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Eostre is the name of a putative West Germanic goddess. The Venerable Bede described the worship of Eostre among the Anglo-Saxons as having died out by the time he began writing his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Jacob Grimm referred to Bede when he proposed an equivalent Old High German name, *Ostara, in his Deutsche Mythologie.

Bede's testimony of this goddess is isolated; the only comparable material of Germanic mythology is found in terms for "East" (Icelandic Austri) and in the Germanic name of Easter. The connection with "East" makes it probable that the name Eostre is derived from that of the the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess *Hausos, cognate to Greek Eos and Indian Ushas.

Contents 1 Bede's account of Eostre 2 Grimm's Ostara 3 Etymology of Eostre 3.1 Eostre and Ishtar 4 Beliefs and practices associated with Eostre 5 Notes 6 References

According to Bede (c. 672 - 735), writing in De temporum ratione ("On the Reckoning of Time"), Ch. xv, De mensibus Anglorum ("The English months") [1], the word "Easter" is derived from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom Eostur-monath, corresponding to our month of April (Latin: Aprilis), was dedicated:

15. The English Months.

In olden time the English people – for it did not seem fitting to me that I should speak of other nations' observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation's – calculated their months according to the course of the moon. Hence after the manner of the Hebrews and the Greeks, [the months] take their name from the moon, for the moon is called mona and the month monath.

The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Sol-monath; March Hreth-monath; April, Eostur-monath; May Thrimilchi...

Eostur-monath has a name which is now translated Paschal month, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. (Eostur-monath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit.) Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.

What is secure in Bede's passage is that the lunar month around the month of April in the Julian calendar was called Eostur or similar; In Vita Karoli Magni Einhard tells, that Charlemagne (c. 742 or 747 - 814) gave the months names in his own language and used 'Ostar-manoth' for April.^[1]

Those who question Bede's account of a goddess suggest that "the Anglo-Saxon Eostur-monath meant simply 'the month of opening' or 'the month of beginnings'."^[2]

In 1835, Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) published Deutsche Mythologie, a collection of German myths and oral histories, including a commentary on a goddess Ostara.^[3]

Grimm recalles Bede's account of Eostre and states that it was unlikely that the man of the church would simply have invented a pagan goddess. From the Anglo-Saxon month name, he then reconstructs an Old High German equivalent, *Ostara:

"This Ostarâ, like the AS. Eástre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries."

He also notes various accounts of the name of the Easter festival in Old High German, like ôstertagâ or aostortagâ. According to Grimm, these were plural forms of Ostara, since the festival would have been celebrated on two days.

Grimm's commentary does not mention any Easter Eggs or Easter Bunny customs, the only Easter custom he mentions being Easter Bonfires (Osterfeuer), a long-standing German tradition, attested since 1559.

The Deutsche Mythologie had a strong impact in German Romanticism, and "Ostara" achieved high publicity with those people that were interested in the field, e.g. within Germanic mysticism. The most notable instance of this is the magazine Ostara, that appeared in Vienna between 1905 and 1920. The editor and later exclusive contributor was Lanz von Liebenfels.

Ostara is also one of the names of the mother-archetype in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.

Eostre is usually^[4] derived from the Proto-Germanic root *aew-s, "illuminate, especially of daybreak" and closely related to (a)wes-ter- "dawn servant", the dawn star Venus and *austrôn-, meaning "dawn, east" (compare ostar-rîchi "Eastern Realm, Austria"), cognate to the names of Greek Eos, Roman Aurora and Indian Ushas, all continuing Proto-Indo-European *Hausos.^[5][6]

There is no certain parallel to Eostre in North Germanic though Grimm speculates that the Eddaic east wind, "a spirit of light" named Austri, might be related.

The name Eostre also bears some resemblance to the name of the Semitic goddess Ishtar-Astarte (appearing as Uni-Astre on the Etruscan Pyrgi Tablets).

This resemblance has resulted in some Neopagan and Christian folklore to the effect that "Easter is Ishtar's festival". There is no evidence in support of this, and a Phoenician or Etruscan loan into pre-Proto-Germanic is precluded already by Grimm's law.

One notable former advocate is fundamentalist Christian author Ralph Woodrow, whose Babylonian Mystery Religion includes the Easter/Ishtar hypothesis and condemns the celebration's trappings as un-Christian. Woodrow has reversed his former position and now does not support the connection. However, there are others who still do^{[citation needed]}, providing a curious example of Christians and neopagans alike supporting theories of a continuity of Goddess worship in the absence of any conclusive evidence.

Wiccan tradition makes Eostre's festival as a celebration of the Spring Equinox. The association of Eostre with the Spring Equinox is important in Wiccan belief as part of the Wheel of the Year.

Historically, Eostur-monath is a lunar month, and as it starts with the new moon, can begin on a variety of possible dates.^[7] Since the Spring Equinox is determined by the position of the sun, Eostur-monath cannot be associated directly with equinox.

Eostre is also worshipped by some neopagans, who associate her with various aspects related to the renewal of life: eggs (a common offering for fertility), spring, fertility and the hare (allegedly for its rapid and prolific reproduction).

A belief that Eostre had hare's ears or a hare's head may well derive from Nigel Pennick's Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition in which an image of the Saxon moon god Mona from A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence^[8] is shown, with the accompanying text describing Mani both as a goddess and as 'Eostre in her spring guise'.^[9]

• Bede, The Reckoning of Time, translated with introduction, notes and commentary by Faith Wallis. Liverpool University Press, 1988; 2nd ed. 2004. Translated Texts for Historians vol. 29.
• International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia Geoffrey Bromley, ed.: 'Easter'
• Neil Gaiman, American Gods