Easter/Ostara/Esotre. Pagan origins or not?

There's an interesting discussion going on at the about.com link which you posted. It turns out that the writer of the article, Catherine Beyer considers herself a "neo-pagan", so she would, presumably, have every reason to accept a celebration of a putative goddess 'Eostre' if there were evidence for one. As she says, the sole reference which we have to a goddess of this name comes from the writings of Bede. I don't think that he would have made it up, exactly, though he might have got his wires crossed. What is true is that many cultures have a celebration of the spring equinox and it doesn't really matter what it is called or whether what you celebrate at this time is the return of the sun or the resurrection of the Son of God or, indeed, the event of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt in search of a land which they believe was promised to them by their God. Religions are not things which magically spring up complete and wholly distinct from anything else. They arise out of changes in interpretation of older religions and grow into what they are over many hundreds of years. Elements of a religion almost inevitably have parallels with other religions either because there is a particular feature in the calendar which is noticed and celebrated by many people all over the world or because older celebrations have been acknowledged and reconsecrated by newer religions. A spring festival which used the symbols of rabbits (actually, more likely hares) and eggs seems to have been a Northern European celebration. When the missionaries from a Mediterranean religion arrived with their own calendar they did not seek to abolish existing celebrations but, rather, they 'Christianised' them and tried to establish new meanings. It seems that there have been many deities with fairly similar or cognate names. Bede was certainly recording something which pre-existed and gave it's name to the English word for something that happened in the spring. Whether there was a celebration of a particular deity at that time or whether it was just a month which was named for the equinox and the return of the summer (associated with dawn and the East, quite naturally) is not really very important.

I was deeply involved in the neo-Pagan scene for some years, and you can take it from me that there are opinionated idiots there as there are everywhere. Calling yourself a Pagan or a Witch doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're talking about. As it happens, I agree with Owlwings, it's not particularly relevant whether Eostre was ever a real festival, but the celebration of the equinox was common to all Pagan religions and like almost every other major Pagan festival was "borrowed" (I would use a stronger term) by the Christians. Those festivals were all related to the passing of the seasons and the psychological/practical/spiritual changes societies needed to make as each new season came along. Conversion became much simpler if the new church didn't try to set up entirely new celebrations. For that matter, a huge number of Christian churches were built on Pagan holy sites, for the exact same reason. Lash

Wow, that woman's not even bothered to put where she found her 'facts', Paganism hasn't only happened in England, or doesn't she even know that? I'm not going to go into origins of Easter here, however I will answer your question and say, yes, it is of Pagan origins, even certain religious factions believe that, which is why they won't celebrate Easter. I happen to know a little about the Venerable Bede, and I am well aware that he wanted to turn the 'Heathens' into Christians, he came to my own town to preach and try to erect churches. I will stop now, as I think if I say what I REALLY think, it will be offensive to certain religious groups.

i think some of the celebration i read is taken from the bible like those happen to the real life of Jesus Christ like those palm Sunday. the blessing of palm is similar to those done by people when they welcome back Jesus from his journey from Nazareth and they wave some palm leaves as a sign of welcome. the celebration of the Holy week are taken from the lives of Jesus Christ with the washing of the feet taken from what he done to the apostles, such as crucifixion and resurrection. though those Easter eggs i think are added as part of the festive celebration and other costume or commemorate to let the people remember what happen during the past like a reenactment.

Eostre was a Goddess celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons before Christianity was introduced to them but Easter/ Passover had always been celebrated before that on the same month. The Anglo-Saxon people celebrated their Goddess on the same month and therefore on introduction to Christianity, they simply designated their previous celebrations to the Christian Passover celebrations.