What’s in a name? For two among the most important holidays in Judeo-Christian tradition, quite a lot.

Early Christians did not celebrate Easter (by that or any other name). The earliest known written record of the word was made in England by an 8th century monastic scholar. Bede, as he was known, used the term “Eosturmonath,” the Anglo-Saxon word for the month of “Nisan” in the Jewish calendar. Nisan is when Pesach (Hebrew for Passover) is celebrated, this year April 10-18. Pesach commemorates the Biblical story of Exodus, when Hebrew slaves were freed from bondage in Egypt.

No one can be entirely sure how and why Easter rose in prominence in Christian tradition, and so close to Passover, especially considering the two commemorate very different events. In the early days, Jesus’ resurrection was much more simply commemorated in regular church services. Christians in Asia and Rome also observed it on different days; some coincident with Passover, others on various dates. This created increasing religious controversy.

By the second century, Roman bishops were arguing bitterly over which tradition should be followed, declaring one or the other heresy. After another century passed, a religious council at Nicea (now Turkey) finally settled it, declaring Jesus’ death and resurrection should not be celebrated on the same day as “Pascha” (Latin for Passover), but according to a defined, lunar calendar. Thus we have Easter’s “movable feast” which persists today.

The Passover-Easter connection nevertheless continues at least nominally; the French word for Easter is still “Paques.” In Spanish, Easter Sunday is “Pascua.” Today’s churchgoers still hear references to “the Paschal feast.”

Turning to etymology, Old English “Easterdaeg” derives from the Northumbrian “Eostre,” and in turn from Proto-Germanic “Austron.” Austron was a goddess of fertility and spring, or of the sunrise (“aus” meant “to shine”), whose feast was celebrated at the spring, or venal, equinox in March — when day and night are equal length. A similar Teutonic (German medieval) goddess of rising light and spring was called “Estre,” also with a feast day at the vernal equinox.

There we have the astronomical connection to Easter, and its calendrical anchor — the equinox. The Council of Nicea set it at the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This year, it’s April 16. Next year, it oddly falls on April Fools’ Day.

Whether your beliefs lend you to commemorate Passover, Easter, the Earth’s renewal, or all of these, may it be meaningful.

In the words of poet and author of “America the Beautiful,” Katherine Lee Bates:

“It is the hour to rend thy chains, the blossom time of souls.”

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at sholeh@cdapress.com.