Easter was originally a pagan festival... the ancient Saxons celebrated the return of Spring with a festival to commemorate their goddess, Eastre... when the 2nd century Christian missionaries encountered the tribes of the north and their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity... in a somewhat clandestine way... unless they had a death wish, it would have been suicidal for the very early Christians to celebrate holy days with observances that did not coincide with celebrations that already existed... so the missionaries cleverly decided to spread their religious message throughout the population by "allowing" them to continue to celebrate pagan feasts, but to do so in a Christian manner... hmmm, makes you wonder,huh. Since the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ, the missionaries decided it would be okay to mingle both festivals as long as the pagan side did so in the Christian way. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to Easter.