this easter thing is seriously annoying me

[julie paradox]

Candy's post on Easter - doesn't say anything new, don't bother - reminded me of something that has been bugging me.

According to this particular faction, the name Easter comes from the babylonian Ishtar / Ashtoreth, and her son or husband or whoever being killed by a wild boar is the origin of the tradition of the Easter ham.

OK. Now, setting aside the humungous flaws in the linguistic argument...

Easter is the English word for the holiday. In other words, it came to America from Britain.

The British do not have a tradition of ham at Easter. I have been totally flummoxed by this ever since AnnaMatrix mentioned it a few years ago. I can only assume it came from a different part of Europe.

That is, a part of Europe which doesn't call the festival Easter. I don't know what the entire continent calls it (there being, y'know, a couple of different languages) but I know the French call it Paques (imagine a circumflex on that a) which is from the same root as Paschal.

I don't have a point. I just wanted to vent.

[mnb357]

Hmmm...I'm wondering if the American tradition of having ham at Easter came about because in spring, the hunting would be on hold until fall, the previous fall's harvest would be nearly gone, and hams, along with root vegetables would be the things which would be able to keep without refrigeration in the warming spring temps?

[pixydust]

I always thought that having ham at Easter was a big middle finger to the Jews for killing Jesus, but then it also works as a middle finger TO Jesus, too.....so who knows. :whistle:

[constantgardener]

http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

"The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime."

Interesting that an early Christian scribe is quite open about the pagan origins of Easter.

[SpeshulTaterTot]

In Germany, it's custom to eat lamb for Easter. Lamb of God and all that, I guess.

[constantgardener]

Yep, we have lamb here in England too. With mint sauce, mmmm.

[Deleted03]

Yep, we have lamb here in England too. With mint sauce, mmmm.

Lamb too in France, no mint.

[saraelise]

Lamb in Denmark too, not sure about sidedishes, but I wouldn't rule out potatoes.

[PennySycamore]

All the Romance languages have a variation of Paschal as their word for Easter: Pascua, in Spanish; Pasque, in Italian; Pascoa, Portuguese; and Pasti, Romanian. There is some variant of Paschal in most European languages with the notable exception of most Slavic languages where their word for Easter is their form of the word meaning Great Day or Great Night. The Russian word is Paskha, derived from the Greek.

It's funny how many of these languages have a word which is not derived from the same root as Easter, but have some tradition of decorating eggs or of roasting big joints of meat?

[ImNoSupermom]

Orthodox Christians don't generally use the term Easter. We say Pascha. And we don't eat ham. We eat Lamb.

[anniebgood]

My Greek cousins used to have an entire lamb for Easter Dinner. It was a huge celebration with all their Greek cousins. The rest of us on the maternal side were a Heinz mixture so we were the ham eaters.

[Wolfie]

My Greek cousins used to have an entire lamb for Easter Dinner. It was a huge celebration with all their Greek cousins. The rest of us on the maternal side were a Heinz mixture so we were the ham eaters.

My Croatian paternal side used to roast a whole pig. Well, more than just my dad's family (siblings, cousins, grandparents), several members of my mom's side came too.

[Conuly]

http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

"The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime."

Interesting that an early Christian scribe is quite open about the pagan origins of Easter.

Pagan origins that he seems to have made up. There's no evidence for the worship of a goddess named Eostre EXCEPT in that one bit of writing by Bede.

[spragger]

I always thought that having ham at Easter was a big middle finger to the Jews for killing Jesus, but then it also works as a middle finger TO Jesus, too.....so who knows. :whistle:

:lol: I told a friend that Jesus would want the stores to be open on Easter so that I could go to Jimmy John's and order a delicious ham sandwich as a big FU! to the Jews for killing him. Wal-Mart was the only place that was open besides gas stations and it was packed!

[pixydust]

:lol: I told a friend that Jesus would want the stores to be open on Easter so that I could go to Jimmy John's and order a delicious ham sandwich as a big FU! to the Jews for killing him. Wal-Mart was the only place that was open besides gas stations and it was packed!

But Jesus was Jewish, so he wouldn't have eaten ham...now a delish brisket, THAT's another story!

[Daenerys]

We generally eat whatever is in the freezer that we forgot from Xmas, so usually a small Turkey!

[bananacat]

In my family we always had turkey for Thanksgiving, and ham at both Christmas and Easter. I think the only reasoning behind this is historical. These were special days to celebrate with a feast, and ham was a luxury for a lot of people so that's why they ate it. I don't think it had any special meaning; it was just a treat for a special occasion.