Easter : Its History, Celebration, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse

By Susan Tracy Rice; edited by Robert Haven Schauffler
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Of all the festivals of the Christian year, Easter is the most important and most joyful. From of old it has been known as “the happiest of days,” “the bright day,” “the Sunday of joy” and “the festival of festivals.” The early fathers used to speak of it as “the feast of feasts,” “the queen of days,” “the desirable festival of our salvation.” And Pope Leo I called it “the day alone great.”
The names Easter and Ostern, the English and German names for the feast of the resurrection, were once thought to be derived from Ostara (Eostre), an ancient teutonic goddess mentioned by the historian Bede in the seventh century. She was the personification of the Spring, of the rising sun, of all things new and fresh and full of hope. To her the month corresponding to our April, Eostur-monath, was supposed to be dedicated.
This is all very romantic and beautiful; but it is not true. Recent research has shown that Ostara, the goddess of the vernal equinox, originated nowhere but in the brain of the venerable Bede; …
(From the Introduction of the book)