Easter

[ee-ster]

noun

an annual Christian festival in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, as calculated according to tables based in Western churches on the Gregorian calendar and in Orthodox churches on the Julian calendar.

Also called Easter Sunday. the day on which this festival is celebrated.

the Easter season; the week following Easter.

Origin of Easter

before 900; Middle English ester, Old English ēastre; cognate with German Ostern; orig. name of a goddess and her festival; akin to east

Related formspost-Eas·ter, adjectivepre-Eas·ter, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for easter

Contemporary Examples of easter

At the same time, the Easter Elchies House began to deteriorate.
Ester Elchies, The Estate Built By Whiskey
December 10, 2014
The land at Easter Elchies was the ideal place for Reid to set up his business.
Ester Elchies, The Estate Built By Whiskey
December 10, 2014
And I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to stay at Easter Elchies House, the spiritual home at The Macallan.
A Whisky Connoisseur Remembers That First Sip of The Macallan
December 10, 2014
The company soon embarked on a refurbishment of Easter Elchies, opening to the public in 1985.
Ester Elchies, The Estate Built By Whiskey
December 10, 2014
At the center of it all is Easter Elchies House—one of the so-called six pillars of the company.
Ester Elchies, The Estate Built By Whiskey
December 10, 2014

Historical Examples of easter

He liked the Easter ceremonial better, perhaps, than that of Christmas.
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine
If not at Christmas then at Easter; and whenever it was she should find her room a bower.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit
On Easter Monday she was seized with a great fit of shivering.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
On the Wednesday after Easter (April 16th), the death agony commenced.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
His stepfather had sent him at Easter to a good preparatory school.
The Coryston Family
Mrs. Humphry Ward

British Dictionary definitions for easter

Easter

noun

the most important festival of the Christian Church, commemorating the Resurrection of Christ: falls on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox

Also called: Easter Sunday, Easter Day the day on which this festival is celebrated

the period between Good Friday and Easter Monday

Related formsRelated adjective: paschal

Word Origin for Easter

Old English ēastre, after a Germanic goddess Eostre; related to Old High German ōstarūn Easter, Old Norse austr to the east, Old Slavonic ustru like summer

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for easter

Easter

Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *Austron, a goddess of fertility and spring, probably originally of sunrise whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from *austra-, from PIE *aus- "to shine" (especially of the dawn).

Bede says Anglo-Saxon Christians adopted her name and many of the celebratory practices for their Mass of Christ's resurrection. Ultimately related to east. Almost all neighboring languages use a variant of Latin Pascha to name this holiday (see paschal). Easter egg attested by 1825, earlier pace egg (1610s). Easter bunny attested by 1904 in children's lessons; Easter rabbit is by 1888; the paganish customs of Easter seem to have grown popular c. 1900; before that they were limited to German immigrants.

If the children have no garden, they make nests in the wood-shed, barn, or house. They gather colored flowers for the rabbit to eat, that it may lay colored eggs. If there be a garden, the eggs are hidden singly in the green grass, box-wood, or elsewhere. On Easter Sunday morning they whistle for the rabbit, and the children imagine that they see him jump the fence. After church, on Easter Sunday morning, they hunt the eggs, and in the afternoon the boys go out in the meadows and crack eggs or play with them like marbles. Or sometimes children are invited to a neighbor's to hunt eggs. [Phebe Earle Gibbons, "Pennsylvania Dutch," Philadelphia 1882]

easter in Culture

Easter

An important religious festival among Christians (see also Christian); it commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus after his Crucifixion. Easter is celebrated on a Sunday in spring, and the season of Easter, a time of rejoicing, continues for several weeks. The penitential season of Lent is a time of preparation for Easter.