Welcome to the fourth episode of Pop Culture Matters, different in all sorts of ways, mostly because it’s just me John Martens and also because Easter, our topic today, is not exactly a pop culture matter, but one thing that does seem to be a pop culture matter are memes telling us that Easter is a pagan holiday. These memes and claims sprout like spring flowers around, ah, Easter!
Every year as Easter approaches I begin to see a number of Ishtar equals Easter memes roll across my Facebook feed, or other social media, as friends or acquaintances of mine decide to spill the hidden truth on the origins of Easter. Or, Christian friends say, this is nonsense and respond with their own memes, showing how silly these claims are. Ishtar is not Easter. But there are still some good questions to ask, such as , where does the name easter comes from? Is there a little modicum of truth to these claims that easter is a pagan goddess or derived from a pagan celebration? What about Anglo-Saxon “Eostre,” or Babylonian “Ishtar,” Hebrew “Ashtaroth,” and Greek “Astarte”?
As we begin, I want to acknowledge that the land on which St. Mark’s is located is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) People. I record this podcast from the land of the Tsawwassen people. We are thankful for their welcome to us so that we can live, work, and pray on their land and learn from first nations people themselves.
This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.
Here are some of the sources I used for the podcast:
Bede, De Temporum Ratione: “quondam a Dea illorum quæ Eostre vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit.”
“Easter and its Cycle,” 10-13 in the New Catholic Encyclopedia (E. Johnson, T. Krosnicki, eds.; 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Apr. 2013)
A. R. C. Leaney, “Easter” in The Oxford Companion to the Bible (Bruce M. Metzger, Michael D. Coogan, Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 02-Apr-2013).
John F. Baldovin, “Easter” in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2579 (Lindsay Jones, ed.. Vol. 4. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005).
Manfred Lurker, “Ostara” in The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons. (Routledge, 2004. Routledge Religion Online. Taylor & Francis.02 April 2013)
Allen J. Frantzen, Easter” in Anglo-Saxon Keywords (Blackwell Publishing, 2012. Blackwell Reference Online. 02 April 2013), “
Gregory D. Alles and Robert S. Ellwood, “Canaanite religion” in World Religions Online. (Infobase Learning. Web. 2 Apr. 2013).
What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.
Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @biblejunkies. Or email me at [email protected]. Let me know what you think.
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John W. Martens