What Is the Meaning of the Word Easter?

I was listening to the radio on the way to the zoo. (Where we visited all of our furry friends. Did you know that four children can amuse themselves by watching a single prairie dog hang out in his cage for twenty minutes?) Anyway, the radio talk show host was discussing how his greeting of “Happy Easter” received a horrified response from a woman who said the word Easter has pagan roots and he should change his greeting to “Happy Resurrection Day.”

Photo: SXC/M Nota

He did some research and discovered that Easter’s root word, East, comes from the rising of the sun. So, who’s right?

I used dictionary.com to check eight dictionaries at once. (I love that thing.) Looks like they are both probably right. The holiday we celebrate as Easter, as well as an ancient pagan holiday to celebrate a Spring goddess called Eastre, Eostre, or Ester, are both held around the same time of year and both have strong ties to the word East.

Will you be changing your Sunday greeting to Happy Resurrection Day or will you be sticking with the traditional Easter? And if you change it, will you be getting rid of sunrise services and Easter eggs?