Grace and peace, Saints.
Last week my son and I were waiting for the subway, when an advertisement for chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies appeared on the television monitor on the wall of the subway station. As we watched the advertisement, it dawned on me that I had never explained to my son the difference between Easter and Resurrection Day and why Easter eggs and bunnies have nothing at all to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
The modern-day Christian Church is extremely ignorant about the pagan origins of many of our holidays, traditions, and customs. Consequently, many Christians believe that Easter is the same as Resurrection Day. Not a few churches, for example, will host Easter egg hunts on the church grounds (weather permitting), and children will receive Easter baskets full of chocolate bunnies, eggs, and candy.  Many Christians believe that because Easter is mentioned in the Bible, it must be Christian. But this is not true. Easter is not the day our Lord Jesus rose from the dead, but is instead a pagan celebration in honor of the ancient Phoenician fertility goddess Ashtoreth, also called Ishtar and Easter.
In reality, Easter has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. In fact, Easter is mentioned only once in the Bible, in Chapter 12 of the book of the Acts, and it is not in connection with Jesus or the Christian Church:
“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 
“And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
 “And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
 “And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people” (Acts 12:1-4).
To understand the Bible’s mention of Easter, it is important to first understand that it Easter is connected with King Herod and not the Christian church.  It is also important to understand that Herod was not a Christian. He even mocked Jesus when Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to him. Herod wasn’t even a believing Jew. He was a pagan: Jewish by birth, but Roman at heart. The Herods were always loyal to Rome. The Romans worshipped the goddess Diana (and many other gods and goddesses), and there is every reason to believe that Herod did also. Herod wanted to wait until Easter passed to kill Peter, because he worshipped the goddess Ishtar or Easter.
Easter has also been confused with the Passover, because the Roman Catholic church used to base the date of the Easter celebration on the Jewish Passover.  Christians make the mistake of believing that because the Bible says Herod had Peter arrested during the days of unleavened bread, which are the six days that precede the Passover, then Easter must be the same as the Passover. As a matter of fact, one of my Bibles, the 1990 Regency Bible from Thomas Nelson Publishers, in the “read along translation,” says that Easter is the Passover. Additionally, the New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (also from Thomas Nelson) says that Easter is the Passover.
How can this be? The Passover is celebrated on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Jesus rose on Sunday, the first day of the week. They are not the same. Nowhere in the Bible is the word Easter substituted for Passover.  That is because Easter is a pagan fertility festival.  
Secular sources agree. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines Easter as “the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” yet it goes on to say that the word Easter is “derived from Eastre, the name of a goddess associated with spring.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged), says the word Easter comes from the “West Germanic name of a pagan spring festival.” Collier’s Encyclopedia says that the word Easter...