Day 152, Year 7: Sam’s Question
Date: Sunday, April 8, 2012
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
At the dinner table tonight, Sam asked the simple question, “Why is this day
called Easter?” None of us had ever questioned the name, so we had to look
this one up on the internet. What we found is that no one knows for sure,
but there was a late seventh-century historian and scholar named Bede who
said that Easter’s name comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. The
literal translation of Eostre is East and she was the goddess of dawn (sun
rises in the East). This goddess was the symbol of spring and fertility,
thus the importance of eggs and bunnies and chicks. Somewhere along the
line, the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox in
the Northern Hemisphere was set as Easter Sunday. Just as Christmas was
moved to coincide with, and eventually replace, the pagan celebration of
winter, it is very likely that Easter was set to replace the pagan
celebration of spring. So Sam, this is a complicated, and not complete
answer to your simple question, but it’s the best I can come up with without
further study. But keep asking those questions.
Mark and I went to Heather and Jed’s early this morning, but not early
enough to witness the egg hunt. By the time we arrived just after 8:30 am,
not only had all the eggs been found, but much of the candy had been eaten
as well! Despite the early morning sugar hit, Sam and Jonah were really
good little boys today. We had a second breakfast, walked down to the
cranberry bogs, came back and ate lunch, and then spent the afternoon
between naps and cooking dinner. Oliver was also a very good little boy
today. Granddad and I both got lots of baby time so it was a good day.
