Should Christians Celebrate Easter?

Do you celebrate Easter? I have to confess: I do enjoy those chocolate-covered peanut butter eggs that come out at this time of year! In a recent blog, Brett Kay, minister of Southpoint Christian Church down by Detroit, shed some insight on this issue of Easter which helps give perspective. Though this annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection isn’t mentioned in the Bible, the earliest Christians likely recognized it. By the mid-second century, the first evidence emerges of actual celebrations because disputes arose about the proper date. In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea standardized the date based on the lunar calendar. Western Christians still adhere to this dating system to determine when to celebrate Easter.
 
But should Christians be celebrating Easter? Doesn’t it have pagan origins? Little agreement exists on the origin of the name because no solid evidence exists to prove or disprove such allegations. While it would be preferable to call the holiday “Resurrection Sunday,” our culture already has “Easter” entrenched. Claims are made that “Easter” comes from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, or an ancient Saxon goddess (Eostre), or a Germanic goddess (Ostara). But this is only conjecture. “Eostare” is mentioned briefly by the Venerable Bede, an 8th-century English monk, who said that the Anglo-Saxon month “Eosturmonath” (basically April) was named after a goddess whose feasts were celebrated at that time of year. But scholars debate whether Eostre was a real goddess or just a misinterpretation.
 
And then there is the matter of bunnies and eggs, with some purporting that these are pagan fertility symbols. Is it possible that some kind of fertility celebration got Christianized? Maybe. Again, it’s only speculation. Lots of pagan holidays took place in spring (Babylonian, Egyptian, Indian, Roman, and Greek). That doesn’t mean there’s a connection. Baby bunnies are a common springtime animal and chicks hatching from their eggs are symbols of new life. Even if Easter got started as a pagan holiday, no one today is celebrating Easter that way. We have freedom to redeem and repurpose anything that’s been stolen by the devil. Eggs and bunnies don’t belong to the devil any more than Sunday belongs to the ancient Roman sun god, after which the first day of the week is named.
 
Whether a Christian celebrates “Easter” or not is a matter of personal conscience. For nearly all, eggs and bunnies are an innocent cultural tradition. In my home, we never celebrated Easter as a fertility cult, but we did give our children baskets of candy and gifts. And we went to church to worship God and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. But if using the term or the accompanying symbols goes against one’s conscience, it's perfectly fine to ignore them. But neither side of the debate should disparage the other (Rom. 14:5-6, Col. 2:16-17).
 
The main concern of Easter should be to keep the focus on Jesus, and not let commercial things detract from Him. They may be acceptable supplements but never substitutes to our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. And let’s rejoice that Easter still provides a great opportunity to bring people to church to hear the true meaning of the holiday. So, let’s use it to glorify God. Who will you be asking to join you in worship?
 
Tyler

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