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Journal of Roman Archeology
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But one member of our modern intelligentsia a century ago tried to bamboozle us, saying "easter" -- which in Germany goes by way of the "cognate Ostern" -- does not trace to a pagan goddess. Ostern supposedly derives from "auferstehn" meaning "resurrection" in German. (Ed. Christian Cruse, Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (1905) at 194 fn. 1.) This is false. Ostern in Germany today derives from worshipping the same goddess as the British called Eostre, and for the same compromising reason. The Christians in Germany chose to celebrate Christ's resurrection using the same term as had been used to worship Ostara -- her name Ostara. So there is no possibility that the name originated in Germany to signify Christ's resurrection. Here are the facts. In Germany, according to Jacob Grimm, a linquist of highest caliber, in his 1835 work explained "the great Christian festival in the oldest of [Old High German] remains the name of Ostard. " (J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology (4th Ed. George Bell & Sons 1882) Vol. I at 289-91. [Text is in Internet archives - search 289 until "Ostara" appears. Note some OCR mispellings need to be ignored.] Grimm goes on, explaining it is "mostly found in the plural [Ostara], for two days were kept at Easter." Then Grimm draws a parallel to Easter: "This Ostard, like Eostre, must in the heathen religion denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of its own grandest annivesaries." (Id. at 290.) This means that what is Ostern today in Germany was originally named the day of "Ostard" - plural "Ostara" -- the same as the name of goddess whose two days would worship her, just like was the usage of Eostre -- the name of the goddess herself in English as well as the name of the day to worship her. Hence, Ostern -- as Easter is now known in Germany -- does not come from "auferstehn" but from Ostard, Ostara -- which terms Christians used to celebrate this day into the period of Old High German use. This in turn matches the name of the goddess who in the Celtic language is Eostre, which Bede in the 800s identified as the fertility goddess, and that the British would not give up her name. Obviously, the Germans did the identical thing. Then Cruse (or later editor) had the audacity to add to his falsehood that "Easter" is "undoubtedly preferable" to name the day of celebrating Christ's resurrection over the name Passover -- because Easter supposedly means resurrection as opposed to what he derogatorily refers to as "Passover" -- a "primitive name" used at the time of Christ. One can see in this the disgusting effort to double-down on a falsehood by suggesting it would be wrong to abandon Easter for the true time periods -- Passover -- and use the proper Biblical term of celebration -- Passover. Incidentally, no one other than Cruse has ever offered this explanation of Ostern in German. This is likely because it has a 100% obviously false premise. END UPDATE.
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