits.  Eggs are associated with Easter due to their symbolism of new life. In paganism, eggs represent fertility and rebirth.

On the other hand, as a young Christian, I performed in and witnessed many an Easter play and pageant.  And I can tell you for sure that Christians fervently believe in the resurrection of Christ.  I won't go into details here, but I will give you one example of how entrenched it is in their belief.

On the occasion of one of the Easter plays I was in, about 75 years ago, the cast practiced for more than a month to get it just right.  The name of the girl who played Mary Magdalene was Barbara Little, but she was not little.  In fact, she was chubby and spoke with a pronounced lisp.

Barbara had one line in the play, and we all encouraged her to keep calm and speak slowly.  The line had only five words, and she tended to make the same error each time she spoke it.  At last, Barbara's moment came.  There was deathly silence in the church.  People could barely breathe, there was so much palpable angst in the atmosphere.

Barbara walked up to the front of Jesus's empty tomb and proclaimed in her loudest thespian voice:  "the thone hath rolleded away!"

 

Selected readings