Ever since I was a small child Easter puzzled me. Not Christ's resurrection. As a kid, I was into magical beings flying through the air – witches, warlocks, winged horses and the odd god and goddess. Now if only I could fly.
My Italian mother called this religious spring festival Pasqua. My Polish father said Pascha. All Europe used the "Pasch" prefix adapted from the Jewish Passover celebration.
So why did English-speaking countries call this resurrection festival Easter? Did they know something the pope didn't?
Not quite. It turns out Easter may be derived from Eostre or Ostara, a pre-Christian Germanic/Anglo-Saxon goddess. Some scholars characterize her as the goddess of dawn and rebirth. Unfortunately most knowledge about her is lost, shrouded in the mists of time.
Pop culture illustrations depict her as a fertile spring priestess carrying hares and baskets of eggs. In northern climates, she symbolizes the rebirth and rejuvenation of nature, the increasing light and warmth after a long, cold winter.
Some scholars believe she never existed. Eostre is documented only once and briefly in Saint Bede's eighth century work De temporum ratione. A skilled linguist and translator, the monk made the Christian teachings in Latin and Greek more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons.
In De temporum ratione, he was working on a calendar, much like our farmers' almanacs that provide information on the planting seasons, harvest times, tides, festivals and astronomical visitations.
"It was a way for the ancient world, a way to keep track of time," explains Dr. Selina Stewart, history professor at the University of Alberta.
Each calendar month is designated with the name of a deity. Most refer to goddesses rather than gods. April was dubbed "Eoster-monath." Since there is only one historical reference in the pantheon of arts, literature and culture, many scholars remain skeptical of Eostre's significance.
"I see no reason to believe he made the stuff up. Because he was a Christian monk, that didn't mean he wouldn't record festivals of people he grew up with. People don't just throw everything out when they start a new religion," Stewart said.
She explained that Britain's conversion to Christianity took several centuries. In that time generations of families, both pagan and Christian, lived side-by-side in towns and villages.
Early Christians merely piggybacked on already established spring festivals.
"In Germanic countries there was an Easter-fest. Somebody like St. Augustine comes in and converts the population. They continue to celebrate the same festival only it is interpreted differently," Stewart said.
Eostre is one of a long line of pagan mythological gods that celebrate good behaviour and condemn evil deeds. In our evidence-based world, it is easy to pooh-pooh religious mythology as tales without substance.
Although the ancients did not have satellites poised in space, they questioned birth, life and death. Mythology became the stories people told about what it was like to be human in a cosmos full of chaos. It was a way to explain and bring order to unforeseen forces such as floods, drought, famine, plagues, disease, pestilence and war.
Every society promoted creation myths, and legends also helped people face death and the unknown afterlife. People lived close to nature, and many of their most powerful gods and goddesses were linked to the revolving seasons.
"The concept of a dying god runs through every ancient religion. It was a way to describe the things they saw. In the fall and winter, it looked like the fertility and vegetation gods died. After the rains we see vegetation popping up and abundance returns," explains Dr. Bill Anderson, professor of religion at Concordia College.
Osiris
Perhaps one of the oldest and most important Egyptian myth cycles was the resurrection of the god Osiris. He was the vegetation god that established agriculture and taught Egyptians to grow grain. Osiris changes from a nature god (usually depicted with green skin) to a god of the underworld.
In this larger-than-life tale, Osiris' evil twin Seth kills him. Osiris' faithful wife Isis wanders all the way to Phoenicia to find his body. She brings it back to Egypt and hides it in a Nile delta swamp. Seth finds Osiris' corpse, chops it into 14 parts and scatters it across the Nile.
After Seth dismembers Osiris, Isis magically turns herself into a sparrowhawk. She retrieves the pieces and breathes life into her husband's body by flapping her wings. He remains alive just long enough to conceive a child before returning to the afterlife.
"The resurrection myth is connected with the flooding of the Nile and the greening of Egypt. They were always amazed that things would become green after a drought," said Dr. Maria Kozakiewicz, professor of classics at MacEwan University.
Virtually every ancient culture sacrificed temple offerings and celebrated festivals to a fertility god thereby assuring the continuation of life. But possibly the most poetic and easily understood myth of the seasons is passed down from the Greeks.
In it the goddess Demeter, the Grain Mother or Mother Earth, is inextricably linked to Persephone, her daughter. In this myth Hades, god of the underworld in search of a bride, kidnaps Persephone while she is picking flowers. Grief-stricken Demeter wanders the earth for nine days. Finally she discovers the kidnapping and threatens to withhold grain from the earth unless her daughter is returned.
"She goes on strike and causes famine. With people dying, the gods are deprived of their sacrifice," Kozakiewicz said.
The all-powerful Zeus sends Hermes to retrieve Persephone from the underworld. Hades agrees to let her go. But first he tricks her into eating six pomegranate seeds, the symbol of unbroken wedlock. The young maiden's home is Olympus, but having eaten the seeds, Persephone must return to the underworld for half the year.
Mythology is less about logic and historical fact than the revelations of religion, history, culture, social and moral codes. And in festivals of resurrection, rebirth and rejuvenation, there appears to be one universal truth.
"It is an expression for immortality as if it was encoded in our genes," Kozakiewicz said. "We are afraid of death and we use myth to find some expression of life and afterlife."
