I saw one of those I-need-to-educate-you-silly-Christians things on Facebook the other day. It talked about some fertility goddess few people have heard of and that it (she?) was what Easter is really based on.

In that comment, even the word Easter was supposed to have come from that goddess’s name. The question is also asked in that comment, “or did you think eggs and bunnies had anything to do with the resurrection?”

I answered (you didn’t think I could keep my mouth shut, did you?) that maybe the proper name shouldn’t be ‘Easter’. (I’ve never actually seen it in the Bible any more than I’ve seen the word ‘Christmas’.) I even did a search online to see if I could find where the word came from. I found a lot of sermons, but finding the actual origin is a little hard.

The best I could find was

Easter: An Early Celebration of Christ’s Resurrection
Another idea involves the history of the Frankish church (Germans who settled in Rome during the fifth century). Their the celebration of Christ’s resurrection included the word alba, which means white (the color of the robes worn during the resurrection festival). Alba also meant sunrise. So when the name of the festival was translated into German, the sunrise meaning, ostern, was selected, likely in error. One theory is that Ostern is the origin of the word Easter.

You can read more about it if you want.

The eggs and bunnies? They represent new beginnings. A brand new life–which is what we have when we’re in Christ. A life without blemish. Without stain. Without sin. Washed in The Blood, we’re whiter than snow, because Jesus paid the price for our sins when he died on the cross and rose again three days later.

Maybe we should just call it Resurrection Sunday.

It doesn’t matter what we call it. What matters is that you’ve accepted Christ. He died for my sin and yours.

Do you live for Him?