Happy something or other...

[firefly]

Easter, the most Happy, Blessed Event;

derived from Eastre, Eostre, Eostur, or Ostara?
Is Easter a pagan festival?
And Leah said, Happy am I,
for the daughters will call me blessed:
and she called his name Asher.
[Genesis 30:13]
The Hebrew text uses three almost identical words in the above passage.

Strong's #837 'osher - "Happy"
Strong's #833 'ashar - "blessed"
Strong's #836 'Ashar - "Asher"
Per Strong's "Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary", from #833 came #836, #837 and the more often used form #835. #835 ('esher), which Leah did not use, is used 43 places in the Old Testament Scriptures and is either translated blessed or happy.

While we are quite sure that it was a very blessed and happy event for Leah, the subject of this small write up will be a more earth shattering and blessed event, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You ask how do we get from Leah to the resurrection! The answer is in the meanings and soundings of the Hebrew words. For we as Christians can think or no more blessed and happy event than the resurrection. Many scholars have written that the Christian celebration of Easter was a convenient borrowing from the ancient pagan ceremony of Eastre, Eostre, Eostur, or Ostara. (see Appendix).

Let us take a closer look at other possibilities for the name of the Easter celebration! Isaac E. Mozeson in his book "The Word" (Shapolsky Publishers, 1989) on page 23 under the topic "ASIA / AYSH" has the following.


------------>more enjoyable history to be found at.....

www.accuracyingenesis.com/happy.html

Enjoy,

ff

[MacBeth]

I am good with just "Happy"

[Georgina]

I'll go with that, Beth. Happy whatever this beautiful weekend means to you.

[Calluna]

It finally stopped raining, so I do think I'll have a Happy Sunday.

[crazielollie]

No matter what you're celebrating, hope you get to do it surrounded by family, friends and lots of love. Celebrate Life!

[Peltigera]

We've been celebrating my parents' 60th wedding anniversary (Saturday) - 60-odd (or was that 60 odd?) members sof the 'clan, together in one room. I only made the one gaff - asking after Duncan not knowing he had committed suicide . Oh well, that is quite good for me.

Easter - definitely comes from the German word eastre which means 'east' as it is the German celebration of the vernal equinox and the sun reliably rising in the east. If the name 'easter' was Biblical then the church would have used the name through out Christendom, not just in German speaking places.