Paul Schleifer

According to www.etymonline.com, Easter is from “Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *austron-, “dawn,” also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring, perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from *aust- “east, toward the sunrise” (compare east), from PIE root *aus- (1) “to shine,” especially of the dawn.

“Bede says Anglo-Saxon Christians adopted her name and many of the celebratory practices for their Mass of Christ’s resurrection. Almost all neighboring languages use a variant of Latin Pascha to name this holiday” (www.etymonline.com/word/Easter).

However, much of our understanding of the origins of Easter in England is the Venerable Bede, and while his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (actually written in Latin) gives us many insights into the early history of the English, it is not always reliable, and this may be one of the most notorious examples of Bede’s unreliability. It is actually a testament to his influence on later scholars that etymonline and other sources have bought into his story so completely.

The truth about Easter is that it is the ancient Celtic celebration of the Goddess Belisama, a goddess worshipped in Gaul. “The etymology of her name has been taken to translate to ‘brightest one,’ i.e. containing a superlative suffix -isama attached to the root bel ‘bright’; based on this she has also been speculatively claimed as companion of Belenus, whose name seems to contain the same root. But the root bel has also (for either deity) been interpreted differently, e.g. as bel ‘strong.’”

This emphasis on Belisama’s being the brightest of the gods connects Belisama with the dawn, even though she is a “goddess of lakes and rivers, fire, crafts and light” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_water_deities#Ainu_mythology). Ptolemy associated Belisama specifically with the Mersey, a river in north western England, near Liverpool. Belisama is also associated with the Roman goddess Minerva, which may explain her association with crafts.

So how do we get Easter from Belisama. Very simply, the PIE root *ea leads to the Anglo-Saxon word ea, which is the word for river: “The standard word in place-names for river denoting a watercourse of greater size than a broc or a burna” (https://www.etymonline.com/word/ea). Then we add to that the Old English suffix –ster: istre, from Proto-Germanic *-istrijon, feminine agent suffix used as the equivalent of masculine -ere. Also used in Middle English to form nouns of action (meaning “a person who …”) without regard for gender.

So Belisama is the Easter, the bright one who makes the rivers flow, and her annual celebration was, not surprisingly, in the Spring, when frozen rivers would begin to run again as the days began to lengthen and get warmer. This Spring holy day was accompanied by devotees of Belisama immersing themselves in rivers; indeed, true believers would make a pilgrimage to the Mersey in order to immerse themselves in the river most closely associated with Belisama. In return for their devotion, followers could expect good sales of their craft projects during the coming year.

Oh, and BTW, the above is an example of what is called “rebracketing,” an aspect of folk etymology. And, in addition, today is April 1.

 

The image is an old Easter card.

Happy Easter. The Lord is risen.