Is Easter Pagan?

An excellent site I follow, Life After Ministry, addresses the false teachings of the Mormon church. On 4/19/25 they explained Why Mormons Can’t Observe Good Friday 2025.  I’ll let you read their article to answer that question, but I want to address a citation they quote.

Here’s the quote:

Answers to Gospel Questions 5:155

“Question: “Can you please tell me why members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not observe Good Friday as other Christians do?”

Answer: The reason why we do not observe Good Friday should be clear enough.  Easter is taken from a pagan spring holiday, that was governed by the moon. The Roman Catholic Church connected the birth of the Savior with this pagan ceremony. As you know, Easter is governed by the moon, and this spring pagan festival was celebrated according to the moon, any time in March and the end of April.  

This whole claim is a bald-faced lie! First, the origin of the name can be found in this excellent article by Answers In Genesis. It has nothing to do with paganism. Secondly, the date of Easter is also not of pagan origins and, again, AIG has an excellent article exposing the truth.

THE RESURRECTION DATE DID NOT VARY.

Now as you well know that the resurrection did not vary and it is foolish to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord at the end of March or the first of April, or middle of April or near the first of May, and put Good Friday the Friday before the Easter Sunday. I think you are wise enough to see the foolishness of it. The resurrection of the Savior does not vary year by year but it is a constant thing. Why should we follow the silly custom rather than to have one day for the resurrection?”

(I actually addressed these lies before in my 4/1/18 article, A Mormon Lie About Easter.)

It really doesn’t matter when the Resurrection actually happened any more than it matters when we celebrate Memorial Day. The date celebrated is in line with the Jewish Passover, which varies with the movement of the moon. So just how long was Jesus in the tomb? When did He die?

Commentators disagree on what day Christ was crucified, with most holding to the traditional Friday, which leads to some convoluted explanations about how part of a day equals a whole day, and so forth.  But it still doesn't give us three nights if He was buried Friday and rose Sunday AM.  However, John tells us it was a special Sabbath (John 18:28) and not the weekly Sabbath. There have been computations as for the Passover Sabbath beginning at sundown Wednesday.  So, if Christ was placed in the grave on Wednesday, he spent Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night in the tomb, but arose Saturday evening, which began the first day of the week.  It was early morning Sunday, before dawn, when the women first went to the tomb and He was already gone, not having spent Saturday night in the tomb.  As for the days, He spent all day Thursday, all day Friday and all day Saturday, rising before sunset began the new day.  So Saturday made 3-days in the tomb and it was also the 3rd day since Wednesday.  If, as other commentators suggest, Christ was crucified on Thursday and rose Sunday morning, then one would count the partial Thursday, all day Friday and all day Saturday as the days, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights as the three nights. Then rising on Sunday would be the 3rd day since Thursday.

Since celebrating the death and resurrection Jesus is based on the dates of the Jewish Passover, then there is nothing wrong with the dates being celebrated being different every year.  

As the Life After Ministry article points out:

And yes, in the early church it was decided to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection as close to the Passover Feast as possible so that we’re always reminded of the correlation of the Jewish Passover and the Paschal Lamb God provided in His Son. Because the churches at the time were using two different calendars (Julian and Gregorian) the dates can differ amongst the denominations.

It was eventually decided to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after (or on) the first full moon after the arrival of spring. While the way it came about may not be perfect, the God we worship is and that’s where the focus should be placed.

Lastly, LAM posed a great question:

If the LDS Church is so dogmatic about not falling into the same theological footsteps of the Christian church (aka, the “whores of Babylon”), why do they celebrate Easter when we do?