THE NAME (EASTER) can be traced back to the name "Astarte," the Syrian sun goddess, known as the "queen of heaven"

At the end of the winter, the season changes because the earth tilts as it rotates on its axis. Spring arrives when the sun is over the equator. On the first day of Spring, known as the vernal equinox (which means "spring equal night"), both day and night are an equal twelve hours long. Which meant that the long winter nights were over, and that the sun again began to take control. This time was marked by celebrations and festivals to thank the pagan gods. These ancient rituals were fertility festivals, observed in hopes that the gods would bless them with fertile flocks and fields. Animal and child sacrifices were offered to the gods to receive this favor.

Venerable Bede, an eighth century Christian historian, indicated that the name Easter came from the festival of "Oestre" (also found as "Ostere," "Ostara), the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring and fertility. There was also a Teutonic (Germanic) goddess known as "Eostre" (also found as "Eastre," " Estre"), who was the goddess of dawn and light, fertility, and Spring. It is from these deities where the name Easter actually originates. The festival in her honor, was held during the vernal equinox.–Controlled by the Calendar p 42

EASTER THE ORIGIN OF EASTER: The English word Easter and the German Ostern come from a common origin (Eostur, astur, Ostara, Ostar), which to the Norsemen meant the season of the rising (growing) sun, the season of new birth. The word was used by our ancestors to designate the Feast of New Life in the spring. The same root is found in the name for the place where the sun rises (East, Ost). The word Easter, then, originally meant the celebration of the spring sun, which had its birth in the East and brought new life upon earth. This symbolism was transferred to the supernatural meaning of our Easter, to the new life of the Risen Christ, the eternal and uncreated Light. Based on a passage in the writings of Saint Bede the Venerable, the term Easter has often been explained as the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess (Eostre), though no such goddess is known in the mythologies of any Germanic tribe. Modern research has made it quite clear that Saint Bede erroneously interpreted the name of the season as that of a goddess. -Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1958), p. 211. Copyright 1952 by Francis X. Weiser.

O S T A R A (around March 21st but date may vary by more than two days ) also known as: Spring Equinox, Ostara, Alban Eiler, Esther, Eostre, Ostarun, ™startag', Eastre, Eoastrae, Oestre The first true day of Springtide. The days and nights are now equal in length as the Young God continues to mature and grow. We begin to see shoots of new growth and swelling buds on the trees. Energy is building as the days become warmer with promise. May: You Call It Easter, We Call It Ostara [1 essays - 56,869 reads] -- You Call It Easter, We Call It Ostara by Peg Aloi (For a Printable Version Click HERE ) Try this sometime with your children or a young niece, nephew or cousin: on the day of the Vernal or Autumnal Equinox, just a few moments before the exact moment of the equinox “ –The Witches Voice The 8 Pagan Holidays

What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears the Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Ninevah, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments is Ishtar. -The Two Babylons, by the Rev. Alexander Hislop, published 1943 and 1959 in the U.S. by Loizeaux Brothers, Neptune, New Jersey, page 103.

The 11th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica’s "Easter" article states, "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic church Fathers." The ecclesiastical historian, Socrates is quoted in the same article as he points out that neither the Lord or His apostles enjoined the keeping of this day. He says, "The apostles had no thought of appointing festival days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety". He attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, "just as many other customs have been established." Early Church reformers such as Calvin and Knox protested strongly against Easter because of its pagan origins. Observance of the holiday was not widely celebrated in America until well after the Civil War. ( Easter: Its Story and Meaning by Alan Watts; Babylon, Mystery Religion, Ralph Woodrow; Calvin Tracts; Knox’s History)

Easter has long been known to be a pagan festival! America’s founders knew this! A children’s book about the holiday, Easter Parade: Welcome Sweet Spring Time!, by Steve Englehart, p. 4, states, “When the Puritans came to North America, they regarded the celebration of Easter—and the celebration of Christmas—with suspicion. They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter…for the first two hundred years of European life in North America, only a few states, mostly in the South, paid much attention to Easter.” Not until after the Civil War did Americans begin celebrating this holiday: “Easter first became an American tradition in the 1870s” (p. 5). Remarkable! The original 13 colonies of America began as a “Christian” nation, with the cry of “No king but King Jesus!” The nation did not observe Easter within an entire century of its founding. What happened to change this?

ASHTAROTH—THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN: Astarte (Easter)-worship was always associated with the worship of Baal or sun worship. Astarte was Baal’s wife. Notice that another name for Astarte was Ashtaroth. The following quote makes this point clear: “What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven…Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is identified with Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio, vol. ii. p. 179), and by Lucian (De Dea Syria, vol iii. p. 382)…Now, no name could more exactly picture forth the character of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the name of ‘Asht-tart,’ for that just means ‘The woman that made towers’…Ashturit, then…is obviously the same as the Hebrew ‘Ashtoreth’” (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pp. 103, 307-308).

