Why is Easter called Easter? The surprising ancient, Pennsylvanian & German roots of this holiday

Happy Easter 2026: Every spring, billions of people across the globe mark Easter with church services, chocolate eggs, and visits from a gift‑bearing rabbit. Yet remarkably few of those celebrating have any idea why the holiday carries that name, why the date shifts so dramatically from one year to the next, or what a pre‑Christian English goddess has to do with the resurrection of Jesus. The answers reach back thousands of years and they are far more surprising than the familiar story suggests.

This was not always agreed upon. In the early centuries of Christianity, a fierce dispute divided the faithful. A group known as the Quartodecimans, from the Latin for "Fourteeners," insisted on celebrating the resurrection on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, the precise date of Passover, regardless of which day of the week it fell on. Others argued that a Sunday was non-negotiable, given that the tomb of Jesus was believed to have been discovered on that day, according to Paxton Media Group report.

The argument was settled by imperial decree, the report adds.

In AD 325, Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea, the same gathering that defined Christ as "fully human and fully divine," and ruled that Easter should be fixed to a Sunday.

Some believers suggest, the word "Easter" has nothing to do with the resurrection narrative. Its roots lie with a pre-Christian goddess.

They argue that the sole historical reference to her comes from the Venerable Bede, a British monk writing in the late seventh and early eighth century. Bede recorded that the Old English month during which Christians were celebrating the resurrection had previously been called Eosturmonath, named for a goddess called Eostre, honoured at the start of spring.

Bede's influence on subsequent Christian scholarship was so considerable that the name persisted, which is why English speakers, along with Germans and Americans, use "Easter," while much of the rest of the world uses a variant of Pascha, the Greek word for Passover.

Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus. At the time of Jesus, the festival carried an acute political charge: Judea was under Roman occupation, and Jewish pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem for Passover carried with them a fervent hope for a new deliverance.

Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem, attracted the attention of Roman authorities, and was subsequently executed around AD 30. When some of his followers reported seeing him alive three days later, a new religion was born from within that Passover moment, according to Paxton Media Group report. The timing meant it was entirely natural for early Christians to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus in the same season that Jews were celebrating exodus and liberation.

Hares and rabbits had long been associated with spring on account of their exceptional fertility. But it was in 17th-century Germany that a specific tradition emerged: an "Easter hare" that delivered eggs to well-behaved children. When German settlers arrived in Pennsylvania during the 18th and 19th centuries, they carried the custom with them to the New World. Over time, the wild hare was domesticated, quite literally, into the gentler, child-friendly Easter bunny familiar today.

Eggs, meanwhile, have a longer Christian pedigree. Decorated eggs appear in Easter celebrations at least as far back as the medieval period, their symbolism of new life making them an obvious fit for the season. Eastern European traditions elaborate this to a remarkable degree, with intricate decorating customs and legends, several of which involve eggs turning red in connection with the events of the crucifixion and resurrection.

The rehabilitation of Easter as a respectable, family-centred occasion came in the 19th century, driven partly by a desire to curb the rowdiness that had long accompanied it. The same civilising impulse reshaped Christmas during the same period. Both holidays were essentially reinvented for the Victorian domestic ideal, quieter, warmer, and firmly focused on children.