"Paasch" and "Easter"

Here are some awesome facts about my last name on the upcoming holiday!

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Etymology:

The English word "Easter" and the German word, "Ostern", come from the same root for "Eastre". The ancient word for spring was "eastre" and this was the name given to Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. A festival was held in her honor every year at the vernal equinox.

Christianity merged this 'rite of spring' with the Jewish Passover, which is why in other languages the word for Passover derives from it's Hebrew name "Pesach". In Latin and Greek the word is "Pascha" which in turn becomes in French "Paques", in Italian "Pasqua", in Spanish "Pascua", in Danish "Paaske", in Dutch "Paasch", and Welsh "Pasg". Passover literally means "he passed over" and refers the destroying angel who "Passed Over" the children of Israel and smote Egyptian firstborn children and firstborn animals instead.

Easter has become a time for people to renew their faith in Jesus Christ and God.

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The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday (5 April) 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island. Roggeveen named it Paasch-Eyland (18th century Dutch for "Easter Island"). The island's official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means "Easter Island".

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Thought that this was interesting!

~Matt