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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Tennessee Ernie Fnord)
Subject: Easter and Passover
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Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 03:43:58 GMT
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Legend has it that smandel@course2.harvard.edu (Susannah Mandel) said...

>This goddess is better known as Ishtar, a powerful fertility goddess of
>the eastern religions.  (Her festival was a spring -- rebirth --
>festival; and, yes, it did involve quite a lot of orgies.)
>	This is also the derivation of the name of Queen Esther, in the
>Passover story.

  Queen Esther appears in the book of Esther (Hebrew: Megilat 'Ester), 
the book read during Purim, and has nothing to do with Passover.
  Her name is Persian for "star".  Persian is an Indo-European language, 
so the word is similar to the words for "star" in Greek (astar), Spanish 
(estrella), German (Stern), etc.
  I don't believe "Ishtar" comes from an IE language.
  In any case, many Christians are replacing the term "Easter Sunday" 
with "Resurrection Sunday".

-- 
      < 0 >       Canadians are just the same as Americans,
    /=-=-=-=\       except for the guns.
  /-=-=-=-=-=-\
/=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\       Coincidence?  Conspiracy?  =You= be the judge!
