JACK PARKS: Debunking the popular Easter meme

I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember, and my interests have always been more inclined to the fantastic: horror, science fiction, fantasy, etc. When I was younger I was especially interested in mythology.

Whether Greek, Norse, Roman (basically Greek but with planets), Egyptian or others, I soaked it up. It made for great literature. It also prepared me for something that I didn’t expect: Christian apologetics.

Various figures in different mythologies are compared with Jesus Christ and presented in such a way as to make it seem as if the Gospels are simply copying the same pattern and changing the name. There is a wealth of this type of information being passed around on social media among atheists, agnostics, people of other faiths and even some Christians. It fits within the popular, cynical notion that nothing we have is original, that every part of our culture has its roots in something else.

While most of these comparisons pop up infrequently, there’s one that gets shared by at least 3-4 people on everyone’s friends list every Easter. I’m sure you’ve seen them. The Facebook or Instagram memes, perhaps an email forwarded to you by a coworker. They may be slightly different, but they all have the same basic message:

“Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar (pronounced ‘Easter’), the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sexuality whose symbols were the egg and bunny. When Constantine Christianized the Roman Empire, the pagan celebration was adapted and introduced to Christians as a way to celebrate Jesus instead.”

In an age in which we are encouraged to question everything, this particular meme also ties into what appears to be a growing trend to associate aspects of Christianity with various pagan traditions and beliefs. It goes right to the heart of the religion by discrediting the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, and, by extension, the resurrection itself.

But does it really?

Allow me to put on my Morpheus glasses and tattered Jedi robes and ask, “What if I told you that everything in that meme was wrong?”

Let’s break it down from the top. Who was Ishtar? Ishtar is the Assyrian name of Inanna, the earlier Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, desire, war, combat, political power, etc. Originally they were two separate deities, but an ancient people known as the Akkadians equated Ishtar and Inanna with each other and they were regarded as being the same goddess, with two different names.

Inanna was the most prolific figure in Sumerian mythology, with many of her myths having her assuming roles of other gods. In fact, one of her most well-known myths involved her going to the underworld to try and usurp her sister to become its queen. She was associated with the planet Venus as well as the zodiac constellation Pisces.

And the name “Ishtar” rhymes with “Fish car.”

Wait, what?

That’s right. From the very beginning, the meme is inaccurate. The name “Easter” has nothing to do with Ishtar/Inanna. In fact, the celebration is only called “Easter” in English. In almost every other language the name is either called or derived from the Latin and Greek word “Pascha,” a word that originally referred to the Passover but came to denote the Christian celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

So where did the term “Easter” come from? The English language is Germanic, and while we share many terms with Romance languages, our word for the holiday is not one of them. The word “Easter” can be traced back to a single reference by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century to “Eosturmonath,” literally “Easter month,” the fourth month of the year. Eosturmonath was named for a pagan goddess named Eostre, whose cult had already been stamped out by Christianity by the time Bede was writing.

There are no earlier references to Eostre, and there is only speculation as to her origin. There is no historical record of her realm, her symbols, or anything else about her cult besides that one mention. Theories about Eostre’s origins range from being an adaptation of a Norse goddess, to simply being an invention of Bede.

Back to the meme. What about the symbols it mentions, the egg and the bunny? Inanna/Ishtar did have several symbols that represented her. Her most common symbols were an eight-pointed star and a lion, both symbols of power. Doves were also used as representations, and it was believed that she could take on the form of a dove.

What is extremely hard to find in connection to Inanna/Ishtar is a reference to eggs or rabbits. In fact, you can search practically any page with a detailed description of Inanna/Ishtar without finding a single mention of either. So where did these traditions come from?

The egg has actually been a symbol of rebirth for thousands of years. However, early Christians first began dyeing eggs red to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, a juxtaposition of death and rebirth whose meaning should be clear. Easter eggs are believed to have started within the first century of Christianity and therefore are a tradition almost as old as the church itself.

The Easter bunny is a bit different. He has, since the 16th century, been somewhat of a Santa Claus-type figure, bringing eggs to good little boys and girls. As I mentioned already, there’s no clear connection between rabbits and Ishtar. But rabbits, being a symbol of fertility themselves, have long been associated with springtime. With Easter being in the spring, it makes sense that two prominent symbols of the season would be connected.

As for Constantine, he reportedly converted to Christianity in 312 AD. Easter eggs were already a tradition more than a century before his conversion, and the Easter bunny was more than a thousand years away. There was no need to adapt a pagan celebration — one for which there is no evidence to begin with — when there was a holiday in place that Christians were already celebrating.

There is nothing in the meme that is correct. Even saying that Ishtar was an Assyrian and Babylonian deity isn’t 100 percent accurate, because she is referred to most commonly as the older, Sumerian deity. Ishtar doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia page. It automatically redirects you to Inanna.

The truth is, Easter has absolutely nothing to do with Ishtar, Inanna, or any number of other pagan deities. The Easter — or Paschal — holiday is about remembering and celebrating the most important event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Who was Jesus Christ? Jesus is the Word, the Son of God, who was with the Father in the beginning, through whom all things were created.

Sin entered the world when man rebelled against God, and the world has been crippled by the results of his disobedience. But God had a plan to redeem them.

Throughout history, there were men who found favor with God, and God established covenants with them. Noah was a righteous man whom God used to preserve humanity. Abraham was promised that his descendants would become a great nation. Moses became a leader of that nation and was given the law of God for the people of Israel to follow. David was a king of that nation whose line would produce the king who would establish a kingdom that would last forever. David’s heir would be God’s son.

Two thousand years ago the Son took on flesh and lived among his creation. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the law, then willingly gave that life as a perfect sacrifice in accordance with prophecy. Nailed to a Roman cross, he took on the sins of his people and bore the wrath of God in their stead, a one-time sacrifice that perfected his people for all time. He was buried in a tomb and by the power of God was resurrected on the third day of his death, showing his power and victory over death.

The main reason the meme is inaccurate is because, like all other mythological figures people try to compare with Jesus, it misses the point. Easter isn’t about what man does to satisfy a deity. It’s about what God himself did for his people to spare them from his own wrath. So on this day if you aren’t a believer, I’m not going to ask you to cross your heart, spin around three times and say a magic prayer.

Instead, I simply ask for you to consider Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and what it would mean if you were to repent of your sins and put your trust in him. My prayer is that the spirit of God will do the same work in you as it has in me. The promise of salvation is open to all who believe in him, and we know this promise is true because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Happy Easter, and may God bless.