The term Pascha is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word Pesach, meaning Passover. As was foreshadowed by the Passover account of the Old Testament, Jesus becomes the supreme Passover (Paschal) Lamb sacrificed in a New Covenant for the remission of our sins and the salvation of our soul; laying down His life, lying in a tomb, and rising on the Third Day so that we, too, might have a way to escape or “pass over” from death.

The word “Easter” is of Germanic origin and is derived from the name of the pagan female goddess, Eostre: goddess of the spring month of April. Because the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection almost exclusively falls during that time frame, the Western world unfortunately began to identify the Paschal Feast by the calendar month; thus inadvertently misconstruing the ultimate Christian Feast with pagan terminology.