Notice this conclusive quote from Microsoft Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia: “Ishtar was the Great Mother, the goddess of fertility and the queen of heaven.” So, in actuality, Ashtaroth (Ishtar) was Nimrod’s harlotrous, mother/wife widow, Semiramis, as many other ancient historians attest! Easter is now established as none other than the Ashtaroth of the Bible! We can now examine the scriptures that show how God views the worship of this pagan goddess—by any name!

GOD CALLS EASTER EVIL: “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth [Easter]” (Judges 2:11, 13)
“…put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only…Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only” -1Samuel. 7:3-4

EGG – A sacred symbol of rebirth and fertility among the Babylonians, Druids, Egyptians and other pagan cultures. Dyed eggs were used as sacred offerings during the pagan Easter season and were also used as symbols of the Goddess Oestre or Ishtar in various cultures. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Babylon Mystery Religion)

During the rule of Caesar Augustus, Hyginus, an Egyptian who was the librarian at the Palatine library in Rome, wrote: "An egg of a wondrous site is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian goddess (Astarte)." Part of their worship to this goddess was the ritual involving the "golden egg of Astarte." This was where we got the tradition of the Easter egg.

Pope Gregory (590-604), forbid the followers of the Catholic Church to eat eggs during Lent, so they became a treat at Easter. The people in Poland said that the Virgin Mary dyed eggs in various colors for Jesus to play with when He was a child. The Ukrainians incorporated blue dots in the design of their eggs, which they say represent the tears of Mary. They believe she took a basket of colored eggs to Pontius Pilate as a gift, in hopes of convincing him to have mercy on Jesus. As she was making them, she began crying and the tears fell on the shells, making the dots. The orthodox of Romania dyed their eggs red, because they believed Mary left a basket of eggs at the cross during the crucifixion to appease the soldiers so they would treat Jesus better. They were not accepted, and his blood dripped on them. In Russia, there is a tradition that Mary Magdalene gave an egg to the Roman emperor as a symbolic token of the resurrection of Jesus. –Controlled by the Calendar p 45

The egg was a mystical symbol to the pagan religions of Egypt, Japan, Greece, Persia, Phoenicia, India, and Babylon. On page 496, he wrote: "The serpent entwined round the egg, was a symbol common to the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Druids. It referred to the creation of the universe. A serpent with an egg in his mouth was a symbol of the universe containing within itself the germ of all things that the sun develops. The property possessed by the serpent, of casting its skin, and apparently renewing its youth, made it an emblem of eternity and immortality." Thus, we see an indication that the egg initially represented serpent worship, and, by extension, Satan worship. - Albert Pike, an Illuminati member, in his Masonic treatise “Morals and Dogma,”

Because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table on Easter Day, coloured red to symbolize the Easter joy. This custom is found not only in the Latin but also in the Oriental Churches. The symbolic meaning of a new creation of mankind by Jesus risen from the dead was probably an invention of later times. The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. Easter eggs, the children are told, come from Rome with the bells which on Thursday go to Rome and return Saturday morning. The sponsors in some countries give Easter eggs to their god-children. Coloured eggs are used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in testing the strength of the shells (Kraus, Real-Encyklop die, s. v. Ei). Both coloured and uncoloured eggs are used in some parts of the United States for this game, known as "egg-picking". Another practice is the "egg-rolling" by children on Easter Monday on the lawn of the White House in Washington –Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm )

RABBIT or HARE –A pagan symbol of fertility and new life. (Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs) Bede, the eight century English monk and scholar related that the Tutonic goddess of spring and fertility, Eastre, had the hare as her symbol. (The American Book of Days, ed. by Jane Hatch, 1978, p. 302)

To begin with, it is actually the hare, and not the rabbit which is Easter's main character, because according to ancient tradition, the hare was a symbolic representation for the Moon, since they only came out at night to eat. Also, the Egyptian name for the hare was "Un" (which means "open"), because they are born with their eyes open, while a rabbit's are not. Legend has it, that the hare never blinks or closes it eyes. To some pagan cultures, the Moon was the "open-eyed watcher of the skies." The hare is associated with the goddess Ishtar, and was the symbol of fertility because they reproduce so quickly.

There is also a pagan tradition concerning a bird who wanted to be a rabbit, so the goddess Oestre turned the bird into a rabbit, who could still lay eggs. Every Spring, during the festival dedicated to Oestre, the rabbit laid beautiful colored eggs for the goddess. This tradition is exemplified in the Cadbury television commercial for the filled chocolate eggs. Another tradition, which has been passed down, comes from Germany. According to the legend, during a famine, a poor woman dyed some eggs and hid them in a nest, as Easter presents for her children. When the children found the nest, a big rabbit leaped away, the story that the rabbit brought the eggs. –Controlled by the Calendar p 46

The Easter Rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility -Simrock, Mythologie, 551 –Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm )

One more thing I would like to mention. If you still are unsure as to the rabbit being used as a method of sexual symbolism, then I suggest you ask Hugh Heffner, the publisher of Playboy magazine why he uses a "bunny" as his main logo?