Easter is a time of joy for many people. Children go on egg hunts, colorful baskets overflow with candy, hard-boiled eggs and other treats, and some families make a big dinner feast with ham or lamb. It’s also a time for deep religious introspection for many Christians, marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the end of a 40-day Lenten period. But what you may not know is that Easter has deep roots in other ancient religions, and many of the traditions derive directly from pagan spring celebrations. 
The word “Easter” actually derives from the name Eostre—a pagan goddess celebrated at the beginning of spring with feasts, according to religious studies scholar Bruce Forbes in his book, America’s Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories. 
If you love chowing down on ham for Easter, you have pagans to thank. In pagan lore, a man named Tammuz was killed by a wild pig. To mourn him, villagers abstained from eating meat for 40 days. Then, every year on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, the pagans celebrated by eating a pig in honor of Tammuz. 
The bunny’s association with Easter actually comes from two traditions. First, it was one of the goddess Eostre’s symbols. She represented fertility— and bunnies have a reputation for their unmatched ability to create new life. The second tradition is a German one. In the old country, the Osterhase, or Easter hare, brought eggs to good children. The folklore held up through the 1700s, when many Germans immigrated to the United States, bringing their Easter bunny with them. 
Children who knew about the Osterhase—and who planned to be good throughout the year—would make nests for the bunny to leave his eggs in. This tradition evolved into Easter baskets, with the basket representing the nest. 
The annual Egg Roll is one of the most popular events at the White House every year, with thousands showing up to roll an egg down the lawn. Rolling eggs down a hill to see which one gets to the bottom first may date back to pagan springtime festivals. When Christianity swept the land, Christian leaders appropriated the tradition, relating it to the rolling back of the rock on Jesus’ tomb. 
Wearing new clothes on Easter is based in superstition: If you wear a brand new outfit, you’ll have luck for the rest of the year and celebrate the resurrection of Christ. This also came from the tradition of newly baptized Christians wearing fresh white linens. 
As new life blossomed in the burgeoning spring season, pagans would decorate eggs with different colors to celebrate the rebirth and give them to family and friends as gifts. 
Easter is considered a moveable feast because the exact date changes from year to year. It typically falls on the Sunday after the Paschal Moon, which is the first full moon in April. This is also known as a Pink Moon. Pagan holidays are all based on moon cycles as well. 
In the celebration of Eostre, Pagans were said to eat eggs as well as bury them in the ground to encourage fertility, Carole Levin, director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at the University of Nebraska, told TIME. Because eggs were such a big deal in celebrations of the spring and to honor Eostre, pagans often went hunting for them in the surrounding landscape to bring back home. (Although German folklore says that the custom of hunting for Easter eggs arose from a poor German woman who hid eggs in her garden for kids to find.) 
Eggs in general have always represented new life and rebirth—and pagans throughout the centuries have used them as symbols for such in rituals and celebrations. Pagans would also hang eggs in temples for springtime ceremonies. 
Depending on who you ask, the traditional Christian season of Lent—the 40-day period during which you make a sacrifice by giving up a favorite food or creature comfort—may have its roots in the ancient pagan wheel of the year and the passing of winter into spring. As winter neared an end, people typically began to run out of food stores and sometimes needed to fast or cut out certain items to make it until springtime, when more food would be available. 
In ancient times, pagans worshipped the goddess Eostre “by serving tiny cakes, often decorated with a cross, at their annual spring festival,” Sue Ellen Thompson wrote in her book, Holiday Symbols and Customs. 
Also known as egg tapping or egg pocking, this tradition sees pairs smacking eggs together to see which shell breaks first. It dates back to medieval times in Poland and has since spread throughout the world. For pagans, it represented an egg cracking open to allow new life to come forth. For Christians, it represents the [resurrection of Christ]. 
The same German traditions that brought us the Easter bunny himself also brought us osterbrunnen, a custom of elaborately decorating public wells and fountains with lush greenery and Easter decorations. Villagers wanted to give thanks for the gift of water while celebrating Easter at the same time, and began holding competitions to see which village could decorate theirs best.
14 Easter Traditions That Are More Pagan than Christian
Easter is arguably the most important Christian holiday of the year. But some of the traditions are rooted in paganism and other ancient traditions.
