Easter History
Essentially a springtime festival, there has been much debate over the origin of Easter in the religious context. However there is a general acceptance of the proposition offered by 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, which states that Easter owes its origin to a spring festival observed by the ancient Anglo-Saxons (pagans) commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, when the ratio of day to night was exactly the same.
Thus Easter has been a pagan festival that heralded the advent of the spring season after the desolate winter months. When the second-century Christian missionaries arrived in England, they used these pagan celebrations as a tool for converting the pagans to Christianity.
In a letter to Saint Mellitus, who was then on his way to England to conduct missionary work among the pagan Anglo-Saxons, Pope Gregory I suggested that converting the pagans would be easier if they are allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditional pagan practices and traditions, while recasting those traditions spiritually towards Christianity instead of to their indigenous gods.
Since the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ, the contours of the festival was altered to make it a Christian celebration. Because of its unmistakable pagan symbolism - Easter bunny, Eggs — fundamentalist Christian groups continue to reject the celebration of Easter because they believe them to be irrevocably tainted with paganism and idolatry.