re easter what s in a name was re new testament double standard moderator this is a replacement for an earlier more clumsily worded submission on the same topic which i submitted a few minutes ago i think we need to distinguish etymology from meaning regardless of how the word easter originated the fact is that it does not now mean anything to christians other than the feast day of the resurrection of jesus christ the meaning of a word is only what people understand it to mean and the same goes for other cultural practices the festival of easter may possibly have some historical association with some pagan festival but today there are as far as i know no christians who intend to honor any kind of pagan goddess by celebrating easter it is nonsense to say this word or this practice really means so and so even though nobody realizes it words and practices don t mean things people do this is basic semantics i m a linguist they pay me to think about things like this michael a covington associate research scientist artificial intelligence programs mcovingt ai uga edu the university of georgia phone athens georgia u s a amateur radio n tmi further easter is specific to english in many other languages the word used is based on passover or resurrection is it ok to celebrate it in countries using those languages but not in those using english clh
