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EASTER

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · May 5, 1885

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 18

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EASTER

By Roswell F. Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
The festival called Easter is becoming more generally observed in the churches of various denominations than formerly. According to reports, the one just past was celebrated more generally than any previous one. Considering its increasing popularity, it may be well to inquire concerning its origin.
That which our English translators have rendered Easter (Acts 12:4) is in the original the passover, a feast of the Jews. The early Christians of Jewish descent were very naturally inclined to celebrate their ancient festival. This always came on a certain day of the month, and consequently on different days of the week. But the western churches introduced the practice of keeping it always on Sunday, the Sunday following Good Friday. “Victor, bishop of Rome, in the year 196, took it upon him to impose the Roman custom upon all the churches, that is, to compel them to observe the passover upon Sunday.” He did not at that time succeed; but afterward “the Council of Nice (A. D. 325) ordered the solemnity of Easter to be kept everywhere on the same day, after the custom of Rome.” Thus it seems that Rome, the power that was to think to change times and laws (Dan. 7:25), is the authority for observing this festival always on Sunday, the day which has been substituted by the same authority in place of the Sabbath of the Lord.
Easter as now held is not a Jewish institution. Like the Sunday Sabbath, it has pagan as well as papal features. Chambers’ Encyclopedia gives the following definition: “Easter (Ger. ostern, Fr. paque, Scot. pasch, from Gr. pascha, the passover), the festival of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, derives probably its Teutonic name from the festival of the goddess Ostara, in Anglo-Saxon Eastre, which the Saxons of old were wont to celebrate about the same season at which the Christian festival of Easter occurs.” Further he says: “Many of the popular observances connected with Easter are clearly of pagan origin. The goddess Ostara or Eastre seems to have been the personification of the morning or east, and also of the opening year or spring. The Anglo-Saxon name of April was Estormonath; and it is still known in Germany as Ostermonath. The worship of this being seems to have struck deep root in Northern Germany, and was brought into England by the Saxons. It continued to be celebrated in many parts of the north of Germany down to the beginning of the present century, by the kindling of bonfires and numerous other rites. . . . With her usual policy, the church endeavored to give a Christian significance to such of the rites as could not be rooted out; and in this case the conversion was particularly easy.”
Would that the ten commandments were increasing in popularity as fast as is Easter.